Decluttering Coats and the Coat Closet

We have a coat problem in our house.

Girl loves coats…girl meets boy who loves coats…you know where this story goes. We have a lot of coats, and I’ll be honest that I don’t go through them nearly enough. Today is the day!

Keeping in the spirit of National Clutter Awareness Week and Clean Your Closet Week and working my way through all the closets in the home, today I am going to tackle the coat closet and other coat areas (we have a few!). Operation Spring Cleaning and Decluttering really has me thinking about all the things I can get rid of.

If you are going to go through your own coats, the first thing I would do is make sure you get all of them together. In our house there can be coats almost anywhere…in the cars, the closet where we keep our ski gear, hanging in the laundry room, and surprisingly, the coat closet.

As with decluttering the other closets in the home you will follow the same rule of thumb…sort into keep, donate, hand-down, and trash/recycle (remember, only donate items that are in resale condition). If you sell clothing and accessories online then you will have a pile for that as well. Back to the coat closet…you may also have things like gloves, hats and scarves. You’ll want to gather those up as well.

As with most closet organizing projects, it’s always good to empty it and give it a good cleaning.

Put Everything Back

Now that you have sorted, decluttered, and gave the closet a good cleaning, you can now put it all back. If you have the space, use containers or bins to help keep things like gloves and hats organized.

If you don’t have the time to do a full cleanout and declutter of your coats, do what you can with the time and energy you have.

Donating Coats

Coats are one of those items that are in great need when it comes to donating, so finding a place to donate near you is always a great idea. Organizations like One Warm Coat make it really easy to drop off coats or hold your own coat drive. When I searched my area there were numerous Eddie Bauer locations where you can drop and also receive $10 off an outerwear purchase. If you want to learn more about the special need for warm coats, they also have some interesting info on their site about why the need is so great. You can read more here.

The theme for this week has been to give you a few closet decluttering challenges. Don’t let it overwhelm you, you don’t have to get it all done at one time. Work at a pace you feel comfortable with. If you would like some support and encouragement, I created the Organized Priorities Collective. This is a private Facebook group where you can get accountability, share your progress, and even ask questions. If this sounds like something you need, I would love to see you there. And, don’t forget to follow along on this blog, or social media for lots of tips to help you along the way.

You can check out the past spring cleaning and decluttering posts by clicking the links below:

Cleaning and Decluttering the Linen Closet

Declutter and Spring Clean Kids’ Closets

National Clutter Awareness Week and National Clean Your Closet Week

Operation Spring Cleaning and Decluttering

Published by Jenn DePauw - Organized Priorities

Jenn is the owner of Organized Priorities, a Colorado-based company specializing in Organization, Productivity, and Operations. As an organization and productivity professional, Jenn specializes in individual and team productivity coaching as well as organization for both individuals and small businesses. She is also the author of The Organized Priorities Blog (www.organizedpriorities.com/blog), an organization and lifestyle blog that focuses on making life more organized, more productive, and a little easier. For helpful tips on everything from weekly planning to home organization, and daily celebrations to words of encouragement you can follow @organizedpriorities on Instagram.

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