Welcome, friend! Bienvenido! Come on in! Be our guest! Hang with us awhile!
All are phrases that might fly past your lips while beckoning a friend to enter into a space that gives a sneak peek into your home. Is that entry space welcoming or cluttered and disorderly? Does it have ample light and an element of beauty or is it dark, dank, dullsville?
With a few guidelines, your entryway can be a useful, hardworking space that is both functionally uncluttered as well as beautiful.
1. Determine your needs. Take a look at your entry, 'as is'. What purpose is it serving? Is it a cloak room, mud room and catch all for shoes, bags and mail? What do people tend to leave behind after entering? That is key to determining your needs.
Does your space desperately need hanging place for jackets? Shelves for shoes? Bins or hooks for small items? Is seating required for slipping in and out of shoes? Does it need a dropping place for mail and keys? How about a mirror for checking appearances before flying out the door?
3. DeJunk. Sort through whatever happens to be on or near the entrance. Keep only the things that are used daily near the door. Otherwise, the space becomes a catch all for clutter and a tripping, fall-on-your-face hazard.
4. Recycle. Take a walk around the house. Is there a shelf, dresser, mirror, book case, small chair or two that might work in the entry? It might take some rearranging to set free what you intend to repurpose but using what you already in new ways just makes good economic sense.
PHOTO GALLERY of iDEAS
Every item has a place and is in its place... Now, that's organized, simple living!