Take your hall closet from chaos to clarity
If you are ready to organize your hallway closet space, follow along as I redo my messy hall closet and share my tips for maximizing space, decluttering, and creating a guest-worth hall closet.
I start my fall cleaning routine as it gets into the cooler months. But one of those areas that I had been avoiding was reorganizing my hall closet.
*This post contains affiliate links, and I am an affiliate with Amazon. This means that if you click-through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no cost to you. I only write and endorse products I personally use, love, and what I find helpful in being an awesome mom. For more details, Click here
But I was ready to recreate it, declutter, and maximize the space.
When it comes to organizing your home, I have found success with keeping the process of organizing one small area at a time.
But first things first
Decide what has to go
OK, I know you are excited and ready to buy all the bins, new hangers, and anything else you might need. But please don’t do that until you purge everything.
Setting clear goals before starting the decluttering process will be helpful.
Understand how you will be using this closet. Think about what things need to be reached for often. What things can be stored higher based on their usage?
Then, start to declutter. Keep it simple: two piles. One pile should be things that need to go, and the other should stay in this closet.
Consider questions like, “Do I use this regularly?” and “Is this still in good condition?” Be ruthless but also practical. If you haven’t used something in a year, it’s time to part ways.
This is the easiest way to declutter your hall closet. We don’t want to micro-organize and lose momentum. Our goal is to finish this project in one day.
For our hall closet, my goals were the following:
- Store all larger cleaning tools
- Store all our jackets and kids’ coats inside and leave the coat hook outside for guests only
- Make the hall bench drawers only for the kids’ hats and gloves for easy access so that they can independently find them and put them back
I decluttered our family’s coats and winter gear once a year. It’s a part of my annual decluttering program. I have a monthly schedule where I tackle small decluttering tasks and repeat them yearly to help keep the clutter and my sanity at bay.
If you need a decluttering routine that truly works, learn more about it here.
Once you have decided all that needs to stay, go shopping for containers based on categories. I will explain more below.
How to organize your front closet
I think many people can relate when it comes to my hall closet. It houses multiple things inside my home, and I don’t have room for certain things to go anywhere except inside my hall closet.
My cleaning tools, vacuum, and carpet cleaner must stay in the hall closet.
It will also hold vacuum accessories and some travel gear we use occasionally.
It is easiest to create categories for each thing I will keep and separate like things together.
Here is an example of how I sorted my hall closet
- Vacuum filters
- Husband gloves, hats, scarves
- My gloves, hats, scarves
- Travel gear
- Face mask (yup, I still have them)
- Snow pants
For each category, sort through them and put like with like and cousins items together.
Now that I know how many bins I need and where I want to place everything, I can measure how large containers I want and their spacing.
How do we maximize the hallway closet space?
One of the best ways to maximize the space of a small hall closet is to go vertical and use the door space. Use shelf dividers, hooks, or over-the-door organizers to store items neatly.
On the top left, I used a shelf riser to separate the snow pants. The kids pants are on top since they use them more than we do.
My door uses a hanging sorter from Amazon that holds all my vacuum accessories. I chose to use bins on the top for some of the categories that were easy stacking bins.
I got my bins from Target. But I also love the IKEA and Walmart versions.
I will say you just can’t fill these bins with too much because the lids don’t lock.
Now, if you noticed in the before picture, my hall closet had Easter baskets and a few other things that I didn’t need to keep inside. I moved them to the garage storage.
Determine if everything you decluttered is actually the right place for it.
Now it’s time for my favorite part. Cause I am weird and actually enjoy cleaning.
Clean out the Closet
With your closet emptied and items sorted, take the opportunity to clean the interior thoroughly. If you have followed me for a while, you know that cleaning is my favorite part.
I love the satisfaction of seeing dirt disappear and when things smell clean.
Dust shelves, vacuum the floor, and wipe down any surfaces. A clean slate is essential for a fresh start.
You might also take the opportunity to repaint it. I was very close to repainting ours. But my other projects are waiting for me. So, I will come back to it now that the closet is done.
Upgrade those hangers
One of the simplest things I have learned about organizing or making things look a lot more put together is the materials you use.
To add a touch of sophistication to your coat closet and enhance its visual appeal. You can upgrade the hangers in the closet to transform it from blah to breathtaking.
It’s OK, though, if this isn’t in your budget right now. You can also use plastic hangers of the same color to give it a more cohesive look.
But wooden hangers work best for coat closets since they can bear the weight of heavy coats without warping or snapping, ensuring your coat closet remains tidy and organized.
Reorganize and Label
This is one of my favorite parts of organizing. Labels for me make me feel like a professional organizer or at least a mom who has her stuff together.
For this project, I just got chalkboard labels from Dollar Tree and Chalkboard writer from Dollar Tree.
Though I love these Chalkboard writers better from Amazon.
I love using reusable labels so I can easily wipe clean and rewrite when I have to reorganize again.
The organized small entryway coat closet
I am super excited about the final look of the hall closet.
I think it came out perfect and, so far, has been working great for us.
I am writing this post two weeks after having done it.
The system has been adopted quickly by the family. This is so key.
It can be super frustrating when you reorganize things in your house with a vision, and other household members don’t quite follow the vision.
Maintenance Tips
To maintain your organized hall closet, schedule regular decluttering sessions, ideally once or twice a year. This will prevent clutter from piling up again. Also, consider seasonal checks to ensure your closet stays tidy.
Again I do the jackets and winter gear at least once a year. If you use a calendar, create a reminder for sometime in October. I also have premade calendars inside my ebook.
Decluttering your hall closet is the perfect small project to tackle to getting your house more organized.
Trust me, the benefits of an organized and functional space are well worth the effort.
Especially if tackling your home seems daunting. Choosing a tiny space to make progress motivates and encourages you to keep going.
I feel so much better now that the closet is redone, and having the spot for my kids to grab all their gear without me and fostering that independence is so helpful on busy mornings.