Entryway Organization Tips & Solutions for Summer
Time to create more storage!
Entryway organization can be challenging, especially if your home has a small entryway. An entryway should provide enough space for storing shoes, accessories, and hanging coats and keys.
Our sample homeowners live in an old, creaky, perfectly imperfect house by the beach. This means a couple of things: firstly, they live close to the beach, which is amazing in the summer! But it also means their front entry is far from optimal.
It’s tiny, or maybe even nonexistent. So every year as their children grow and accumulate more things, they get creative with how to store all their summer necessities.
Here are some things to consider when you are updating your home with summer storage.
In our homeowners’ entryway, the hooks used for winter coats are now there for rain jackets, umbrellas, ball caps, and jump ropes. When you have limited space in your entry, you pretty much need an awesome set of hooks.
Our homeowners are still at the backpack-and-diaper-bag stage of life. Once they were able to move the winter and spring boot rack into storage, it was replaced with a small storage ottoman in the entryway.
It provides a cute pop of color and is the perfect perch for lacing up sneakers or dropping shopping bags. But it also opens up to store things like extra reusable shopping bags, sunscreen, and backpacks and shoulder bags.
One quirky feature of this sample homeowners’ entry is the railing-turned-shelf. While it’s there, they simply use it to their greatest storage advantage. None of the shelves are a standard height or depth, so they shopped around for a variety of matching trays and baskets.
In them they keep things like sanitizer, dog toys, leashes, and the children’s hats. They also corral their sunglasses in a vintage tray and added a fun little gold trinket box to keep car keys.
Use Your Beach Bags
Use your beach bags to store your beach stuff. This might be seen as cheating, but it's a great storage strategy. Our sample homeowners bought three cute, large beach bags with rope straps (which means they can hold heavy things!).
In each bag, they packed a lightweight blanket, sunscreen, flip-flops, baby wipes, and some hair elastics. Then before they head to the beach, they toss in bathing suits, a book, phone charger, and snacks.
After the beach, they dump out the sand and bring the whole bag to the laundry room. They wash everything and put it directly back into the bag. It’s like a cute beach capsule at the ready!
Unfortunately, summer isn’t all sunshine, and there can be some rainy days. These homeowners recently bought a puzzle board that slides right under our sofa (measure before buying!), and it has been a lifesaver for rainy afternoons and evenings. It works because it keeps puzzles and game pieces contained, and you don’t have to worry about having unfinished puzzles all over the place!
Although organizing an entryway might feel a little daunting, know that it is possible to create an inviting space based on seasons. The goal is to make your entryway work for you.
Erin Trafford is an award winning journalist, lifestyle expert and blogger. She is passionate about helping people of all ages find joy and comfort in their homes and happily embraces the 'anything but perfect' approach to life. Erin is the principal owner and blogger at DIY Passion and lives on the East Coast of Canada with her husband, two little girls, a giant dog and a tiny cat.
