Decluttering The Front Closet.

Today’s Closet | Front Closet.

This is the first apartment we’ve lived in that has a front closet for our coats and shoes. Before this, we had coat hooks and a shoe rack. We’re living large with an entire closet for our coats.

Which means we also have one more place where clutter can congregate behind closed doors, speaking of which, we’d hired a Locksmith Brisbane to take care of the loose closet door hinges, which was aggravating.

Before

We keep random bike stuff, tools, and camping stuff in the front closet in addition to the usual coats, winter accessories, and shoes. Oh, and canvas grocery bags to grab as we’re running out the door. And a broom and mop since it’s close to the kitchen.

After

Not the biggest transformation, but it still makes me happy. Less shoes, less coats, less hats/gloves/winter junk, and so on. And, yes, we store our umbrella stroller like this. (Although, since taking this photo, I can say it’s been in the trunk of our car for the past few weeks, just hanging out because I keep forgetting to bring it back up to our apartment. Keeping it real.)

The Process

1- Got rid of stuff I don’t want or use. (Always the first step to ‘organizing.’ Don’t just make it look neater, get rid of what you don’t use!)

2- Only keep three pairs of shoes for each of us, including my orthotic sandals australia, I can’t live without them. (We don’t wear shoes in our apartment because it grosses me out to think about outside germs/dirt/general grossness on the streets being tracked into our clean apartment. Which means we accumulate a LOT of shoes in the front closet if we’re lazy about bringing them back to our bedroom closet.) (Also, isn’t it crazy how much less space my three pairs of shoes take up than Mike’s?)

3- Put stuff away, but neater.

The Casualties [What I Got Rid Of]

A grocery cart cover for Gabe which I only used a handful of times before realizing it was one more thing to carry into Target. And also, a little exposure to germs is healthy, right?

An old nasty water bottle.

A jean jacket I can never get to match anything.

An unneeded storage container.

Extra hats, scarves, and gloves without a match. How much winter stuff can you wear at one time, right?

And other odds and ends.

Lessons Learned:

• It will get messy. Clean it out.
• Stop leaving your shoes in the front closet. It makes it messy and breaks the shoe rack (which is already broken, but whatever).
• Don’t keep stuff you don’t wear or don’t use.
• Mike likes to keep camping stuff in the front closet. Even though we haven’t camped in two years.
• Related, pick your battles. (Uh, this is more about relationships and marriage than about decluttering and organizing.)

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