Happy Friday and welcome to day 10 in our Clutter-Free Challenge.
For the rest of our time in this challenge, we will work our way
through the living areas of our homes. And we’ll start with the front
entrance.
Your front entrance sets the mood and first impression of your home.
Will it be one of peace and rest? Or should there be flashing red
lights and signs reading “Danger”? Does your entry way convey
confident authority or disordered anarchy? Your family and guests will
immediately receive the unspoken message.
Without a plan, entryways can become a dumping ground. Family
members kick off shoes, drop bags and toss keys. Most often, that
happens because there isn’t a place for those items. With a bit of
rearranging, you can create a beautiful front entrance, one that offers a
“Welcome home” for your loved ones and their possessions.
Before I start listing tips, I want to suggest a new way for you to
look at your home. It’s amazing what I notice when I take this
approach. And I think you’ll have great ideas for your own home.
Years ago I worked at a retirement center. Before any public event,
like an open house, we took a “Do you see what I see?” walk. The
marketing staff and I started at the street entrance, and walked through
the entrance from the street. Our eyes scanned the parking lot, the
building, windows and landscaping. We looked with fresh eyes to see
what a visitor would see. It was always interesting how noticeable the
chipped paint, cobwebs and dead bushes were from that viewpoint.
We walked past them every day, never noticing. On that day, with
intentional eyes, we saw what needed changing. Often it didn’t take much
to correct the problem. Armed with clipboards, paper and pens, we
recorded every item needing attention and created a master to-do list.
Sensory adaptation is to blame for numbing us visually to things in
our home as well. It’s a God-given gift to adapt to our surroundings.
Otherwise, we might be overwhelmed with aromas and sounds. It also can
mean we live with more messes, chaos and clutter more than we should.
Unless we perform our own “Do you see what I see?” walk, we’ll miss
small areas of our home that could be de-cluttered with little effort.
So sometime this weekend, I’d like you to walk up to your front door
as if you were a guest. Open the door and walk in. Let your eyes see
what a guest would see. But don’t feel badly about piles of shoes and
broken toys. Just determine to do a bit of de-cluttering.
Here are some tips for common clutter items that most of us have around our entryways.
Keys
Provide a key hooks or key racks within a few steps of the door.
Make sure there are enough hooks for each member of your family. It’s a
good idea to store extra sets of all keys, but not at the front
entrance. Invest in a key storage box and put it in your laundry room
or hang hooks inside a cabinet. Don’t forget to label extra keys.
Back
to the front entrance. If you’ve got room, consider getting an
attractive wall-mounted holder with hooks. This might be a shelf,
which you could also use to hold small items such as a wallet, money
clip or cell phone. Or it could be a letter holder with hooks at the
bottom. This could hold incoming or outgoing mail, or small items to
grab on the way out.
You might also consider a message board, and add hooks for keys.
There are multiple possibilities for getting double duty out of a key
holder, so don’t limit your imagination.
Purses, backpacks, bags
The goal is to get purses, backpacks and miscellaneous bags off the ground. To that end, position a coat tree or coat rack near
the door. If you have little ones, include a child size’s coat rack,
or a double row of hooks with one row low enough for little arms. A
hall tree (a bench with storage, a back and hooks) is a great place to
store items, plus provide a seat.
If you have an entry closet, make sure it’s not jam packed. Add shelving for purses, and hooks for bags.
Loose items
For books, mittens, iPods or small bags, consider cubbyholes with
baskets. Label a basket for each person in the family. This can serve
many purposes, and it’s an excellent way for everyone to keep track of
little items. A table or small chest by the front door can be
multi-functional. Place a basket on top for keys and use the drawers to
store those little items that easily get lost.
Shoes
I know many people like to keep shoes by the front door. In case you
do, some options include cubby holes or baskets, instead of having them
loose on the floor. However, may I respectfully recommend
discontinuing that habit? Dirty shoes can mar your guests’ first
impressions – both visually and with a less-than-pleasant aroma. By
providing adequate shoe storage in bedrooms, family members can remove
shoes at the door, and take shoes directly to their closets.
Hall closets
Perhaps a good place to start with a hall or entry closet is to
define your purpose. Would you like to use this as a place for guests’
coats? Do you use it every day for your own items? Sometimes this
little gem is overlooked, and it becomes a haphazard storage place for
that grab-and-dash cleaning some of us do right before company arrives.
With a bit of planning, your hall closet has great potential for
being a one-stop organizing center for items that get brought in and
taken out on a regular basis. For example, you could add additional
shelves and store camera equipment. Hooks on the inside of the door
could be used for purses and bags. Cubbies or stacked baskets on the
floor could hold books, backpacks, shoes and gloves. Install hooks on
the inside of the door for keys.
What is cluttering your entryway? I’m sure you can find some
creative solutions to your clutter.
Next week, we’ll make our way around our homes as we wrap up our
15-day Challenge.
Grace & Peace,
Glynnis
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