Monthly Organizing Round-Up: Our entryway

I'm an Organizing Junkie's monthly organizing round-up is the entryway, and although I decluttered our entryway back on day 5 of the August declutter challenge, it was high time to reorganize it!

And as an added bonus, I found an old picture of our entryway from the old house. Actually, it wasn't technically an entryway, but rather the kitchen/dining room that led to the carport through a side door. It makes no sense for us to park the car in the carport and then walk around to the front to enter the house, so naturally our dining area became the entryway and it wasn't pretty.

Old House Entryway


New House Entryway as of 8/5

Back then, the entryway wasn't exactly complete. It was "done" in the sense that it was no longer an empty space, but it wasn't properly organized since we were just in the unpacking and putting things where they belong mode, not the organizing mode. Well, I went back this afternoon and did a bit of tidying up. I couldn't really get good pictures due to lack of room to back up enough to capture the whole thing, but I managed to get it in parts.

Current Entryway

This is the very top of the closet...the house came with pre-installed shelves, so on the very top are overflow shoes, gift bags, and packing materials (bubble wrap/packing peanuts). On the bottom shelf are my frequently used purses, winter house shoes, and more packing/gift materials.



Like how I lazily pieced together the two images? The bottom half of our entryway closet stores all of our shoes. The cup tree is still used for keys, and my current purse hangs off the side, but when I took the picture it was on my desk because I was balancing my checkbook. On the other side of the closet I hang my coupon tote. The red hanging basket you see is for hubby to dump his wallet, phone, keys, and whatever else he has in his pockets. The two bags you see hanging on the left side of the picture are items that I have to return to the store. And the Chloe dog thought she was getting walked since I was loitering in the entryway...poor Chloe.


This is the other half of our entryway. We've got a calendar for quick reference, a cork board for outgoing papers, and a place for the dog leashes.

The entryway is tiny, but I am very grateful for it. It sure beats being in the dining room! Since it's a small area before the carpeting begins, it's a very good reminder to take off your shoes. It also super easy for me to just go through on a weekly basis with a broom and sweep up the dirt, whereas in the old house I pretty much had to clean the kitchen too.

And well, that's all folks! Now all I have to do is convince the Chloe dog that we're not going for a walk, and that it's not illegal for me to loiter in my own entryway...