Upgrade Your Coat Check

What You Wish You Could Do: Keep your coat closet gloriously sparse, so it's always ready to hold people's jackets, scarves and hats.

You Settle for: Clearing off your bed and letting people toss everything there.

Next Time, Try: Building your own DIY coat rack out of a few steel pipes and connectors, says Abby Larson, founder of Style Me Pretty Living. All of the materials can be found at a hardware store, and it's as easy as screwing the pieces in place (and coating it with gold spray-paint, for an of-the-moment touch). If you're not the DIY type, companies like Amazon also sell collapsible racks that you can tuck under the bed when they're not in use.