How to Organize Every Entryway to Your Home

My Fall Home Organization Challenge begins now!! I’m so excited to teach you how to organize every entryway to your home because it’s going to make your life so much easier! No more searching the house for the car keys, or stepping over piles of shoes near the door! You may have a foyer, a mudroom, a drop zone, a launch zone, or no zone at all. It does not matter if your entryway is large or small. What does matter is how you organize the space so that entering, and exiting, your home becomes an efficient process!

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Why organize every entryway to your home?

It’s important to think about the function of each entrance/exit to your home. What do you use each of your exterior doors for? Also, consider the needs of your family, pets, and whether or not you entertain guests.

Visitors

The front door entryway is the first place visitors see when entering your home, so it needs to be beautiful and make a good first impression. You may need a place for guests to hang their coats or umbrellas.

Family

A black metal holder shaped like an old key with three hooks, holding three sets of keys. An example of how to organize every entryway to your home.

The entryway your family uses should be stocked with all items they need to go out, like keys, purses, shoes, backpacks, etc. When the family returns, if you have a place designated to put these items back, then clutter won’t build-up, and you’ll know exactly where everything is!

Pets

A gray wood sign with white letters spelling "happy tails". Sign has two hooks below it holding two black dog leashes. An example of how to organize the entry way to your home.

If you have pets, which entryway are you using to let them out to do their business, or to go for a walk? It makes so much sense to have the items you need for your pets by the door. For instance, you may need leashes for a walk or a poop scoop if you have to clean up after them.

How to organize every ENTRYWAY to your home

I use a strategy I call the 6/P Process. Just remember the following 6 words that start with the letter “P” and you can organize any space! Prepare, Purge, Polish, Personalize, Place, Put back.

Prepare

Set up an area near your entryway with a trash bag, a cardboard box, and 2 laundry hampers for the following categories:

Trash
Donate
Relocate
Replace

Purge

Begin by removing everything in the space and put it in one of the four categories:

Trash goes in the trash bag.
Place any items you wish to donate or sell in the cardboard box.
Put items that need to go into a different room in laundry hamper # 1.
Place items that need to stay in this space in laundry hamper #2.

Polish

Use a top-down approach to deep clean the area.

Personalize

Answer the following two questions:

How does the space need to function for my specific needs?
How can I make the space more visually appealing?

Place

Discard the trash bag.
Take your cardboard box to a donation center of your choice.
Place everything in laundry hamper#1 in the room it belongs.
Place everything in laundry hamper #2 back in the entryway in an organized manner.

Put Back

You must train yourself to put things back in the place you designated it should go. Otherwise, clutter will pile up again.

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How I organized every entryway to my home

I have three entryways to my home and I would like to share with you how I organized each one. Hope this gives you inspiration for your entryway spaces!

Front door entryway

The front door is mainly used by guests. Our foyer is very open, so I don’t store anything here.

Coat rack

I placed a coat rack with an umbrella stand beside the front door, for use by visitors.

Mail station

We go out the front door to get the mail. Here in Florida, we don’t have a mailbox in front of our house. We have to walk two blocks to get the mail but most importantly, we have to remember to take the mailbox key. So foreign to me, but we’re getting used to it!

A decorative black metal mailbox hanging on a wall with door open and mailbox key inside. An example of how to organize the entryway to your home.

Anyway, I needed a place, close to the front door, to store the key. I didn’t want to put my mail station in the foyer. So, I put this cute mailbox in my office, which is beside the front door.

We grab the key and any outgoing mail before we head out the front door. When we return home, we put the key back in the box and the mail/magazines in this rack, which is sorted once a week!!

Garage Door

The door to our garage is through the laundry room. If we need to drive somewhere, we exit through this door.

I used the vertical wall space to make a drop zone to contain any items we might need when leaving the house.

Wire basket

We hung this great storage basket to hold miscellaneous items like reusable grocery bags, ponchos, umbrellas, wallets & sunglasses.

Towel rack

A gray and white wooden coat rack with hooks that spell "ALLEN". Two beach towels are hanging from the hooks. An example of how to organize the entryway to your home.

I desperately needed a place to hang wet pool towels, instead of stringing them over the patio furniture. So, Rich and I made this personalized rack. If you’d like to see how we made it, click here.

Pet walking

The dog leashes are hanging on the wall, along with this adorable picture of our fur babies!

Mask storage

Two small white wire baskets sitting on a washing machine. Each has a chalkboard tag that says "dirty masks" and "clean masks". An example of how to organize the entryway to your home.

I can’t believe we are still wearing masks, who would have ever thought we would need for that??? Oh well, I made these cute little baskets to store clean and dirty masks. We just grab a clean one on the way out the door, and deposit the dirty one when we come in!

Coat rack

We hung this mirror close to the door so we can use the hooks to hang my purse and jackets. It does eventually get cool enough to need a jacket in Florida!

Key storage

It’s so important to have a place to put your keys, so you know where they are at all times. We hung these cute key racks right beside the door.

Back door

Our back door leads to the lanai and access to the backyard. We use this door to let the dogs out.

Pet supplies

Next to the back door, I hung this pretty coat rack and placed the adorable pet basket below it! We store towels in the basket to wipe the dog’s feet when it’s raining. Then we can hang the towel on the rack to dry. The basket also keeps the dog’s toys contained. In the cooler months, we hang sweatshirts on the rack, so we stay warm when letting the dogs out!

Shoe tray

To keep from tracking grass and sand inside the house, I use this shoe tray. We keep our Crocs in the tray because they can be easily washed off and set back out to dry. They are the perfect shoes for working in the yard!

Gardening supplies

I keep my gardening storage box/bench on the patio so it’s ready to roll out into the yard whenever I need to do a little weeding!

More Organizing Inspiration

Check out the post below to see how the entryways in this home compare to our “Old Kentucky Home”! I am using many of the same items to organize with, but in different places based on our needs in this home. This is why personalizing your space is so important. No two houses will be set up the same way!