I have a 10-month-old boy. His nursery doesn't really have closet space, and although we've made due with dressers and other storage solutions for his clothing, I don't know what to do with his coats. Now that's it's winter, he's got several of them in all different weights, and there's no good place to store them. They get smushed and fall on the floor of our "grown-up" coat closet, and it's really inconvenient to keep them in drawers. As a consequence, every doorknob in our house has a teeny coat hanging on it. This is convenient, but it looks messy. Any ideas?
Viv Savage
Dear Viv:
Thanks for the question. There are several possible solutions to storing your son's outerwear dilemma. The first of which is to take advantage of the real estate inside the door of your coat closet. Assuming that you have a coat closet door that is on a hinge (as opposed to a bi-fold or accordion door), you could hang some hooks on the interior of the door for coats, etc...
Several versions of hooks are available, including the old-fashioned kind that you simply screw into the door. In addition, there are rows of hooks on a bar that you either install or hang over the top of the door.
If this is not an option, a coat tree, either in a corner of the nursery or somewhere near your front door / mudroom door could solve your problem.
Once the winter season is over, the outerwear (yours and your husband's as well) should be stored in plastic bins in a dry place with cedar planks or balls thrown in. If you are not planning on having more children, the end of the season is the time to pass them on to another expecting mother or to charity.

Thanks, this is really helpful. We are going to put something over the door to his bedroom this weekend!
Posted by: Viv Savage | February 01, 2008 at 10:41 AM