Let your entryway give everyone a warm welcome
Your home’s entryway is the first thing you (and your visitors) see when the front door swings open. It’s also a helpful spot to keep hats, jackets, car keys, and mail. However, that means it’s easy for those items to pile up in your rush to get home and get settled.
To help your entryway be both beautiful and functional, you’ll need to get a good system going. Follow these entryway organization tips and tricks to whip yours into shape.
1. Add a Console Table
A console table is a tall, slim, long table that is both understated and stylish. This versatile furniture piece is incredibly useful in entryways or hallways because it offers valuable storage space without taking up much room.
You can add a console table to your entryway to keep the surface relatively clear while still being able to plop the mail down as soon as you walk in the front door at the end of the day. Place an organizer on top and use it as your household command center.
2. Tidy Up Your Coat Closet
No matter how massive (or not) your home is, utilizing every bit of storage space is vital to having a tidy home. So if you have a small closet near your entryway, take advantage of it.
To maximize your coat closet space, clear out all junk and consider installing a closet organizer. Use the tidied-up space to hang up coats and bags, store away shoes, and more.
Make a point to reassess the state of your coat closet every few months to make sure it doesn’t start overflowing with junk. Always declutter and reorganize small spaces on a routine basis.
3. Mount Hooks on the Wall
Hooks are versatile pieces that can even act as functional decor. Mount hooks on the walls in your entryway to hang things like coats and bags. Pro tip: You can even use them to hang a towel on, so you can promptly wipe your dog’s feet after you get home from a muddy walk.
And if you don’t own your house (or just don’t want to damage your walls), special stick-on hooks are a great alternative that doesn’t require drilling.
4. Store Shoes in Baskets
Shoes pile up shockingly quickly, especially if you have little ones running around. Prevent your clogs from cluttering up your entryway and your sneakers from potentially getting lost by keeping shoes organized in baskets or bins. The baskets will keep the area tidy, and you’ll know just where to look when it’s time to run out the door, especially if you label them by person or type of shoe.
If you have a bench or table in your entryway, slide the shoe baskets underneath to keep them even more out of the way. No more tripping over your toddler’s soccer cleats.
5. Organize With a Pegboard
Using a pegboard is useful for organizing a workbench, garage, closet, and even entryway. With an array of evenly spaced holes, you can use pegboards to hang hooks, hold containers, display decor, and more.
Use them in lieu of a coat rack in your entryway to hang hats, coats, purses, and other accessories. You can also mount simple containers on them to hold your wallet, mail, and smaller items.
6. Use a Storage Bench
Coming home and kicking off your shoes after a long day is one of the best feelings ever. Plus, there are many benefits to keeping your shoes off inside. The most natural spot to do so? That would be your entryway.
Consider adding a storage bench to the space or building a floating storage bench for a comfortable area to sit and leisurely take off your shoes in the evening and put them back on in the morning. If you have kids who need a little extra help putting their shoes on before school, a storage bench will make your job a lot easier.
Storage benches pull double-duty as seating and storage. If you lift up the cover of the bench, there’s room inside to store things like shoes and backpacks so they don’t clutter up your entryway.
7. Get a Mail Organizer
Between bills, birthday cards, and magazine subscriptions, you get a lot of mail. Instead of mindlessly tossing it on the table and potentially losing it forever, get yourself a mail organizer and add it to your entryway.
Find one that includes sections for both ingoing and outgoing mail and make a point to empty it each week so things don’t pile up. Make it a house rule that whoever checks the mail has to put it directly in the organizer, and whoever is first to leave in the morning has to put the outgoing mail in the mailbox. It’s so easy that even your kids can do it.
8. Hang Keys on Hooks
Losing your keys can be a common occurrence for even the most organized of us. You’ve probably seen more than a few TV shows where the main characters are late to work or miss a date because of this blunder.
To avoid the same fate, hang your keys on designated key hooks or a key rack so you can keep tabs on them. As long as you remember to hang them up at the end of the day, your keys will always be where you need them.
If you already have a routine of setting your keys down on your console table after work, great. But hanging your keys up instead will free up surface space and make your entryway look more tidy and organized.
