In a perfect world, the coats in your front hall closet would hang as pristinely as those in a Beverly Hills boutique — beautifully draped on fine wooden hangers and within easy reach. More likely, they're jammed in amid a jumble of assorted clothing, boots, bags, vacuum-cleaner attachments, toys, and baseball bats. But closet overcrowding isn't inevitable. Sometimes all that's called for is a bit of pruning and reshuffling. Once you do it, you'll breathe a lot easier, and so will your coats (no kidding, their fibers need fresh air to live a healthy life, just as we do). Here's how to organize a closet you'd be proud to show your mother.

Step 1: Take Stock

Before you begin making over your hall closet, think about how you use it, says Jann Webster, market manager for Schulte Corporation, a manufacturer of high-end storage products. Is your closet for everyday use or for guests only? Do you store only seldom-used, dressy coats in it, or just everyday attire? How close is your closet to the most commonly used entrance? The answers can help you decide what to leave in-and take out. Since most homes have at least two points of entry — the front door for guests and parents, and another door for kids — you'll probably need to tackle the front-door coat closet first and then the mudroom or side-door storage areas.

Now you're ready to do an inventory analysis. Start with the hall closet. If you store things other than clothes there, decide whether they can be moved. Could you stow the dog food in the pantry? Will the golf bag fit in basement storage? "If you don't have another spot for the vacuum cleaner or the board games, then build a separate place for them in the closet away from the coats," says Ginny Snook Scott, learning and development manager for California Closets.

Next, ask family members to go through the closet and decide what they're ready to shed. There are no hard-and-fast rules about when to retire a coat (outerwear, which tends to transcend fashion cycles, will probably outlast the average blouse or sweater), but there are some common-sense principles. If you haven't worn a coat in two or three years, you probably never will, so put it in the donation pile. If a coat's collar or cuffs are becoming worn or the buttonholes are unraveling, give or throw it away. The same principle goes for gloves, boots, scarves, and hats.

Step 2: Divide and Conquer

Once you've pared down, you can start making decisions. Each family member should end up with no more than three or four short coats or jackets. In addition, each adult in the house probably has at least one full-length dress coat. If you have only one average four-foot-wide closet, you can expect 10 to 13 coats to fit comfortably on the rod — enough room for the outerwear of a family of four with three coats each.

But how do you accommodate the gear of a family of six? When coats outnumber the square footage of a closet, consider these options.

Store in-season items in the hall closet and move infrequently worn things elsewhere, perhaps to a cedar closet, which repels moths, or onto rolling garment racks. Try a rolling rack from or an expandable garment rack.

Consider moving certain items to different closets, to an armoire or a chest, or to hooks, old-fashioned coat stands, cabinets, or shelves. You can designate the front closet for formal outerwear and guests' coats, for example, and store everyday wear in a mudroom cabinet.

Step 3: Control Clutter

Your next step is to detangle and arrange the little things — hats, scarves, gloves, and umbrellas. Stow gloves and scarves in bins, drawers, or rolling baskets placed on the closet floor. Translucent hat boxes from the Container Store let you see hats while preserving their shape; unlidded cedar stacking boxes in various sizes allow easy access to scarves and gloves while keeping them in order.

Scott's do-it-yourself solution for storing kids' shoes and backpacks in the closet: milk crates. For hats, scarves, and gloves, she recommends labeled stacking boxes, in a different color for each child. Scott also suggests installing a hook on either side of the door for extras.

Step 4: Outfit the Back Door

If you have a closet at the front door but none at the second point of entry, don't worry. There's an abundance of storage systems designed for these areas.

For coats and jackets, get a standing coatrack, put up a peg rail (mounted at a child-friendly height of 28 inches), screw hooks onto the back of a door or a wall, or install cabinets. For shoes, sports equipment, books, hats, and gloves, use bins (made of anything from plastic to metal mesh), trunks, or repurposed apple crates.

If space is at a premium, Scott recommends installing cabinets in the garage. A bench there will allow people to sit while removing boots. And, a final tip: Always place easy-to-clean mats below any shoe rack and just outside the door, too.