6 Common Entryway Decluttering Challenges and Solutions

The entryway of your home serves as the first impression for anyone who walks through the door. It’s a place where you drop off your belongings, kick off your shoes, and often accumulate clutter. Decluttering this space can be a challenge, but it’s a challenge worth undertaking. In this blog post, we’ll explore common entryway decluttering challenges and provide practical solutions to help you create an organized and welcoming entryway.

Welcome to my Year Long Thorough Declutter Series. We declutter 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Each day we do a daily task based on the room we are working on. Today, our task is to start decluttering your clutter in your entryway. If you prefer watching videos, check out my youtube channel here. Today, we’ll look at some tips for decluttering your winter coats in your entryway.

The best way to develop a new habit is by slowly and daily application. We will begin a new daily declutter habit starting with the 2nd bathroom. In the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series, we will declutter 30 minutes a day, five days a week on weekdays. Sign up to receive daily encouragement and motivation.

Plus, you’ll learn your specific daily task to work toward completing the goal of a Year Long Thorough Declutter where you will declutter every space and learn how to start to purge your house. Are you ready to finally get organized? If so, will you join us? Leave a comment below to subscribe.

If you are new to the blog, welcome! I blog about cleaning, decluttering, and organizing. You can find my free printables to help you get organized in the drop down menu under the Printables category.

Currently we are working on how to unclutter the Entryway, Foyer, & Mudroom. The daily task for today, Nov. 6, 2023, is to begin to declutter your winter coats in your entryway. Remember, we are focusing on just the entryway area, so don’t declutter your whole house. We will cover each room separately.

6 Common Entryway Decluttering Challenges and Solutions

Challenge 1: Lack of Storage Space

Many entryways are small or narrow, lacking sufficient storage space for coats, shoes, bags, and other items. This limited space can quickly become overwhelmed with clutter.

Solution: Maximize vertical storage with wall-mounted hooks, shelves, and cubbies. Utilize the back of the door for hanging organizers or hooks. Consider multi-functional furniture like benches with built-in storage, or utilize furniture with open shelving.

Challenge 2: Seasonal Items

Seasonal items, such as winter coats, boots, or beach gear, can quickly overtake your entryway, making it challenging to manage and organize throughout the year.

Solution: Invest in under-bed storage bins for seasonal items. Rotate your entryway storage according to the season, storing off-season items in the basement, attic, or a closet. Keep only the current season’s necessities within reach.

Challenge 3: Dealing with Sentimental Items

Entryways often collect sentimental items like family photos or heirlooms, making it difficult to part with them, even if they contribute to the clutter.

Solution: Create a designated space for sentimental items within the entryway, like a small display shelf. Limit the number of items you keep and regularly evaluate their significance. Consider moving the most precious items to a more prominent display area in your home.

Challenge 4: Inadequate Shoe Storage

Shoes can easily become a cluttered mess in the entryway, and if not properly organized, they can make the space look untidy.

Solution: Use shoe racks, cubbies, or a shoe bench with storage to keep footwear organized. Encourage family members to keep their shoes neatly arranged and consider a “no shoes indoors” policy to minimize dirt and clutter.

Challenge 5: Mail and Paperwork

Mail and paperwork can pile up on entryway tables, contributing to a disorganized look.

Solution: Designate a specific spot for incoming mail, such as a wall-mounted mail organizer or a stylish inbox on a console table. Sort through mail daily, recycling or filing what’s unnecessary, and addressing the rest promptly.

Challenge 6: Maintaining the Decluttered Space

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining a decluttered entryway, especially in a busy household.

Solution: Create a daily or weekly routine to maintain your organized entryway. Encourage family members to help, and involve kids by making it a fun part of their daily routine. Regularly review and declutter to prevent the space from becoming cluttered again.

Decluttering your entryway may pose some challenges, but with the right solutions and a commitment to maintaining an organized space, you can create a welcoming and clutter-free entrance to your home. Address each challenge one step at a time, and you’ll be amazed at the difference it can make in both the look and feel of your home.

Remember, the journey to a clutter-free entryway is worth the effort, as it sets a positive tone for your entire living space and leaves a lasting impression on visitors. Happy decluttering!

Steps to Take & Expert Tips for Entryway Decluttering

1.Only spend time on your specific daily task.

