52 Week Challenge week 3: Entryway / Mudroom

This week’s challenge is to look at the place where people enter and leave your living space. That could be a separate cathedral style room, just a few feet of hallway, or anything in between. The key words to think of here are function and beautiful.

Here’s the entryway at my house (see more photos here). I’m really happy with how it works for our family. We all have a place for what we need, and I love how it looks.

What do you need to do with your entryway? What are your current trouble spots?

The key to making it work is NOT to change everything. See what is working and keep that. Then, see what’s not working and adjust it. So if a particular item, like loose change, piles up, find a nice way to contain it right there (so it’s easy to maintain.) You could put a tzedaka bank there, or a small bowl, or a fabric bin (like we have on the right side of the photo below). That way, it’s no (or not much) extra work, and it’s likely to stay neat.

Once you find your trouble spots, figure out how you can attack them. If you have piles of things, especially if they are always there, find a way to incorporate the items there. We have hats, keys, shoes, my purse, our coats, and all of the other things we need at our fingertips. And it looks nice! (Cleaning out the area and tossing extra items is a bonus this week!)

For example, my husband likes to empty his pockets when he comes home, and for a while it went onto the small table (see the corner sticking out of the corner of the photo?) That was a trouble spot for me – I prefer flowers.  🙂


See how nice it looks? I get to put the flowers here because I took care of the mess and gave my dear husband a place to empty his pockets–some small bins. Now we all win!

Another thing that works for us is this little dresser. We keep it stocked with things we might need as we go, like hand sanitizer, pocket tissue packs, winter hats and gloves, and a whole drawer of kipot (kippahs/yarmulkes). Yep, with 3 young boys, someone can always use a kipa. Having a stash by the door, ready to go when we need it, helps us manage our comings and goings better.

How does your entryway look?

Permanent link to this article: https://organizedjewishhome.com/2012/01/15/52-week-challenge-week-3-entryway-mudroom/

2 comments

  1. I really like your cubby unit for the coats and shoes (the one on the right). Wish I had room for something like that, but right now our entry way is just shoes on the side and coat closet on the other side. Maybe we’ll change this when my kids get older.

      • Amital on January 17, 2012 at 4:43 pm
        Author

      Hi Shaindy! The lower one I got at a thrift store a while ago, and the upper one I bought at Target years ago. They work well for us! I’m not sure how old your kids are, but it helps to have them able to get their own things, both to put away and to get into.

      Amital

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