Entryway Organization
Organization and Action Steps to Organize Your Entryway
Keeping your entryway organized and welcoming goes a long way to starting and ending your day in peace. Organization of the home entryway can make your day easy or hard. Stepping over a pile of shoes on your way out the door in the morning sets the pace for the rest of the day. A peaceful, welcoming entryway at the end of the day leads to a relaxing evening. Whether you live in a large home with a big entry foyer, or in a small apartment with just a few feet of space to put your belongings, you can make your entry welcoming and organized.
Tip: Hooks are a great way to stay organized. Consider placing hooks on the wall or in the closet to take advantage of vertical space. Hanging things up the minute you walk in encourages good habits. It’s a good habit for kids, too. Look to The Uncluttered Life’s Declutter Deck® for tips and tricks about home organization.
Organization
Identify problems at the front door. Walk through the doorway to your outside. Ask yourself how the space could function better. This will help you find solutions to daily organization challenges when you enter the door. Also, repeat this exercise, but in reverse. Walk in the doorway entry to the inside of your home to see if you can find organization solutions that would help the entry function more efficiently.
The primary step to getting organized is decluttering. If you do not have a lot of room, you have to declutter, sort and edit to the bone. Be ruthless with your choices about what to keep. Having less will make the space feel bigger, too.
When you declutter your entryway, sort into four major categories. These include keep, trash/recycle, misplaced, and “maybe.” These piles will determine what to keep and help you eliminate much of what is there.
Then, whatever is misplaced needs to find its correct space and home.
At the entryway, place items that are easy to grab and easy to put away. This will help you easily maintain your system. Place a location for keys so you always know where to look for them.
Action Steps
Put an outbox in your entryway. This can be a simple basket or bin in which to place things that need to be removed from your house for any reason. If this bin would be better suited next to the entrance to your garage, you may put one there, too.
Keep the items off the floor of your coat closet unless they are there intentionally. Give yourself space to store your shoes, etc.
Take advantage of vertical space in the entryway and the coat closet. Do this with racks or hooks.
Store the least number of shoes in the entryway. Use shoe racks or shoe shelves.
Process mail as soon as it comes into the house. Do not let mail pile up as you may miss important items or find that the pile becomes overwhelming.