Coat Closet Cleanup
INSIDE : Tackling the dreaded hallway coat closet can feel daunting, but with a little planning and elbow grease, you can reclaim this valuable space and enjoy a more streamlined entry to your home. Learn how to declutter, organize and end up with a great coat closet cleanup!

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This post has been updated since it’s original March 2014 publish date.
Today I will be to opening my coat closet door for you all and sharing how easy it was to go from a very disorderly closet to tidy and organized in this Coat Closet Cleanup post. It’s not always a pretty process, but I know you can do it!
The Before Closet
A while ago I had bought a wrapping paper organizer to help try and contain all our gift wrap. It worked okay, but I think since this is such a high use closet – it wasn’t the right closet to house it. With so much daily use on this closet, the wrapping paper quickly started to fall out and ribbons would spill over and out.
We housed wrapping paper, closets, seasonal decor, our vacuum, our steam mop, ironing board, winter boots, etc… There was a LOT going on in this space as you can see.
No matter how much I kept organizing, with time it became one crazy hot mess of a closet.
How to declutter your Coat Closet
The first order of business when decluttering your closet is to remove everything from the closet.
It never ceases to amaze me how much “stuff” can be jammed into a single closet.
Start to make piles; keep, toss (broken items) and donate. I love a good purge and after a quick run to my local Goodwill, I was feeling much lighter.
Next up is to start betting organizing the items to go back into the closet.
I first tackled the gift wrap and ribbon.
DIY Ribbon Organizer
One of the past issues was having ribbon falling constantly and getting tangled. So I decided I needed a dedicated way to contain gift ribbon, tape, scissors and tissue paper.
NOTE – When I did this project in 2014 – there was no such thing as a premade Ribbon Organizer. Now you can purchase them if you want.
Supplies needed for a DIY Ribbon Organizer
- Desk Organizer (I used two, but one would work also)
- Packing Tape
- Command Velcro strips
- White Spray Paint
- Gold Paint Marker
- Gold Label holder plate
I bought two simple desk paper organizers at Target a while ago and thought with some creativity, they could be put to good use on this project.
Stack the organizers and using packing tape, tape along the sides and back to secure them together.
I also applied velcro command strips along the back to secure it to the wall eventually.
Using white spray paint, I gave the organizers a nice coat of white.
The final step is adding a bit of gold sparkle. Trace all the front facing edges with a gold paint marker and allow to fully dry. Then I applied a fun gold label tag on the front for a fun touch.
My completed tissue paper, ribbon, gift tag center!
Use your closet vertical space
Utilizing over the door space is a great way to keep things off the floor and make those items more visible for daily use.
I used this simple over the door hook system to hold hats and umbrellas. And if you are looking for another simple container, hanging a woven bag on one of the hooks to then hold mittens or other miscellaneous items is a fun tip.
Add some color to the closet
My hubs gets very worried, excited in a bad way, anxious, hesitant when I start painting anything. But, I wanted to give our closet some color or a punch of pattern, so I got creative and went for an easy temporary route!
I cut this cute gray floral wrapping paper to fit my back wall and used thumbtacks to hold it in place. It’s been up a few weeks so far and there hasn’t been a single issue with it!
Doing my best to keep things neat and tidy with labels on boxes.
Wrapping Paper
I bought a simple white tension rod and have all my tall wrapping paper held up be that against the wall. All my shorter wrapping paper now sit in a fun container in the corner.
On the far left of the image below, you can see my solution to all our winter gear. We had just one massive box before with all of our gloves, hats, scarves, etc. When one person needed something, EVERYTHING was removed to find it.
Now, the kids have a shared pull out drawer, as do I and my husband. These three drawer stackable organizers have been SO helpful.
And the simple wire basket holds all of our smaller wrapping papers.
I would have never guessed how a few simple containers and mounting wrapping paper to the back wall, could give my dark messy closet such a cheerful look!
How have you updated your coat closet?
Looking for even more organization? You might like some of these posts…
All my favorite Planners.
Coat Closet Cleanup
15 Minute : Kitchen Cabinet Organizing
9 Ways to Organize your Life and Home
What to do with your leftover wrapping paper?
Kid’s Shared Room makeover
Hi Amy,
I love the coat closet cleanup! I have the summer off and since I live on the “wild” side I am going to attempt to clean out 3 major closets this summer. I will come back later and let you know how it goes. I’m new to your blog and can’t wait to see what you have going over here.
Dana
Yay for closet clean outs!! Thanks for stopping by, Dana and good luck.