With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, keeping your entryway clean and organized can be difficult. If you are expecting guests or just trying to keep up with the extra boots and gear coming in and out from your own family, there are a couple things you can do to keep the extra clutter to a minimum.
USE AN ENTRY MAT: Putting a ‘welcome’ mat outside your door serves two purposes. One is to welcome your guests and the other is to keep dirt outside the house.
USE A RUG: If you don’t already have a rug at your door, put one there now. It keeps the dirt and snow off your floors and signals a place to take shoes and boots off.
SHOES OFF SIGNAL: If you want your guests to remove shoes at the door, come up with a way to nicely ask them to take off their shoes. This can be as easy as a little framed sign, a shoe and boot tray, or a basket of socks or slippers.
HAVE A PLACE TO KEEP COATS: Make sure you have a place to put guests’ coats so you aren’t piling them up in your entryway or over a banister. Keep extra hangers in a front hall closet, place a coat tree in a corner, or designate a bed in a bedroom to pile up the coats.
WELCOME YOUR GUESTS: Whether your entryway is large or small, you can make it inviting. My favorite welcoming trick is a lamp on the entryway table. The lamp visually warms up the space, giving guests that warm and cozy feeling of home. If you don’t have room for an entryway table, turn on lights and lamps in your front rooms to create a similar effect.
ENTRYWAY TABLE OR CHEST: If you have the room, put a table in your entryway. Don’t be afraid to re-purpose a chest or dresser in your entryway. The drawers can hold hats and mittens or other seasonal items. The top of a chest or table is great for keeping a candle, lamp, or seasonal decor.
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Becky
Becky (Clean Mama) writes a cleaning and organizing lifestyle blog all about simplifying everyday life and making daily cleaning tasks more fun. You'll find her with a printable checklist and a cup of coffee while running around with her three little ones. Clean Mama is also the housekeeping expert on Answers.com, and has been featured in HGTV magazine, BHG.com, Oprah.com, iVillage and has written cleaning and organizing content for companies like 3M, Peapod, and Reckitt. Look for Becky's first book to be published in the Spring of 2014! Learn more about Becky at www.cleanmama.net.
Tags: entryway, organize
Blog, contributors, December 2013 Posted in
6 comments
6 comments on “How to Keep Your Entryway Clean + Organized During the Holidays”
My entryway is similar to yours in that if I were to put a table there it would need to go behind my door. I have put off doing it, because I don’t know how to keep my door from hitting the table. Any suggestions?
Use a stopper that goes on the top hinge of the door. You can adjust it to stop the door where you want it to. I used them on a couple of different doors that open into a wall (like my front door) so the kids wouldn’t slam the door all the way open and punch a hole in the wall with the door knob.
Good tips! I am not sure what to do about my family’s entry way. We only have a tiny patch of linoleum and then we have wall to wall carpeting. (I wish I could replace the flooring, but that’s another story.) It is very cramped when all four of my family members are there trying to put on or take off shoes at the same time! (We don’t wear shoes in our home.) I linked my post about my entry area to this comment. I’d love suggestions!
Suggestions…
If you can’t have a table due to lack of space, there are plenty of light fixtures to hang from wall. Then you can use baskets or tin pail to hang on wall for keys or mail. Put hooks up behind door to hang coats.
We also make sure there is a key holder for our guest. Lot of our guest leave the keys either with the coat or hang them on the key holder. Thanks for the good article. Good information