Your entryway. It is the place everything lands when your family gets home. They drop their shoes, coats, and backpacks right there! This area can quickly become disorganized and cluttered.
But, believe it or not, you can get an organized entryway. It is a matter of looking at each item you see and determining where it should go. Everything needs to have a place to live – and it should not be the floor!
For example, if the kids’ backpacks are always laying on the floor, find a home for them. They need them every day, so a bedroom is probably not the best place. It would be simpler to keep them near the entryway so that they are ready to go to school the next day.
We found a simple solution to this in our home. We hung 3M hooks on the inside of our hallway door. That way, the backpacks don’t just sit on the floor and are up and out of site. However, they can still be found quickly in the morning when it is time to go to school.
We also use a bench (which we found online at Wayfair) to store our outerwear items and it also serves as a place where our kids can put on their shoes when getting ready to leave in the morning. We will even set backpacks and coats on it in the morning so that it is all ready to grab to run out of the door.
Look around your entryway. Perhaps you could add a rack or some hooks on your wall so that the backpacks can be hung up and no longer live on the floor. This is just one way you will look at things as you organize the space.
When it comes to keys, it seems they get misplaced easily. To avoid this, we have a hanger for our keys by our back door. Our hanger actually doubles as a mail holder so we can drop the items we need to take to the mailbox each day.
This not only keeps our entryway tidy, but it helps us find our keys when it is time to leave! We’ve gotten into the habit of hanging our keys up the minute we walk through the door and no longer have an issue with lost keys.
This is the one we have hanging in our home. I found it on Amazon for less than $10 shipped. It was money very well spent!
Rather than throw your mail onto a table when you get home, find a home for it. We do this and we never have issues looking for that bill or letter that arrived. When our mail comes in, we touch it one time. Yes. Once. We walk in and we open it right away. We place the outer envelopes into our recycling bin. We shred anything that should be (credit card applications, etc).
This wall storage system was purchased through a friend who sells Thirty-One Gifts several years ago (they no longer sell this item. Fortunately, Amazon sells a hanging organizer that will work (but the pockets are not clear).
I don’t know about you, but I am a big checklist person. I am not talking online list, but the good old paper and pencil type of list. There is something rewarding about putting a check next to the item as I mark it as DONE on my list! For that reason, I created this printable checklist that you can use when organizing your space!
HOW TO ORGANIZE THE ENTRYWAY
1. Remove items that don’t belong
If you have toys, magazines or other items that should not be in your entryway, remove them. Put them away where they should go.
2. Put away items that have a place to go
Hang up your coats and other outerwear items. Return your shoes back to your bedroom (other than those your kids may need for school in the morning).
3. Find a home for other items
The last thing is to find a place where everything else should be. The mail should be where you pay your bills. Put your umbrellas in the closet. Make sure your keys are hanging on the rack or in a basket on a table near the door.
There you have it! Tips to help you get an organized entryway – as well as a glimpse into my own home and the systems that work for us!
