Clear the Clutter Challenge Day 26: Sporting Equipment Storage

Once upon a time, we had all kinds of sporting equipment in this house.  Now that our boys are out of high school, there is a lot less here than there used to be.  There are still a few things being used though so Challenge Day 26 is about storing that sporting equipment.

Generally, when I think of sporting equipment, I think of balls, bats, helmets, and pads.  Those are the sorts of things that used to be in abundance here, but your home may be different.  Sporting equipment is really anything that is used to perform a sport of any kind.  It could include fishing and hunting equipment, team sports paraphernalia, dance accessories, or whatever qualifies as a sport to your family!

Although there are not any football helmets or pads left and the baseballs/bats/gloves are slowly dwindling away, there is still plenty of fishing and hunting gear, as well as a few tennis rackets, and various balls left in the house.  The problem is, there is no set place to store them.

There is a small room off of my son’s bedroom that functioned as a playroom when they were much younger and is sort of a catch-all storage spot now.  The goal is to clean it out and make it a “closet” of sorts for sporting equipment and my son’s extra stuff!

To Do:

• Gather all types of sporting equipment together.
• Go through it and dispose of anything that is broken or overly worn.
• Put anything that is no longer useful–whether it is because the children have outgrown it or no one participates–in the sell pile.
• Designate a single place (if possible) for anything that is to be kept and organize the equipment.

Organizational Tips:

• Find one place to keep everything.
• Group like items together–i.e., basketball, football, baseball,tennis, dance, fishing, hunting, etc.
• Use baskets, shelves, or plastic boxes for storage.
• Utilize wall space for hanging things like tennis rackets and fishing rods.  (There are some cool tricks using pool noodles on Pinterest!)
• Don’t forget to store special shoes like cleats or hunting boots with the sporting equipment.
• Make everyone in the household responsible for putting away their own sports stuff!

As the mom of three, I know how stuff can kind of overrun the house–especially if the kids participate in any kind of extracurricular activity!  It’s time for us to start taking back the house and clearing out the clutter.  If this is something your household needs, there is a list of all of the challenges as well as links to all of the ones that are currently finished on the main challenge page.  Please join us for the Clear the Clutter Challenge today!