Coats and Mittens and Hats and Stuff

There is a lot to like about winter~the pristine beauty of the icy world, brightly colored birds that pepper that white world with their streaks of color, warm (or at least kinda warm, and by that we mean a few (and only a few) degrees warmer than outside) days and nights spent indoors playing games and reading (and siblings raging at each other), and the fast fast fast sledding over bumps and down hills hollering~oh my gosh, yes, there is a lot to love.  But there is one thing that I for surely do NOT love and that is the winter gear and the location (or locations) of it in our house.  Despite our designated basket and somewhat ample closet space, I find straggler mittens and discarded coats either dropping out of an overflowing basket or nowhere near that basket at all.

Then I read this post and realized that I had some say in this matter.  So I began by painting a child's block that I had long ago confiscated from the kids (as its length made it the perfect weapon in sibling battles) and painted it the color of our trim.  Then I cut up some images from wallpaper that we sampled but never used, found some old hooks in a closet upstairs, and with a little drilling help from my husband, we made the thing.  When I tell you that our quality of life has improved since it was hung, I would not be exaggerating. A place for everything, and {almost} everything in its place.