31 Days of Organizing Tips: Day 25 (Entry)

Welcome to Day Twenty Five of the 31 Days of Organizing Tips series!  I'm so glad you've joined me.  Throughout this series I've been sharing organizing tips that will help you on your journey from overwhelmed to organized.  I'm including lots of pictures and links for ideas that I've found around the web that relate to the topic each day. You'll find a complete list of all the posts in the 31 Days of Organizing Tips tab above, or at the end of this post.

Today's tips focus on a very important and often overwhelming area in your house.  The entry.  The place you come into your home after a hard day of work.  Where you walk in with arms full of bags after running errands.  The spot your kids drop everything when they come home from school, sports, or activities.  The area you grab everything from when you're running out the door.  The transition zone between home and the rest of the world and home again.


This area of your home can set the tone for the rest of your house.  It can determine whether you begin your day frantically searching for things on the way to the car, or confidently focused on the day ahead.  It can be a dumping ground that you face every time you walk in, or a welcoming place for you, your family, and your guests.

Here are some tips to help your entry be an organized zone that helps make your transitions through it stress free.

1.  Have a place for coats, hats, mitts, shoes and boots.  Whether you have a closet or coat tree or hooks, everyone should know where their outdoor clothing belongs.  Make sure kids can reach everything themselves.

Source:  http://www.bhg.com/decorating/storage/mudroom/mudroom-decorating/#page=13

2.  Designate a place for purses, bags, and backpacks.  The floor is not a shelf :)  Use your vertical space to help keep the floor in the entry area uncluttered.

Source:  http://getonwithitalready.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/entry-command-centre-launch-pad/

3.  Make a "home" for important items you need every time you go out such as keys, phones, sunglasses, and wallets.  If you always put them there you will never have to search for them!   I love this cute DIY idea!

Source:  http://pinchalittlesavealot.blogspot.ca/2012/10/diy-catch-all-tray.html

Here's another simple one with a decorative plate.  I also love the idea of keeping chargers in your entry so you can immediately recharge electronics without having to go to another part of the house.  Plus then you're more likely to remember to grab them when you're leaving the next time!

Source:  http://www.almondteafortwo.blogspot.ca/2012/10/simple-organizing.html

4.  Decide where your mail and other papers will go so when they come in the door they always go to that spot (rather than several different places in your house or accumulating in the entry area).  Whether your papers go to a command centre (I'll be sharing tips for those tomorrow) or an office (I'll be sharing tips for them after that), you need a specific plan to deal with paper that enters your home.  Here's a simple file system that you can set up in your entry for incoming and outgoing paperwork.

Source:  http://www.bhg.com/rooms/rooms/entryway/entryway-storage/#page=10

5.  Use baskets or bins to contain sports equipment, instruments, and other gear.  They are also helpful for accessories, scarves, and sunscreen.  Containers hide these things which helps keep your entry area looking nice.

Source:  http://www.marthastewart.com/274341/fall-organizing-tips/@center/276989/organizing#189467

6.  Tidy the entry area Every Single Day.  Even multiple times if you have to.  Don't let anything stay there that doesn't belong there.  It just piles up otherwise and becomes overwhelming very quickly. Look at these pictures of Laura from I'm an Organizing Junkie's drop spot.  The first one shows what it is like after her family comes home and drops their things here.  By having a designated spot to drop things, these items are not dropped in multiple places throughout the house and can be quickly dealt with.

Source:  http://networkedblogs.com/zfhyI

Here's what it looks like after she sorts and tidies it in the evening.  Nothing is left to accumulate and because this is the designated drop zone, items were not left anywhere else.  I love this idea!

Source:  http://networkedblogs.com/zfhyI

Please remember to pin from the original source for all of these lovely pictures!

For Day Twenty Five, put away anything in your entry area that doesn't belong there.  Then assess what organizing tip would make the biggest difference in controlling the chaos that comes in and out of your home on a daily basis.  Implement that tip and then don't forget to show your family members what you expect of them.  Allow some time for old habits to break and new habits to form.  Then enjoy your organized entry!

{Note:  If you're getting overwhelmed with all the ideas in this series, please understand that is NOT my intention! :)  This series is designed for me to write every day for a month, not for you to completely organize your house in a month.  That thought overwhelms me!  So, feel free to skim and pin/bookmark these tips now and then come back later when you're ready to tackle a particular organizing project.  I'll add a button or tab to the blog at the end of the series that will make it easy for you to find all the posts.  Hope that take some pressure off!}

Tomorrow we'll look at how to create a command centre to keep your lives organized.  I can't believe there are only a few more days left in this series!  I look forward to going through the remaining posts of this series with you and hearing your tips too!

How do you organize your entry?  What's the best organizing tip you've implemented?

Have a great day and happy organizing!




Here are all the posts in the series:








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