Updated November 2022. Previously published under this site’s old name “Knot to Nest”
Colder temperatures are a time when seasonal gear: coats, boots, hats, scarves, gloves, and more are littering our homes. Without a system in place for seasonal gear organization, you might find yourself digging through the couch cushions looking for your child’s missing mitten.
In order for Organization to Work, it Has to Work for YOU
The biggest takeaway I hope every reader I have gets is that home organization should make your life easier.
We, as moms, have enough on our plate already so we don’t have time to add a complicated organizational process to our day.
The internet is packed full of ideas that look pretty but aren’t functional or worst yet, they cost $$$ to implement.
After you’re through reading today, I want you to implement these ideas in a way that works for your family.
Weather isn’t Always Predictable
Living in Indiana (or really the Midwest) means that while we have the seasons, it isn’t always guaranteed each season will stay in its lane.
Around these parts, it is not unheard of to have snow and cold temps well into
With the uncertainty of our weather, I like to keep our warm and cold seasonal gear organized in a way that makes it quickly accessible and easy to put away. Here are some tips on how I manage seasonal gear around our home.
Tips to Organize Seasonal Gear
1. Dedicate a Space to House the Gear and Supplies
In order to avoid a complicated hunt for snow boots, sunscreen, or gloves, I recommend dedicating an easily accessible area to storing your seasonal gear. If you’re able to use a space close to an exit of your home that would be best. There is nothing worse than wet boots tromping through your home after a morning in the snow.
In our home, I have dedicated a closet near our garage to housing all our seasonal gear. Snowsuits, sunscreen, hats, and mittens… it can all be found there.
Having all of the gear in one place means I am not running around trying to remember where things are or climbing tall shelves to pull down a box of coats.
2. Piece Sets Together
With winter comes many, many pieces of additional clothing and the number of pieces only grows as your family grows.
In order to keep things together and prevent future stress, I recommend storing the same-sized pieces together. For instance, fold or hang your kiddos snow pants WITH their heavy coats. This will keep you from wondering where your son’s snow pants went.
3. Keep All Coats and Jackets in The Same Space
I can’t stress enough the value of keeping everything in one dedicated place. While this may seem like a no-brainer for winter gear, I also recommend keeping cool weather jackets in the same closet or space as you do all of your other outdoor wear.
By keeping all outdoor wear in one place, you (and your family) will always know where it can be found. Additionally, it will help your little ones know where to put their things when they’re finished using them. Remember the goal here is to save your sanity and time.
4. Use Bins for Smaller Items
Keeping track of the little seasonal needs is probably the most frustrating part of prepping our family for the outdoors. For winter we have any combination of gloves, mittens, headgear, and scarves. And for summer we sunscreen, hats, water shoes, and bug spray.
To keep things organized I like to use bins to house like items. For this project, I used what I had on hand to keep the project affordable. Here is a glimpse at my seasonal bins.
Summer Seasonal Gear:
A single bin is a home to our sunscreen, aloe, bug spray, water shoes, and summer hats
Winter Seasonal Gear:
Bin one includes gloves, mittens, and scarves. I like to roll the scarves and pair up the mittens/gloves to make finding a matching set easy.
Bin two includes all forms of headwear from headbands to hats to full on ski-masks.
5. A Basket to Hold Children’s Footwear
If you follow me on Instagram you have seen our kiddo’s shoe basket. In this closet, I like to keep the majority of our kiddo’s extra shoes including everything from sandals to snow boots (except the sleeker water shoes).
For the shoes, my kids wear daily they each have an individual bin for storing. All of my kiddos know where to find their shoes and where to return them at the end of the day.
In this
Related: 10 Tips for Decluttering Your Home
If you are overlooking for lost mittens and sunscreen, I challenge you to organize seasonal gear this week! A little bit of time now can save you time later! When you’re finished email me or share your results below! Happy organizing!
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