Simple Living: Entryway Organization

Getting out the door isn't always an easy task.  I try my best to give myself enough time before I have to be somewhere.  With all of the moving parts that come with being a Mom, one of the simplest solutions for getting out of the door on time is to make your entryway work for you.  I love all the beautiful pictures online of people's mudrooms and giant foyer closets, but that is not my reality.  My home's entryway is quite small.  It has a small closet area (we removed the red accordion doors from the closet) and very little wall space.  I know that others have smaller entryways than mine, so I hope that some of these solutions will be useful to you.  My entryway organization is neat, tidy and functional.  It really isn't beautiful, but I would choose function over beauty any day.

I came up with a few solutions for the entryway before summer.  They have served us well.  I needed to clean up the area and make sure that everything in the entryway was necessary and seasonally appropriate.

Before:

My husband installed three hooks for me.  This gives my daughters a place to hang their jackets.  They can both reach the hooks and be responsible for their own things. (Yay!)  

After:

I cleaned up the 3 hooks by making sure that the items on the hooks were necessary.  My daughters have splash pants that I put elsewhere because we haven't used them very much this year.  I also removed sweaters that had made it onto the hooks.  We keep sweaters in the bedroom.  My oldest daughter's backpack will go on her hook during the school year.  I didn't hang it yet because it is full of a year's worth of school supplies and is too heavy at the moment.

Before:

We needed more shoe storage space, so my husband brought up this shoe shelf from our basement.  He built it years ago when we lived in a different home.  We removed the closet's built in shelves and put our shoe shelf in.

After:

I took out shoes that we aren't utilizing and reorganized the top shelf.  I don't love these bins for the shelf, but it's what I have on hand at the moment.  I have measured the shelf and plan to replace the bins once I find what I am looking for.  The bin on the left holds my tote bag and items that need to go back to my vehicle.  The bin on the right holds containers with dog food.

Before:

This storage solution isn't pretty but it has worked so well for us this summer!  My kids can access all of their things and are able to put their stuff away on their own.  It is a shoe organizer from Walmart that I hung on our basement door.  The basement door is directly opposite of where we come in and having the items in a place that is easy to access has helped all of our family members get out the door on time.

After:

 

I went through the pockets and made sure that all the items were still needed.  I removed our sun hats because they aren't as needed now that the weather is turning colder.  My children's hats hang by the door with their bike helmets on Command Hooks.

Tips:

• Ask yourself if the items in your entryway truly belong there.  Can off-season shoes be stored somewhere else?  Does your summer gear need to be taking up precious space when your kids are back to school in the fall?
• Worry less about whether something looks pretty and worry more about function.  The shoe organizer isn't my favourite thing to look at but it is super functional and allows my kids to be independent.
• Make a habit (and help your kids make a habit) of putting things in their place.  Give essential items a designated spot.  My three-year old knows exactly where to find her hat, coat, and shoes.  My keys are always in the same spot and so are my sunglasses.  Getting out the door is much easier when you know exactly where your things are.

Happy organizing!