We don’t have a mud room I our house, so I’m limited on space to hold things like shoes backpacks and winter accessories. I converted the lower half of our coat closet into our ‘mini mudroom’. Along one side and across the back of the closet I added large hooks to the walls for backpacks and kid coats. On the other side, I added this 3-drawer plastic organizer for all their winter gear.

When the kids come in from school, they unload all their gear in the closet and dump their hats, scarves and gloves into the drawers. The drawers are clear so it’s easy for even my youngest daughter to figure out where her things belong.

We used this inexpensive system all last winter and it worked great. As an added bonus, when Spring finally did come around, I simply moved the drawers to the basement. A few weeks ago when the weather started turning again, I pulled it back out…all the hats, gloves, and scarves were inside and ready to go. It’s simple, inexpensive, and totally kid-friendly. Just thought I’d pass it on.