Front Entryway Makeover On A Budget

My front entryway closet has been an unorganized eyesore since we moved to our house about 18 months ago.

It just wasn’t an area I prioritized organizing.

Then we got a dog and things really got out of hand because she’s got a thing for shoes so everything had to go up really high and then we found ourselves in this situation:

This was not fun to see multiple times per day, plus we couldn’t ever find anything.

Here’s what I’ve realized.

I know it’s nice to be able to walk in the door and hang your stuff up, but it just doesn’t work in this house.

There isn’t enough room for six people’s coats and shoes and backpacks and hats and gloves.

Oh yeah and stuff for the dog, too.

That closet is just too small and too close to the front door to cram all that stuff in there.

The kids have closets in their rooms.

They can walk to their rooms and hang their jackets up and hang their backpacks up.

There are hooks downstairs in the laundry room for swim bags.

It takes less than 20 seconds for the kids to put their stuff in their rooms.

I know because I timed it.

So what I’ve done is basically eliminate the ability for the kids to dump their shit in that closet.

And I’ve created a place for everyone to put their shoes.

I shared the beginning process for the closet makeover in this post.

But here are the cliff notes:

The closet was out of control.

I took everything out of it and then one thing led to another and Number 7 and I weren’t just reorganizing, we were painting.

I found some old paint cans in the basement and there was enough white primer to paint the inside of the closet.

I had a dresser that wasn’t being used and I put it in the closet.

That’s where I left off in my first post.

Now to show you the finished (for now) project.

This is what I was able to do without spending any money and by “shopping” other rooms in my house.

I had a bunch of baskets in different places in the house.

They aren’t in great shape, but they fit pretty well on the shelves and inside the drawers of the dresser.

The top left drawer is for dog stuff.

The top right drawer is empty. Mostly.

The middle drawer is for Number 5, 6 and 7’s shoes. They can each fit 2 pairs of shoes in their baskets.

The bottom drawer has 4 mismatched baskets that fit perfectly in it.

I put some hats and gloves in there for now. I’m not sure how that drawer will work best yet.

The bigger baskets on the shelf above the dresser are for my shoes and Number 3 and 4’s shoes. The basket on the very top shelf is just there for decoration.

None of the baskets look great up close, but they look pretty good when you take a step back.

Here’s the final project:

The stuff on top of the dresser was in other rooms in the house.

The pictures hanging on the wall are two of four watercolors painted for me by a blog follower who lives in India! She painted them just for me!

They used to be in my old office pre-divorce.

Now they are the first thing everyone sees when they walk into the house.

I did buy two stick up lights that I put up on the ceiling inside the closet. They are battery operated and have a remote that turns them on and off and they are also dimmable.

So for less than $20, I went from this:

To this:

Now when I leave my house I see this:

And when I walk in the door I see this:

Not bad for under $20!

I know in the winter when there’s snow and ice and salt we’re going to have to tweak this a little, but for now, it’s been working out really well.

If you want to make a change in your house, there’s a good chance you have plenty of stuff to use right under your nose!

Wondering where I put all the shit that was in the closet before I cleaned it out?

Well, that’s another project and you’re gonna have to wait until next week to see that one.

If you can’t do a push-up, CLICK HERE and let’s change that.