AVOID ENTRYWAY CLUTTER TRAPS

Whether your family enters your home through the front door, the back door or the garage door, the first thing you do is take off, drop off or discard something. It might be your coat, your brief case, the mail, your shoes, the change in your pockets or the skate board you picked up to avoid tripping over it. These items land where you enter and stay there until they are needed again. If they are not used soon after their landing, the discards become clutter. Eventually the entryway looks like a storage room.

There are four steps to dealing with a cluttered entry space:

1. Assess what kinds of things are being left in the space. Are they being left there for convenience or necessity? Is your child leaving his backpack there on his way to grab a snack after school? Is your husband dropping of mail as he comes in the door and heads upstairs to change? Is your wife leaving a briefcase that she will pick up on her way out tomorrow morning? Are all of you taking off shoes to keep from tracking dirt on the new carpet? Is the leash being thrown in the corner so you can retrieve it quickly when you walk the dog?
2. Determine the best way to deal with each item. Would the space accommodate a set of hooks, a hall tree, a storage bench with baskets or shoe storage? Do the hooks need to be lower for children to access for hanging coats and backpacks? Would an attractive basket or decorative box be useful for depositing mail? Would a large attractive container serve as a drop-off spot for items that go to their designated home before you retire for the night?
3. Bring order to the space by obtaining and installing the systems that you need. You can create an organized look by collecting like things together (coats on a hall tree, mail in a basket, change in a piggy bank), by concealing the items (shoes in a storage bench, dog leash in drawer, brief case in hall table storage compartment; car keys in a decorative box).
4. Make sure that everyone living in the house understands the system. For instance, if you pick up mail and put it in the designated basket, who will retrieve the mail, discard the unwanted items and make sure the bills are paid? Putting the storage item in place, establishing the process for its use and assigning responsibility creates an organizational system that should keep on working.

Now you are ready to let anyone in without being embarrassed by the pile of stuff just inside the door.

If you need inspiration for systems that help organize the entryway, take a look at the following web sites:
www.canopyliving.com
www.improvements.com
www.touchofclass.com
www.potterybarn.com

Beverly & Kristen

www.KeyTransitions.net