7 Genius Entryway Storage Ideas to Get You Out the Door Faster!

January 19, 2018

By: Jamie Wiebe

Creating personalized bins is a good start.

It’s so easy (and so unfair) how quickly your entryway can go from clean to chaos — and that chaos makes trying to get out the door brutal.

Think of all that time wasted hunting for your keys and umbrella, or digging through a pile of coats to find the one you need. Five minutes spent searching for stuff each morning becomes 35 minutes a week, or more than 30 hours a year!

Corralling your clutter can feel overwhelming, but with the right mindset and a few clever hacks, your entryway can be what helps you get out of the house on time — not what slows you down.

Here are seven ideas to help you out:

#1 Personalize Buckets:

How do those hats and gloves end up all over the entryway? Half the time, it happens when someone tosses them aside while searching for their own stuff. That’s why separating each person’s storage space is so ingenious.

“Susie has her own basket, Tommy has his own basket,” says professional organizer Yve Irish. Assigning space and responsibility to each individual family member saves you — and your kids — time digging through other people’s belongings.

You don’t need a huge closet to do this — even little baskets in an inexpensive Ikea shelving unit can do the trick.

Irish recommends pairing a storage system with training to make personalized buckets work: “Teach your children to return items to their basket when they come home,” she says. “You want to make sure that happens and they get into the habit.”

#2 Hang Your Purses and Bags:

Digging through a forest of coats to find the right purse for your outfit is a hassle. It’s also not great to shove your bags onto a cluttered closet shelf or (ugh) pile them on the floor — a practice some believe is bad luck. There’s a feng shui saying, “A purse on the floor is money out the door.” So hang your bags from the closet rod using S-hooks instead.

Lacking a closet? If your walls are less than five feet apart, you can install a tension rod between them. Or choose a decorative wall shelf with hooks.

No matter how you hang them, do a purse purge first to avoid creating a handbag jungle. Keep that oversized bag you only pull out for special occasions tucked out of the way.

#3 Create a Charging Station:

While you might charge your primary smartphone overnight by your bedside, creating a charging station in your entryway can save valuable time, especially if you have a work phone or use the kids’ tablets for car rides. When they’re always charging in the same spot, you won’t waste time in the morning hunting down chargers.

Assemble tech storage using assigned baskets with neatly-organized cords, or go big with a built-in. At organization blog “A Bowl Full of Lemons,” a cabinet with plugs inside was installed in the mudroom to serve as a neat home for laptops, tablets, and smartphones, which all charge up inside.

#4 Install an Information Station:

Papers can be pernicious devils, accumulating in ugly piles, blocking surfaces, and creating stress. Cut off the problem at its head with an information station, starting with a customized paper organizer on the wall.

“We had an extreme amount of clutter,” says Aniko Levai, the blogger behind “Place of My Taste.” As part of a grand entryway remodel, she created a wall organizer to keep papers and small items out of the way.

The process is simple enough for even the newest DIYer. Levai created the organizer by combining painted wood, fabric, a few small hooks, and a $15 wall magazine rack from Ikea.

But not all paper needs to be saved, and mail-sorting procrastination is the stuff cluttered entryways are made of. Setting up your recycling center near your entryway — in the closet or a free corner — can turn paper sorting into a quick, easy to-do task every time you walk in the door.

If you have the space, add a shredder into the mix or add a whiteboard for reminders.

#5 Add Lots of Shoe Storage:

Step into any big box home store and you’ll find two dozen shoe storage options, from stackable organizers to hanging canvas cubbies. The perfect option for you is a matter of taste and space, but let’s be serious: However many shoe cubbies you think your family should need, the truth is probably three times that amount. That’s why we’re partial to this clever solution from Sara Davis, who transformed an old wooden mail sorter — found at a local antique shop — into a gorgeous, 45-slot shoe cubby.

While antique mail sorters may not be available everywhere, you can create your own by converting a bookshelf or cabinet, bundling cut PVC piping into handmade cubbies, or buying a large shoe cubby. Davis’ solution is perfect for her long, thin mudroom, which is 17 feet long, but only five feet wide.

“It’s hard to miss, so it’s a great reminder for the kids to take off their shoes,” Davis says.

#6 Assign Lockers:

Industrial-style decor is in — take advantage of the trend in your entryway by installing lockers. (Yes, we mean the aluminum models your kids use at school.)

While not ideal for a super-small entryway, lockers can instantly triple your storage space if you have the room, as each one has hooks on three surfaces, as well as shelving. Even better, install short tension rods and use S-hooks for even more hanging storage.

And they provide plenty of room for creative decoration. You can paint them to match a variety of decor.

#7 Make a Station for Wet, Muddy Footwear:

Your entryway is always one of the first victims of nasty weather. Is it a rainy autumn? Say hello to a puddle of dirty leaves. Winter? Snow boots can leave the entire room soaking and soiled.

Weather-safe storage solutions can be the key difference between an unorganized mess and a pristine entryway. The biggest culprit is shoes. While a mat can go a long way toward preserving the cleanliness of your entrance, you’ll need to develop a plan for storing boots — without them dripping everywhere.

Try this DIY solution: Line the bottom of a chest with a mud tray, and then fill the tray with a layer of river rocks. The rocks allow the water to drain away from the soggy boots so they’ll be ready to use the next morning — and the whole process is hidden away inside the chest.

