Kids’ Organization Ideas for Hats, Gloves & Scarves

Winter is almost here, and that means piles of boots, coats, hats, gloves and scarves. I know the battle well because I have a family of five, and that’s a whole lot of winter stuff to organize and keep organized. Today I’m sharing my kids’ organization ideas for hats, gloves and scarves that make it easy to get the coat closet organized and keep it organized all winter long. 

At a glance: 8 steps to organize your family’s hats, gloves and scarves in about 15 minutes. Each child gets their own labeled plastic tub with a lid. Little ones can toss items in, and older kids file them upright so everything stays visible. Tubs sit on the closet floor for younger children and move up to the shelf as they grow.

I had a precursor to this organization system set up for my children, but I realized it needed to be updated when my teen daughter asked me if I could please organize the kids’ shelf in the coat closet (that was music to my ears!). The system was five years old, my children have grown, and their needs have changed.

You can tell from this photo that we really did need to do something to organize the hats, gloves and scarves in our coat closet. It wasn’t working anymore.

It only took about 15 minutes to get that mess tamed and organized. That 15-minute investment has saved us time and headaches every cold morning since. 

2. Sort the Items

Sort all the items into a group for each family member. Then sort those groups into hats, gloves and scarves.

3. Remove Items

As you sort the items, remove any that are no longer being used. They might be too small (like the hats in the photo) or might have lost the matching mitten or glove (like the three lone gloves in the photo). Remove items that don’t belong in the coat closet (like the scarf in the photo; it’s a fashion scarf and belongs in my daughter’s clothes closet, not in the coat closet). Remove any items your children no longer wear because they don’t like them anymore, they’re too itchy, or who knows why.

4. Check with Your Child Before You Throw Away or Donate Items

Respect your child and ask them before you remove any items permanently. Make sure items really don’t fit or your child really doesn’t like them anymore. Sometimes the only reason a hat or scarf isn’t being worn is that your child forgot they had it. It’s also important to check with your child about those lone mittens and gloves. It turns out that my daughter had the match to one of those lone gloves in her pocket (and she’d been wondering where the other glove was). Good thing I didn’t throw that glove away, only to find out later that its match was in my daughter’s pocket.

6. File Your Items

When your children are younger, toss the items in the tub and be happy that you’re organized. Once your children are older, file the items like file folders so that every item can be seen. This makes it easier for your child to take out only the items they want rather than tumbling through everything and leaving a mess everywhere. When you put an item away, push the others in the tub to the side and slip it in.

8. Keep the Tubs Accessible

When my children were younger, I placed these tubs on the floor of the coat closet so they were easy to reach. Now that my children are teens, the tubs can go on the shelf in the closet. Think about what will work best for your family and your space, and make it work for you.

These kids organization ideas for hats, gloves and scarves gave us about 50% more space on the shelf of our coat closet and have made it easy for each of my children to find their winter clothing and put it away when they get home. It was an easy investment of 15 minutes that has had a big payoff for us. Check out my purging the coat closet in 10 minutes tips.

Scroll through the table below to see all my best clothes organizing tips and ideas.