Hi friends, have you done anything this week to make your home more organized and functional for you and your family? This can be so difficult to do with busy schedules. Often creating functional spaces is what gets put off for other pressing tasks. That’s why I am such an advocate for making small organized changes on a regular basis. Who seriously has time to organize a whole room at one time? Nope not me. Well unless I’m procrastinating from doing something else and then I have all the time in the world, ha!
This week my small entryway closet got my attention because I couldn’t find anything amongst all the winter stuff. Shoes were spilling out all over and I was tripping over them. So annoying. I found myself kicking shoes into the closet and performing ninja moves to quickly close the door before they fell out again. That gets old really quick.
It’s easy to think that a job will take us longer than it actually will. But honestly this job took about 20 minutes. I’d definitely say those 20 minutes were well spent. I should have just done it sooner!!
Here’s the before and after:
After:
*Find the products I used in my Amazon Organizing Shop – link below*
First thing on the list was switching out the summer and winter footwear. I keep my summer shoes on a shoe tree in my bedroom closet during the winter months. Then in the spring I it back to the entryway closet. In exchange, I move my tall boots to the bedroom closet to be stored for the summer months. I love my shoe tree as it stores a lot of shoes in a small space while still making them easily accessible. On the side of the entryway closet I also have a clear hanging shoe organizer where I keep my flip flops which don’t fit so well on a shoe tree.
I also have two white wood stacking shoe organizers for running shoes and such. My husband also keeps some of his shoes here. On top you’ll notice I added some clear shoe bins. These store my fall ankle booties. Putting them into the shoe bins allows me to store two high which is nice. It also keeps the dust off while I’m not using them during the summer.
And in case anyone is wondering, our winter boots are kept in the garage because they are big and take up so much space.
I have also have found it to be super helpful to keep a bucket by the door for the kids to throw their flip flops into in summer. They seem to be able to manage this step, thank goodness, and it keeps my floor tidy. I do something similar at my back door as well.
The next thing that I did was switch out the coats. I store the heavy winter coats in a basement closet and move the spring coats up. As you can see I use the thin velvet hangers in my entryway closet because I love that the coats don’t slip off onto the floor. They are also space saving which is a plus. Really heavy winter coats though I do use wooden hangers for.
The two bins on top are from the dollar store (Dollarama here in Canada). One holds my husband’s hats and the other holds my day trip bags and walking packs. And of course the smaller bin holds my dog’s supplies.
So there you go. It’s nothing complicated or fancy. Simply a functional closet for my needs that is set up and ready to go for the summer. It also thankfully no longer annoys me. And really what is more important than that? 🙂
Have a great weekend everyone and don’t forget to take some time to ORGANIZE!! Let me know if you’d like me to continue with this small organized spaces series. Thanks!
You can check out the products I used (or find something similar) by clicking on the banner below. Please note these are affiliate links which means I get commissions for purchases made through these links.
. Let me know if you have any questions about anything you see there.
Audrey Berry says
Laura,
Thanks so much for this super practical guide to small organized spaces. I especially like the idea that you don’t have to organize EVERYTHING in one giant step. I can easily get overwhelmed by big projects, so this is a great reminder that I can focus on one small area.
When you said it only took 20 minutes, I thought, “That is SO TRUE!” I often think it will take soooooo long to do something, but in reality, if I focus on just one small thing, it doesn’t take long at all. Baby steps!
Please write more of these posts–I love the practical ideas and seeing how someone else does it! Definitely sharing and pinning this article.
Laura Wittmann says
Thank you Audrey! I’ve done quite a few posts in this series since January and hope to continue to do more 🙂
Nicci Lines says
I love these small organized spaces posts Laura!
They’re showing me just how quickly a space can be sorted and are inspiring me to get more organized. Thank you!
Keep up the great work 🙂
Ann Hepworth says
I get overwhelmed by trying to decide what container would keep everything in it as neat and tidy as display items. I need to see how small spaces can be contained tidily without obsession. The functionality means I don’t really need as many closets as I thought I did! Thank you!
Chris says
Yes! Please keep the small space organizing posts coming! Not all of us live in homes with walk in closet and pantries! Learining to make the most of this small spaces is crucial to my sanity.