Daily Declutter Challenge #38 - Scarves and Hats and Mittens...oh, my!

I'm grabbing hold of this thing called "Spring" that has arrived on the West Coast, and I decided to declutter our winter coats, hats, mitts, etc.  We arrived home from a 2 night getaway from Whistler yesterday, so after unpacking, I washed up all of our winter gear and then heaped it all in a pile in our mudroom/entrance.  Today it was time to decide what I should keep for next year (and hand me downs for my four year old to grow into) and what I could toss.  Everything needs to fit in a small front closet and a storage bench.

With no basement, garage or big storage area I always need to be thinking about how much I need to keep for the next year for my three kids.  I decided that with our mild west coast winters, they really only needed one toque each, one winter coat & ski pants, and I only kept a scarf for our youngest, since the big girls hate them and would rather freeze their chin off than be forced to wear one.

But I decided to keep most of the mittens and ski gloves, because you know how those things tend to get lost.  I keep all these items stored in our bench.

Here's the bench BEFORE:

 It's a great bench, but you can imagine the chaos when kids are looking for mittens.  I have been looking a long time for storage baskets or bins that would fit perfectly into the space, but nothing quite worked.  And not to mention that I really didn't want to be spending money on something that wasn't even going to be seen.

Do you know what I went with?  Repurposed cardboard boxes of course!  My husband subdivided a larger box by simply taping another piece in with packing tape.  Smaller spaces = better organization!

Don't you just love a perfect fit?

I also had an orange box that fit neatly as well - I used the lid and bottom.

Here is the end result!

Free, repurposed, and a perfect solution to early morning mitten woes.

My Dad built me our wonderful storage bench, but if you don't have a handyman in your family, there are some beautiful ones available.  A bench is such a great, functional piece of furniture for an entrance area.  Here's a few examples that would be perfect in a mudroom or at a front door.



I feel like I'm really making progress on my declutters.  I'll keep on going for a while, but once the warmer weather begins in earnest, I'll be spending most of my time enjoying the outdoors!  I'm sure by next winter, there will be more to declutter.....

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