I hope you will agree that the hallway is the “face” of the house, It is the first thing anyone who enters your home sees, including you, so our job is to make it cozy, functional, and stylish.

Even if your home does not have a separate entrance area, this is not a problem. You can create it by dividing the space, which starts right after the front door, into sections.

There's an ingenious solution! The entrance area should be organized following the logic of moving around the house.

Recall how you move when you enter the house and what you do next.

1. The first thing you do when you come home is hanging up the keys and get rid of everything in the mailbox, that's why there should always be a key box and a shelf for the mail next to the door.
2. Then you take off your shoes and throw off your bag. Consequently, it makes sense to put a shoe rack right under the key rack. Ideally, if it is a rack with a shelf for bags and backpacks. If there is no shelf, you can put some hooks on the wall for your bags.
3. Next, of course, you want to take off your outerwear and hang it somewhere. If you don't have a closet for that, put a floor rack near the entrance. It doesn't take up much space, and you can move it around. You can also hang umbrellas on the same coat rack.
4. For gloves, scarves, and hats, you can hang a small shelf above the keychain or put a couple of baskets next to the coat rack.

Great! Now you have an entrance area in your home. Let's make it nice and functional.

Since the hallway is a relatively small area but has a lot of functionality, every unnecessary thing becomes a crime against order. Let's get rid of everything that creates a sense of clutter, immediately and permanently.

Clothes off-season
If you don't have a big closet in your hallway where you can send off-season clothes for storage. Here are some tips on how and where to store out-of-season clothing →

• Bicycles and strollers

They clutter up the entrance and most often look improper. Consider making room for them in another room or on the balcony.

• Off-season accessories (such as winter hats in the summer)

If your hallway doesn't have a mezzanine, you can hide them in stylish baskets.

• Shoes and bags that no one wears right now

There's nothing worse than shoes strewn across the floor, usually when you start sorting shoes that are crowding the entrance, you find out that half of them aren't needed right now. Make revision and put the unseasonable shoes away somewhere else. Do the same with bags. Tips on how and where to store off-season shoes and bags can be read here →

• Broken umbrellas

And anything else that's broken or ruined, this also includes unpaired gloves and mittens, as well as belts from clothes no one has worn in a long time. Think of it as a good time to say goodbye to those items.

• Irrelevant mail, newspapers, brochures

Paper correspondence scattered over surfaces makes your home feel like a trash can. Make a stylish can for newspapers and letters, but don’t forget to periodically revise it, then throw unnecessary away.

• Cat Tray

I've noticed that many people put the cat tray in the hallway on the principle of “closer to the street.” but, I do not think it has a place in the hallway that welcomes your guests, or you after work. Consider putting it on a balcony or bathroom.

• Excessive duplicate keys.

Also duplicates of any other items. Remove anything you don't need from your hallway.

A well-designed hallway space can change your life, you'll notice that you don't have to rush around looking for the things you need before you go out. And when you come home, you’ll be happy to see how tidy your entryway is. Here are five tips to help transform your hallway.

The fewer things you have in the hallway, the better. It should contain only what you use every day. Here's a sample list:

• Backpacks, briefcases, bags, purses that you and your family wear regularly
• Seasonal outerwear
• Sensational shoes
• Keys
• Purses and bags for shopping
• Umbrellas
• Pet walking gear, leash, collar
• Jogging shoes
• Seasonal accessories (hats, scarves, gloves)

Oh, I have seen this happen one too many times. You put a beautiful table or truffle table in the hallway and the surface immediately fills up with unnecessary stuff. My advice is to occupy the surface with functional baskets, a vase with flowers, or other decorations, so that there is no temptation to turn your hallway into a storehouse of all kinds of stuff.

Determine a place for dirty shoes, and daily worn outerwear. Create a system that suits your family, use baskets, hooks, containers, floor hangers, shelves…anything to keep things in their place.

For example, you can put a shoe rack and attach it to the wall near the door. Or use a compact round shoe rack, so shoes and boots won't get in the way.

• If you want to avoid street dirt, put a hard mat, if you would like to avoid water dripping on your floor, put a large sturdy tray with stones at the entrance, where the water will run down. Such an improvised mat can be made with your own hands, it will help to avoid puddles on the floor on rainy days.

• Put a large basket on the floor with dividers (you can make them yourself from cardboard) or several identical containers. They will serve as a storage place for children's backpacks, umbrellas, or slippers.

The new order from day one. Always put your keys on the way back, hang your coats and bags in the designated places. Just a couple of easy moves and no mess!

I hope your hallway is transformed with my tips, I'm done for today. In the next article, I will tell you more interesting things about organizing order in the house and in life.


See you later,
Clea.