Now that I’m 25 weeks pregnant, my nesting urge is in full swing! I spent a few weeks at the beginning of 2020 purging items from our home that we just weren’t using anymore. I truly think that should always be the first step when organizing your home. Once we were down to a little less “stuff,” it was time for some easy entryway organization.
One of the spots that could use a bit of extra help was our entryway/kitchen area. We have a pretty tight entryway, and we try to squeeze as many items into it as possible. The two areas that I’m focusing on today are our entryway bench and our front coat closet.
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We made this little entryway bench a few years ago and it has been one of my favorite DIY renovations to date. I mean, check out how it started…
ICYMI: DIY Sharpie Shiplap
Prior to our bench it was only one shelf up top with a long bar for coats. Meaning, it was a giant closet (without a door) filled to the brim with every single coat we owned! Not efficient or pretty.
By adding the hooks it ensured that we never overloaded this closet with ten billion coats. We keep a few that we are using for that season and put the rest downstairs. This allows guests to also have a place to easily hang up their coats as well.
Although it isn’t pretty, we have space underneath the bench to “hide” our dog food bin. Our pup Baxter is currently weighing in at 80 lbs, so we have a ginormous food bag stuffed into that container. This just goes to show that sometimes functionality has to come before style. An open bench also provides plenty of room for shoes and boots.
The latest thing I added to this space for organization were these name tags I snagged off Amazon. Since all of our bins look the same, my husband kept getting frustrated trying to remember what was in each one. I didn’t want clear bins, so this seemed like the perfect compromise. Each tag has our initial on it, so we know exactly which is which. We still have room to fit two more bins up here, so once baby comes she’ll have her own!
Now this isn’t a true “before” photo because I had done some organization prior to our little renovation in this front coat closet. But, it still wasn’t working for our family – and especially not with all of the new baby items we’ll soon be receiving.
The biggest change we made in here was to add another shelf at the top. This added almost double the storage space and we were able to store some items that we didn’t use daily such as extra water bottles, protein shakers, and extra cleaning products (from my recent Grove order!).
Disclaimer: this area is SUPER hard to photograph…
Ta-da! So much more room for storage! Our 1950s home is wonderful, but storage space on our main floor is a hot commodity. Adding the extra cube bins opened up some cabinet space in our kitchen, and a little rearranging opened up vital floor space. I love these hanging door organizers for smaller items that we use often. Overall, this closer is so much more functional, and look a whole lot better! All it took was a little easy entryway organization.
Anyone inspired to do some organizing now??