How to Declutter and Organize your Entryway

Your entryway is like your smile.

It’s the thing people take notice of first and base their judgments on.

So, if your entryway is cluttered and disorganized, visitors will expect the rest of the house to look like a mess even if it’s not.

With that, let’s see if we can fix that first impression.

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Organizing Your Entryway

When speaking about entryways, this post will cover areas that people use to enter their homes and let their visitors come through.

These will include the front door area, a backdoor/garage entrance, a mudroom, and a foyer.

This also covers storage spots like coat closets or cubby organizers.

Before You Begin

If you plan on doing some DIY, read the post first before attempting the steps.

This is to avoid having piles of stuff waiting to be organized because you haven’t finished any DIY.

Also, visit Pinterest for ideas for your entryway.

Although this may be a small space compared to other rooms in the home, trying to keep it decluttered can be challenging.

Look for ideas that fit your style and home habits as well as the kind of entrance you have.

Gather and Empty Your Entryway(s)

Whether you have one or four entryways, go ahead and gather everything you keep there and bring it to one location.

These include:

• coats
• jackets
• shoes
• umbrellas
• hats
• scarves
• mittens/gloves
• sunglasses
• pet leashes
• keys
• bookbags

As you centralize this stuff, try to keep them sorted.

Winter wear in one pile, summer in another, shoes, etc.

Clean and Purge your Entryway

While these spaces are empty, go ahead and give it a clean.

Sweep/vacuum floors and rugs, wipe down walls, doors, and mirrors.

You also want to dust any shelving and cubby holes.

Now, go back to your sorted piles and begin purging any items that do not belong in any entryway.

This can include sports equipment.

Items like these should be stored in the garage.

If you have a roomy mudroom, then it’s okay to keep these there.

Check any outerwear and get rid of anything that no longer fits or is outdated.

However, don’t trash these items.

Consider donating outerwear.

To find a coat drive in your area, click here and visit OneWarmCoat.com which can help in locating one for you in your area. 

If you don’t have a coat drive in your area consider donating to a thrift shop.

Assessing Your Entryway Organization

Now that you have purged through your things, take a look at your keep piles and come up with a way to organize them.

This is different for everyone but here are some suggestions.

• large hooks are great in a mudroom for coats and bookbags
• smaller hooks work for hats or big families with lots of keys
• try shelving for shoes
• assign baskets for everyone in the family to keep their things in
• cube organizers can help contain baskets and bins
• if you have a covered porch, keep umbrellas outside
• relocate your ‘command’ station to your kitchen or office
• place an over-the-door shoe holder in your coat closet to hold things like keys, leashes, wallets, keys, etc.

Our Small Entryway

We recently used that last suggestion and placed a shoe holder on the back of our coat closet.

We had been using this cubed organizer below to hold our things like leashes, lint brushes, wallets, purses, keys, etc.

It was basically a junk drawer for our entryway.

Every six months I found myself having to go through and get rid of stuff that just did not belong there.

So, it had to go.

After purging those cubby bins, what we were left with, I put into this shoe organizer.

I love being able to ‘see’ everything so I can prevent it from getting filled up with stuff that doesn’t belong in this area.

In our coat closet, I keep all our winter gear in a plastic bin on the top shelf.

Alongside that, I keep my purse and tote.

As for our shoes, we got a small shelf unit and inserted it into the closet.

Whatever you choose to do, make a plan for any DIY and/or shopping list if you don’t have any baskets or bins around the home.

Click here to get our free project planner if you decide to do some DIY.

Maintenance

Once you’ve organized your entryway, here are some tips to help keep it clutter-free:

• Deal with mail right away. If you don’t have the time, stick it back in the mailbox or have someone else go through it. Trash the junk mail immediately.
• If you have a big family with lots of mail coming in, then assign someone as a mail carrier (young kids love this) and have them distribute everyone’s mail. Whatever you do, don’t “put it down” somewhere.
• When summer arrives, go ahead and take coats to the dry cleaners so that they are ready for you when winter comes around.
• If you assign baskets/bins for everyone’s personal things, then make a date to go through them at least once every three months. I like using the start dates of the seasons to do this.
• Mudrooms are expected to get somewhat messy so clean this area at least every month, more when wet weather is almost a daily occurrence.

Let’s Get Organizing

Now, it’s your turn to get your entryway, foyer, mudroom, etc. organized.