These 7 Knock-Out Projects Will Make You Say, “Yes I Can!”

January 17, 2018

By: Leanne Potts

Beautiful you-can-do-it inspirations for easy DIY projects.

As anybody who’s been inspired by HGTV can tell you, DIY projects on TV look amaaaazing.

But DIY renovations in real life: kiiiinda the toughest thing ever. And, yet, these rookie craftsmen did beautiful, jaw-dropping work that will totally inspire you. Check them out!

#1 Pinterest-Worthy Window Seat:

An empty recess in a room is a ripe spot for a DIY project, as home improvement blogger Britt Kingery can tell you.

She and her husband, Justin, built a window seat so ridiculously Pinterest-worthy you’ll want to make one for yourself (like, right now).

It’s a roomy 10-foot beauty, so you can seat a houseful of guests without dragging chairs all over the place. And (bonus!) there’s storage underneath for stashing lots of stuff out of sight.

You can custom-create your own for about $250 if you’ve got a few essential DIY tools.

Or you can do an Ikea hack to get the same result. Just attach one of their long, horizontal storage systems to your walls. Then add cushions and preformed molding for the same custom look.

#2 Miracle Makeover With Just Paint, Stain (and Patience):

“The Brady Bunch”-orange wall and abused floors in the before photo are homely enough to strike you blind.

But what a miracle paint, sanding, and stain can do! Lighter shades on the walls, trim, and floor reflect natural light, making the space so much brighter. And for very little money (about $150).

The key to such an amazing transformation, Kingery says, is to be a tortoise, not a hare.

Sanding, taping, patching holes, and waiting on stain, paint or polyurethane to dry takes care and patience if you want professional-looking results.

“The big reveal doesn’t happen overnight, and a renovation almost always looks worse before it looks better.”

#3 Instant Open Floor Plan:

Cramped, dark kitchens are so very 1981.

Sarah Lemp of the “All Things With Purpose” blog turned her dated kitchen into an open, light-filled space that feels and functions like a larger room.

The cost? $300. Yep. For less than the cost of a set of countertop canisters at Williams Sonoma, Lemp worked magic.

The biggest fix? She just removed a set of overhead cabinets that blocked light and the view into the dining area, making an instant open floor plan.

Then she turned to paint, the budget remodeler’s friend. She used a soft griege (designer-speak for grayish beige) for the walls of the kitchen and dining area.

She painted the remaining upper cabinets white, and the bottom ones dark gray.

“I love the look of white cabinets, but figured a darker color was more kid-friendly,” she says.

Lemp skipped the requisite subway tile backsplash and went with peel-and-stick shiplap instead. “It was easier and cheaper,” she says.

#4 Brighter Bedroom With Paint and Wood:

This may be an ugly room, but we’re not sure because it’s so dark all we can see are cheap blinds and a poofy valance that hasn’t been fashionable since the Olsen twins were toddlers.

It needed major help.

Ashley Rose and Jared Smith of the blog “Sugar and Cloth” pulled off a weekend makeover by painting the walls a lighter color and replacing the window treatments with wispy, white drapes that practically pull sunlight into the room.

A pair of wall-mounted reading lamps added a second layer of light, because a lonely overhead fixture can’t light the whole room all by itself.

And that wall behind the bed? It’s strips of reclaimed wood with an adhesive backing. Peel, stick, and you’re done.

No nails. No glue. And just one tool: a level to make sure you stick the wood strips in a straight line. Awesome.

#5 An Easy-Peasy Backyard Patio:

Dirt’s ugly. It’s also a pain, turning into mud when it rains, dust when it doesn’t, and sneaking into your house on the feet of dogs and kids.

Covering it with a paver patio is a great fix. Chelsea Foy of the blog “Lovely Indeed” built this one in a neglected flower bed in just 10 hours.

She used patio stones molded to look like several individual bricks, because leveling one large stone is tons easier than leveling a bunch of bricks.

Those arcs of large river rocks just off the patio make a natural-looking transition between the factory-perfect pavers and the rest of the yard. They’ll also give you less lawn to mow and less flowers to tend.

#6 Fancy Wall Molding for a Bargain Price:

Wall molding makes a room look so custom, so finished, so much better than boring old drywall. But it costs around $25 a square foot just for the materials.

Mysha Barton of the blog “Remington Avenue” pulled it off along her stairs for just $30 — total.

The secret? She used MDF (medium density fiberboard, aka fake wood) to keep it cheap, and didn’t mount it in the traditional way with board panels on the wall.

Instead, she put thinner “chair rail molding” directly on the wall, and painted everything white, including the wall to get that rich look of molding.

The toughest part was cutting all those angles, Barton says.

She got it done with a miter box and a handsaw. “My advice is to use scrap wood to practice your angled cuts before taking on your expensive molding pieces.”

Barton did this project in just eight hours with three small children in the house, so even if 10th-grade geometry made you cry, you can do this.

#7 A Space-Saving Workbench:

A DIY workbench is a gateway project, one that can lead you to harder projects and possibly, a home improvement addiction. Make this workbench your very first project and you’ll have room to do scads of projects — money-saving ones.

It’ll fit in a small space because it’s actually a door mounted on door hinges, so you can fold it flat against the wall when you’re not using it. Be sure to buy a solid wood door, not a hollow one, so it’s sturdy enough to stand up to years of projects.