Organizing a Basement Storage Closet

My husband, Doug, enjoys hunting, fishing and camping.  Can you tell by his storage closet?  He is fortunate to have this large space in our basement to hold his equipment.   Doug is an organized guy and he has creative ideas for storing his equipment.  You can see in the two  “before” photos that he knows how to efficiently use the space.

Fall and winter are busy hunting and ice fishing months for him, thus his storage space became a bit disorganized.

On a rainy Saturday he spent a couple of hours in his “man cave” errr, storage closet, straightening it and purging clothing that he no longer needed (some of which was from his teen years).

Doug pulled some of the items out of the closet and sorted them on the large floor of our basement.  He then started tossing, donating and categorizing things.  He had a trash bag and a donation container near him and his i-pod in his ears for entertainment.  By the time he finished he had a full trash bag as well as a full donation box.

When the sorting was finished it was time to return the gear to the closet.  Doug organizes his closet by grouping items according to the sport: ice fishing, hunting, open water fishing and camping.  The gear he is currently using is stored in our garage.  Off-season gear is in the basement closet.

Here is the re-organized space.

I like the way Doug uses an old dresser for his clothing, installed a rod for hanging clothing and installed hooks for heavier items like his waders, and his ice fishing bibs.  The shelves offer more vertical storage.  There isn’t anything sexier than an organized man:)