A Kid-Size Coat Rack

Last summer I turned an empty wall in the hall between our kitchen and our garage into saucepan storage, and I still love that system.  It’s easy to find exactly what we need, and the cupboard that we used to use for all of our pots and pans now only has my two big soup pots (both of which get used several times a week), a rack to hold lids, and my two glass pans (those also get used a lot, but don’t have any way to hang up so they live in the cupboard).  All so much better than the jumbled mess we had before. 

Anyway, that wall has been put to even better use now.

We have two little boys who are able to deal with their own coats, sweatshirts and hats.  But until last week, that was not the case.  Because the only coat rack we had was by our back door, located high on the wall.  Perfect for adults, not so great for little kids (and it was very crowded, with outerwear for all four of us, the dog leash, and my purse all crammed onto five small hooks).  And our front entryway closet was the same: a hanging rod at regular closet height, way too high for kids to reach.  So every time our boys wanted to go outdoors, we had to get their coats and hats for them.  And then when they came in, everything got dumped on the table or the floor or on a chair.  I wanted to make it possible for the boys to get their own outerwear and then return it to its home when they came back in.

So the last time I was at the used building supply store, I checked their trim bin and found a nice piece of wood, already stained and varnished and just a little longer than I needed.  It was a dollar.  I brought it home, cut it to the right length, stained the cut ends, and we mounted it on the wall.  The hooks came from Home Depot, because the used building supply store didn’t have any in stock.  Even still, this whole setup cost us about ten dollars. 

Almost all of the boys’ outerwear fits on this rack: hats, sweatshirts, light jackets and heavy coats.  The only things in the main closet now are their snowsuits.  Even our one-year-old is learning how to get his own jacket from its hook and then put it back when he’s finished with it.  Our older son loves not having to ask me to get his coat for him – he can just grab it and head out to the backyard whenever he wants. 

So much better.