Declutter your Entryway Closet: How to Keep It From Disasters

Let’s talk about ways to declutter your entryway closet! The entryway closet is one of the busiest areas in the house or home or apartment. Now after the herd of children finishes stampeding through… your entryway looks like a crazy mess. I get it… I have seen it and lived through it many times. Here are some tricks that I like to use to keep the entryway from looking like a complete disaster and more how you imagined it to look like. Here is my decluttering entry closet tricks!

Declutter your Entryway Closet: How to Keep It From Disasters

1. Donate/ Give Away

Before starting anything you must go through your belongings and your kid’s coats, shoes, and accessories. Why should you declutter the entryway closet? Because you don’t want to be organizing items that are too small for you guys.

Yes, I am talking about clearing away all those items that do not fit your kids anymore because it will only take up the space that you truly need. Living in an apartment myself with a large family, I know all too well that space is limited so creating space is crucial.

Here is something I enjoy doing, consider donating the items you don’t use to people who could use these items. Or if you know someone who has a younger child that can fit the items then offer it to them first, and spread the love. Sharing is always caring!

As kids grow it can get harder to do this so what we did when my siblings became teenagers was that we got them each their own shoe cabinet from IKEA, that way their seasonal shoes and regular pairs were in one spot and not getting lost with other shoes. Plus, these cabinets look great and shoes are hidden.

Another option to also keep the coats organized is having separate colours for family members and guests, for example, black hangers for guests, white for mom, red for dad, pink for daughter and blue for a son. I prefer velvet hangers for closets but you can also add hanger tags to keep the hangers looking in unison while providing labels for your family member’s coats.

For bags like purses only keep the ones you use often out. I use my wallet/phone carrier the most and when my son was a baby I used a baby bag the most so I barely ever use a purse anymore. But as life changes, so do our bags. If you rotate your purses often then have them in your bedroom closet instead of the entryway closet. That way you can display it without having them in the way.

For backpacks, I don’t put backpacks in the entryway closet anymore because it took up way too much space. However, we have a chalkboard area/command center where my sibling’s backpack goes under it. As they grew, we later got a mirror/corkboard command center that had enough hooks for each child.

Personally, I don’t recommend having your kid’s backpacks into their room because it’s the easiest way to pass on household pests you don’t want to deal with like bedbugs. However, if you don’t have a designated kid’s space to do homework in the living area or office, have your kids put their backpacks in their room. Just make sure you give it a quick disinfecting spray or spray with rubbing alcohol before allowing it on the floor of the room.

Additionally, if you do have the space for backpacks in your entryway closet then have them up on the shelf when you have everything signed and homework completed. For younger kids, they won’t be able to reach it, so make sure they have all they need out of their backpacks first. Older kids usually take their backpacks or bags into their bedrooms so make sure to create a designated hook for them.

For what I did for my family, we have three baskets on the shelf in the closet. One for hats, scarves and one for gloves. It works for us. You don’t have to put these items in storage if you don’t want to. I don’t because it doesn’t take up any space and I don’t want to lose any gloves or hats.