2.Do not get side-tracked or distracted.

3.Work within a time of day that you have the most energy and stamina. This is one of the most useful declutter motivation tips. Listen to your body and work at decluttering when you feel the most alert and energized.

4.Avoid thinking too long about whether to keep or discard an item. This is one specific way for How to Be Ruthless When Decluttering.

5.Avoid cleaning during your declutter. The goal is to purge the dead weight. Getting rid of the clutter is your priority. Cleaning can be accomplished later. Read on for more declutter motivation tips and my room specific deep clean checklist, though, as you will begin cleaning after your declutter.

High Impact Decluttering Tips for Entryway Decluttering

Supplies Needed:

1. boxes -preferably ones you can donate (Avoid plastic storage bins because you may be tempted to just store the items and not part with them.)1. boxes -preferably ones you can donate (Avoid plastic storage bins because you may be tempted to just store the items and not part with them.)

2. sturdy trash bags

3. marker/pen to label boxes

Decluttering Tip: Avoid using storage bins to declutter. Storage bins tend to tell your brain to “store” the items for later. That is just delaying decisions. If you aren’t getting rid of items when you declutter, you are not truly decluttering. This is why I recommend a trash bag, also. A trash bag tells your brain to “trash” the item.

Obviously, recycle if you have that option. The boxes you use should be ones you are willing to part with, so I recommend sturdy cardboard boxes. As to donations, there are many charities that will come pick up your items for you at your home.

I use one in particular where you can book an appointment for pick-up online. This is so convenient, as it saves you the hassle of hauling stuff away yourself. Scheduling that pick-up also motivates you to declutter by a certain date.

Expert Ways & Tips for Entryway Decluttering

1. Start by eliminating trash first- use a sturdy trash bag

2. Sort items by category if needed so you can see what you have

3.Get rid of items that don’t work or that work poorly, expired items, anything you don’t love, anything that you’ll never use again

4. Box up the donations and trash/recycle the rest

5.Select a charity to donate your items and schedule the pick-up if that is an option

How Do You Declutter Your Entire House (and get it deep clean?): Need to deep clean?

First, My How to Deep Clean Your Kitchen list can be found here.

Second, My How to Deep Clean Your Bathroom list can be found here.

Third, My How to Deep Clean Your Kids’ Rooms list can be found here.

Fourth, My How to Deep Clean Your Living Room list can be found here.

Fifth, My How to Deep Clean Your Bedroom list can be found here.

You can get your printable Daily Housekeeping Routine and Deep Cleaning Your House Schedule here. This 15 page printable kit is delivered digitally to your email for you to print and personalize. What Does a Deep Clean Include? It includes a daily schedule, calendar pages, and deep cleaning checklists for every room and area of your home. Check out the link above to see a sample page of what you’ll get in my printable set designed to help you create your personal Homemaking Checklist.

Also, you can get the complete digital printable copy of the Year Long Thorough Declutter Series Calendar and Checklists here. The printable digital download is delivered to your email. It includes 25 pages of printable calendar pages and checklists to help you declutter every room in your home. You can find that here.

New to deemiddleton.com and don’t know where to start? I recommend going in this order:

Step 1: Check out this post on the 1st step you should take to get organized. If you don’t have a calendar, you can grab my free weekly printable calendar page here. It is in my shopify store, but it is totally free, so you won’t be prompted to put in any payment information. It is a free download and will be delivered straight to your email.

Step 2: Create a daily Housekeeping Schedule. You can use this series to start to set up your own schedule. You can also use this simplified weekly schedule.If you often ask: What is the fastest way to clean a dirty house? Or, if you struggle to get organized and have tried and failed time and again, you can likely find out which of these 11 reasons cause you to fail to get organized.

Step 3: How do you remove clutter? How Do You Declutter Your Home?.…Sign up for the Declutter Series and get your entire home decluttered in just 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.”Declutter Your Home” checklists are provided in each email.

Step 4: What is the fastest way to clean a dirty house? Use a timer and use the Deep Cleaning Checklists above. They will help you get your home sparkling after you’ve decluttered.

Interested in becoming a full-time blogger like me? Check out my blogging series. At the top of every page on my blog, you’ll find a drop down menu. Just select the BLOGGING category.