10 tips to keep your entryway organized
Reading time – 5 minutes
Controlling the clutter at the entrance to your home can be a nightmare. With many people using the same area and all having different organizing styles clutter can develop. Together decide on what will be stored near the doorway and how it will be stored. When everyone knows the plan, everyone can participate in keeping the entryway clutter-free and organized.
1. A place for coats
Place hooks low enough that everyone can hang up their coats, sweaters, and jackets. By mounting some hooks higher and others lower you will have more space available. Decide if you want to put in permanent hooks or ones that can be easily moved. 3M makes several styles of hooks that are easy to move.
2. A spot for bags and backpacks
Establish a space, that can be reached without help, for each person’s backpack or gym bag. This could be a shelf, cupboard or hook.
3. Use vertical space
Have enough space near the door for shoes that are used regularly. Buy stackable shoe racks and use vertical space efficiently. When selecting the shelf, make sure it is strong enough to hold the shoes’ weight. If you have people with large feet the shelf will need to be deeper. A size 11 or 12 shoe needs more space than a size 7 shoe. Look at the space between the shelves. Is it tall enough to hold boots? Footwear worn occasionally should be stored elsewhere and brought out as needed.
4. Use the inside of doors
Have a place for seasonal hats, gloves and scarves. A hanging shoe organizer is ideal for this purpose. Put regularly worn hats, scarves and pairs of gloves into the pockets, where you can easily see each item and quickly select what you need. Storing hats, mitts and scarves directly with a jacket also helps to keep everything together. During the warmer months put sunscreen, insect repellent, sunglasses and hats in the pockets of the shoe organizer.
5. Have a collection basket
Have a basket to collect mail, newspapers, and schoolwork as you enter the home. It will keep all the paperwork in one place and you can easily take the basket to your work area to quickly sort it and deal with items. Red can be a good choice. It is eye catching and the colour gives a feel of urgency.
6. Collect garbage and recycling
Do you need a garbage can and recycling bin near the entryway? Some people do and some people don’t. It helps to keep the area clean. Garbage from the car, a backpack, a gym bag or a snack can be easily tidied up and not left lying around. I saw this wastebasket with 4 compartments on one of my trips.
7. Protect your personal property
It is tempting to store keys, phones and purses near the door. Don’t do it. Find a more secure location for those items so no one picks them up and walks away with them when you’re distracted.
8. Have multi-use furniture
It is nice to have a place where a person can sit to put on their shoes or boots. Have a stool that also has storage space. It can be a good place to put a blanket for sitting outside when it gets cool, cushions for chairs, small toys for children or pet supplies.
9. Repurpose furniture
Add a deacon’s bench, buffet, or dresser that is sitting around your home. Place it by your entryway to provide additional storage at no additional cost.
10. Declutter often
Declutter your entryway often. Place items back in their correct storage place, let go of items you no longer need, store off season items way from the entrance and remove garbage and recycling.
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Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Lifestyle Organizing Coach who brings happiness to homes and organization to offices, coaching you virtually using Zoom. She has been working with clients since 2006 to provide customized organizing solutions to suit their individual needs and situations. She uses her love of teaching to reduce clutter, in your home, office, mind and time. She guides and supports you to be accountable for your time, to complete projects and to reach your goals. If you’re in a difficult transition Julie can coach you to break-free of emotional clutter constraining you from living life on your terms. Online courses are available to help instruct, coach and support your organizing projects. Get started by downloading Tips for Reorganizing 9 Rooms.
Contact her at julie@mindoverclutter.ca
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We have a table with storage in it, which was super handy when we had a dog who needed to be walked four times a day, but now it might be better to put something we can sit on to put shoes on and off in that spot. Thanks for the suggestion!
As life changes so does how you organize your home.
All of this is so necessary. I think new construction has gotten onto the value of having mudrooms and storage space in the entry.
I always think there should be a surface with optional device charging.
Declutter often is probably the best tip here. It just builds up so quickly in this zone!
I agree decluttering needs to happen frequently in a mudroom / entranceway. It is handy to have a charging station in this area however having devices in a less open area will keep them safer.
I’m glad you included a trash can/recycling bin near the entryway. That significantly reduces the amount of paperwork that comes into the home. Great ideas!
I am amazed how many people have only 1 or 2 trash bins on the main floor. The easier it is to put garbage away the less will build up.
I absolutely agree with all of this, though when my mother designed our house in 1971, she took the opposite approach. When you walk in the front door, there’s a two-story foyer: living room to the left, stairs straight in front, and a large, open space with no furniture except a plant cart, and then a large coat closet, and bathroom on the far right walls. With nowhere to put ANYTHING, it forces (well, encourages) anyone coming in the front door to put things away properly. Yes, there’s a rug inside the front door for snowy boots, but all other outerwear goes to the closet (requiring a stride far across the foyer). School bags, groceries, etc. must all be walked to the appropriate room because there’s no flat service upon which someone might lay things. (I suppose *somebody* could try putting them on the floor, but they’d have my mother’s wrath.) It definitely assured that what was basically the largest room in the house (square-footage-wise) was never cluttered.
Of course, that’s a labor-intensive approach, and not everyone can scare people into tidiness with a well-placed scare. For the rest of the world, your tips ensure ease of storage, ease of retrieval, and a level of tidiness. Certainly for the most-used *family* entrance to the house (such as through a mud-room rather than a grand hall/foyer), all of these ideas prove essential. I’d add a small table for newly-arrived mail and packages, and possibly a charging center, though I appreciate your point about safeguarding personal items. (So, no keys or phones by the front entry where the pizza guy may be greeted, but the utility room between the garage and main space might avail itself to this kind of landing strip.) Thanks for all of these great ideas!
Thanks for sharing the story about your Mom’s house. My Mom’s house was like that too. You could take off your shoes and boots and hang coats on a hook then everything else had to be put away. I think it helped me to come into my own home and put things away immediately.