Organizing Entryways
What are entryways and why do they get so cluttered?
Entryways generally is the space when you first walk in your front door, sometimes there's like a little space before you go into any other room and a lot of times you'll find a little table, an umbrella stand, a coat rack, or something like that, in the entryway. Entryways are also major dumping grounds for stuff. People love to come into their house and just drop everything right there and walk away. And that's great, because, you're tired, you want to relax, there's a Martini waiting for you, but you know what? You got to do something with that stuff because a lot of times what happens is they dump everything there but it's not that they're going to be picking it up on their way back out, so it just sort of stays there. So entryways can be a little dangerous, a little scary, if they're not thought out and decided what's going to happen with them.
What is a 'mudroom'?
A mudroom is something you'd find more on the east coast than on the west coast and it is a space that you come in from, especially if there is bad weather. This is where you would take off your boots, coat, shoes, and clean the dirt off your shoes before you went into the house. A lot of times it's where the shoes, coats, umbrellas all sorts of all weather gear are kept. It's also another great space for clutter and for having things that just don't even belong there.
How can I organize my entryways?
I think the key to organizing entryways is to think what are the things it makes sense to have in an entryway. Generally, I would say things like keys, sunglasses. An entryway may be a great space for mail because it's where you come in and you've got the mail in your hand. Maybe that's where you put something so that you can address your mail immediately. You want to maybe have a space to hang up your coat or a surface to put your briefcase on if you're going to just leave it there for the night. It's nice if you have a little table with a drawer, or if not a drawer, a bowl that you can put your keys in. A lot of times putting your keys somewhere immediately when you come in helps prevent from the trying to desperately look for your keys when you're trying to leave and you don't remember, you're retracing your steps, ok, which room did I go in first when I walked in. So it's great to have that, or your sunglasses, so that you can grab them on your way out. A lot of times people like to put things like cameras and little electronic equipment that, again, they'll be wanting to grab on their way out, also in the entryway. I think the key is to figure out what you want to keep there and then what you need to have in order to keep it there. Like I said, a bowl, maybe for keys and sunglasses, a couple of baskets to throw magazines or mail you're going to open later on, things like that. And that way you can prevent a lot of clutter happening in your entryway.
What should I keep in my entryways?
The important thing is that you want to only have things in your entryway that you're actually using. It's not a place to store every coat that you own. That's what a coat closet is for, or for all of your hats or all of your scarves, depending on where you live. You want to have things in your entryway that are things that you use on a regular basis. If you were going to go out and buy things, a little table might be nice, or some bowls or containers to put things in. If you don't have the space for that, you can always get something that you can hook into the wall, where you can hang your keys on it. It's a simple and inexpensive solution, as opposed to buying a piece of furniture. A simple coat rack or, if that's not workable, some hooks that you can hang a few coats on, or a few hats, so that you're not throwing things on the floor or just tossing things around. You want to keep it simple, perhaps a basket that you can put on the floor, to put your mail in, or to put your umbrellas in. Another great thing that people should keep in entryways are leashes for their pets or little poop bags, things like that. Maybe you want to have a little basket or something that you can throw those things into. That way, on your way out you're grabbing them, and on the way in you're putting them back.
How can I organize my mudroom?
I think that mudrooms, if you have one, is a great organizational space because this is the room that you hopefully are keeping your rain, snow sporting equipment, shoes, and things like that in. It's always nice if you have a cabinet space in that mudroom that you can maybe put things in there that you would use to clean those items. That's a good space to use for that. Also, you can buy certain sorts of shoe trays that you lay down to put your shoes that are maybe dirty, muddy, wet or whatever to prevent the floor or carpet from - mudrooms generally have floors and not carpet – getting messed up. Again, lockers, like you can buy at IKEA or any of those places, Pottery Barn. Kids or a teen, you can order lockers like the kind that we had in school. Those are great for mudrooms because if you have kids you can assign each kid a locker and they can keep their tennis racquets and things like that in there, and your mudroom becomes a “grab it and go” kind of space. So you can get really creative in a mudroom without spending a lot of money or using a lot of space.
How can I organize hats, scarves, mittens and other outdoor items?