Organizing the entryway
The entryway sets the tone for your entire home and reflects the relationship between the space and your home. That is until you get to the next surface. Once there, however, you find that you just drop everything you have on hand when you enter your home. These places are called the clutter magnet hotspots. You can also develop these clutter clusters in your home because you don’t have a proper system set up for your items in the entryway.
Sorting tips
- Get into your neighbour’s shoes
Stop in the doorway and look at your entryway as if you are visiting someone for the first time, as if you are going to be a guest. Quickly scroll through the pictures of the entryways you like in your head. Start thinking about what attracts you to these spaces and try to make them your own. Do you particularly like entryways with little furniture and plain surfaces? Is it possible to achieve this idea in your entryway, taking into account the habits of the people who live with you?
- Give up perfection
Be honest with yourself. Do you often have guests? If the answer is no, do you really need a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing entrance hall that is more important than functionality? Maybe you’re trying too hard to create the kind of lifestyle you don’t live yourself, let alone your family. Ever wonder how long it took to prepare those Pinterest photos? Hiding the excess cables, the unstylish sweaters, the extra shoes? This is your front room. Make it the way you are and the way it can best serve you.
- Storage is key
Improper storage in your entryway can affect the rest of your home. Items that you should store in the entryway but don’t have a place for could end up on the kitchen counter, dining room table, and who knows where else. This is when you feel like you can’t control the order in your home. And to clear the clutter on your kitchen counter, dining table, you need to tidy up your entryway first.
Kitchen table (in front)
Start to think about who brings what into your home, what’s in their hands when they enter, and find a place for it all. Order is the soul of everything.
Entrance Hall
The surface and drawer space of a small desk near the front door is key for storage.
Entrance hall drawer
You can use the drawer to store letters, pay cheques, sunglasses and other small odds and ends.
Entry hall table surface
Have a dedicated place for your keys, either in the drawer, hanging up or on the tray part of an eyeglass rack. Don’t let your keys pop up in the most insecure places when you leave your home.
Money has a place in your wallet. However, it is often the case that you can still find money everywhere in your home. If that’s true for you, designate a small bowl to put money outside your wallet.
And last but not least, spruce up your hall table with some decorations to keep it in a pleasant mood, whether you’re leaving the house or returning home.
- Form new habits
The way you use your entryway can vary from home to home. To determine common goals, find compromises that everyone can stick to. Getting into new habits can start with everyone putting things away in their new home and not moving items they have in their hands to other parts of the home.
Kitchen table (after)
Keep your kitchen counter, dining room table and other surfaces clean of unnecessary belongings, and keep your entryway items in the entryway so you can always find them!
