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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Organizing the Entryway

The longer I live in my house, the more that I'm finding that keeping my house organized requires constant changes. I think that I've found the perfect way to organize something and then a few months later, I tweak it a little bit more, and then a little bit more and then finally I take it all apart and completely change how everything works. This is one of those projects.

In our front entryway, we actually have a wonderful big closet to store everything from shoes to bags to every coat we own. Unfortunately, because we usually have our arms full when we come home, everything just gets dumped. Please don't judge me, but this is what our closet usually looks like:


I've circled the problem areas... which are all of them except for the baskets which actually work quite well for keeping mittens and hats together.

One of the main problems I was having was with our shoes. I end up wearing the same shoes over and over again because I can't find any other pairs. I know they're in the somewhere, its just too messy to take the time to find any.

I found these little storage ottomans at Canadian Tire the other day and they were on sale for $14.99. I couldn't resist and I bought 4 of them. I mean, they're leather storage ottomans! You can't make them for that price. Two of them are in my living room for my daughter to store her toys in, and the other two I put in our front entryway so that we would have a place to sit and put our shoes on. I was trying to figure what to store in them (am I the only one who gets excited about these things?) and then it dawned on me that I can store my shoes in them. I cut some cardboard to size to make separators and then organized my shoes.




I thankfully had the foresight to get two. I have realized that I have a lot of pairs of shoes. Don't tell my husband. Getting the shoes out of the bottom of the closet will hopefully keep that area a little cleaner and our lives a little less chaotic when we're getting ready to go somewhere.

As our family grows and changes, I'm sure I'll be changing it again but for right now, it's perfect. 

What are your great organizing tips? Do you find your entryway is the messiest area in the house, or is that just me?

4 comments:

  1. Great idea! Out of necessity in our smaller apartment I ended up hanging one of those closet shelf things and had shoes organized in that (since our kitty litter and vacuum took up all floor space). In our house we don't need that, so I didn't hang it, but now its a mess and Im missing being able to find shoes, so I think I'm going to go back to that system! If we had more than a foot by our door I would consider yours though since we have 2 like yours and I love them!

    Just wait until Bella and Sienna have as many shoes as you!

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  2. I wish I had a closet like this in our entry way. It would really help to keep things together. My saving grace for keeping organized...my husband. Everything has a place and everything goes there, always. Toys, books, shoes, coats, I mean everything. He has taught me to make the effort every time and then you never get overwhelmed. If it's not in its place, it goes in the trash. No questions asked.

    Mommy Sauri~
    http://casadesauri.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow! Your husband sounds way more organized than me! The front entryway closet is nice but unfortunately, the builder of the house must've gotten so excited about making this wonderful closet, that he forgot about putting nice closets everywhere else is the house! It has definitely made me a little more creative with my organizing.

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