According to my Deep Cleaning Schedule, one of September’s jobs is cleaning & organizing entryways. But whenever you choose to organize your entryway read on for tips and ideas to help you organize the entryway in your home and make it more welcoming! In my house, that includes the foyer and the mudroom. So here we go!
How to Clean & Organize the Entryway
Organizing the Foyer
The foyer is where you greet guests that come to your home. So it’s important to create a welcoming environment. Guests might be a little apprehensive about coming in your house if they see cobwebs in the corners, stuff everywhere, and dirt on the floor. You want them to feel comfortable and relaxed when they enter your home.
If your foyer is anything like mine, it probably doesn’t have a whole lot of furniture and things that need to be cleaned. So it shouldn’t take too long!
1. Clean the Foyer
And the good news is – if you have been following my schedule – we already cleaned a lot of it already. Back in January, we dusted the ceiling and cleaned the switch plates, outlets, and vents. In February we cleaned the light fixtures, walls, baseboards, and other trim. And in March we cleaned the doors. If you haven’t gotten to those things yet this year, go ahead and do those now. Or if they need to be cleaned again, give them another wipe down. The baseboards especially will probably need to be wiped down again. And if your kids are like mine, you probably need to spot clean fingerprints off the walls and the door! You can check out the posts I linked to to see what I use and how I clean those things.
I use my homemade all purpose cleaner and a microfiber cloth to clean all these things. I love how versatile it is, how well it works, and how it’s non-toxic.
2. Dust the Furniture & Decor
Next, you’ll need to dust the furniture and decor well. I use a microfiber cloth and my homemade dusting spray. It’s super easy to make! I just use white distilled vinegar, water, castor oil, lemon essential oil, and cedarwood essential oil.
Or, if you’re short on time and would rather opt for convenience – here’s a great store-bought wood dusting spray. It’s from Grove Collaborative, which I love. They offer many cleaner, safer household products at a discounted rate, conveniently shipped to your door. If you haven’t tried Grove yet, definitely check them out! You can use my link to get free shipping and a FREE Earth-friendly cleaning kit with your first purchase! It includes 3 cleaning concentrates, a glass spray bottle, a cleaning caddy, and walnut scrubber sponges.
I dust every week, but when I deep clean a room, I take everything off the furniture and out of the drawers and cabinets to dust it extra well. So, if you have an entryway table, take everything off, spray with your dusting spray and wipe it down. Take everything out of the drawers and wipe the inside as well.
3. Declutter
Now that the cleaning is done, it’s time to actually organize the entryway. So go ahead and neatly replace your things. However, only replace items that are needed, add a welcoming touch, and bring you joy (shoutout to Marie Kondo!).
If your foyer is looking cluttered, see what items you can take away to make it look more visually pleasing. Our entryway table is really just for decoration and for guests to set their purses or keys down on. When we come home, we enter through the mudroom off our garage. So that’s where we “dump” our stuff.
4. Create a Welcoming Space
Only put things in your foyer that serve a purpose or add a welcoming touch. Some great things to consider having in your front entryway to make it more welcoming are:
- a pretty rug at the front door,
- a table for guests to set their things down on,
- flowers, a house plant, or a fake floral arrangement,
- a family picture,
- a mirror,
- a lamp and/or candle,
- and a coat rack (if you do not have a coat closet by your front door).
Watch the video below to see my entryway organization in action and for more tips!
Organizing the Coat Closet
The next step to organize the entryway, is to organize the coat closet. As you can see here, this was long overdue in my house! Sometimes it’s just too hard to hang coats up where they go. 🤷♀️
1. Remove Everything
So to organize your coat closet, start the same way we did for the entryway table. Take everything out of the closet.
2. Clean
Then spot clean the walls and wipe down the baseboards.
3. Declutter
Next, decide what items you wear and use and what items you no longer use and you can part with. Set aside any coats, gloves, hats, etc. that no longer fit, are worn out, or you no longer love to sell, give, or throw away.
There were a few coats in the closet that I haven’t worn in YEARS and didn’t see myself wearing again. So those went in my “give away” pile.
4. Organize & Replace Items
Then, replace the items neatly. We just keep mine and my husband’s coats in our coat closet. Our boys’ coats are in their rooms. In the coat closet, we store my coats on the left side and my husband’s coats on the right side.
I organized our coats in color order – black, gray, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown. I also use plain white hangers. It makes it look cleaner and more orderly.
We also keep our winter hats and gloves in the coat closet. We kept all our family’s winter hats and gloves in (and around!) this one basket. As you can see, it was not working for us anymore.
So, instead I organized just our hats in this basket. I got a plastic bin to keep our gloves and mittens in.
Definitely check to make sure all gloves and mittens have their matches. If they don’t, throw them out. There’s no reason to have one single glove! Fold them inside each other to make sure they stay with their matches and are easy to find when you’re heading out into the cold.
5. Clean the Floors
Finish the foyer and coat closet organization by sweeping and mopping (or vacuum if these areas are carpeted in your house) the floors.
If you have anything in the closet that doesn’t need to be there or you don’t use much, see if you can put it somewhere else. Try to keep free space in the closet for guests to put their coats and other things. It’s also a great idea to leave a few empty hangers for them to hang their coats up when they come in your house.
Organizing the Mudroom
Next, we’re moving onto the mudroom, or the entryway from your garage. This is the entryway we use the majority of the time and where we drop off our bags when we come home. It’s also where our dog’s crate is kept.
1. Clean
To clean the mudroom, I move everything (well just the bench and dog crate) to one side first. With lots of going in and out and a dog that sheds, sand and hair collect on the baseboards and behind the furniture. So I wipe down the baseboards with my microfiber cloth and all purpose cleaner really well. I also take our dog’s bed outside and shake it out well and then throw it in the wash. I wipe down in her cage as well.
Then I sweep and mop the floor and return the furniture back to where it was. I repeat with cleaning the rest of the baseboards and floors. I also spot clean the walls and the door.
2. Make a Functional Command Center
The mudroom is a great place to set up a command center – where you go to look at the calendar, make your doctor appointments, keep reminders, etc. Some great things to include are:
- a calendar (whether a paper one or a white board one you change each month) to keep track of family events,
- a cork or magnetic board to keep a few pictures, important notes, and your weekly cleaning schedule (which I’ll send you when you sign up for my emails!),
- your weekly meal planner
- a grocery list and/or shopping list
- your to do list
- an organizer for the mail that you need to do something with *
- your kids’ chore charts
- a basket for dry erase markets, pens, magnets, etc.
*Pro Tip: Throw out any junk mail as soon as you get it to keep paper clutter down. And try to deal with your mail as soon as you get it. File it if it’s something important you need to keep, pay bills right away, and put any coupons you know you’ll use in your coupon holder.
I have some of these things set up in our mudroom. The rest are in my kitchen. I definitely have plans to spruce up the mudroom and incorporate more of these systems in the future! That’s definitely going to be a YouTube video coming up soon.
It’s also a great idea to have hooks for the family to hang their book bags and purses on when they come home on, as well as a storage bench for a few pairs of shoes. Here’s one similar to ours. In our bench, my husband has one bin, I have one, and our two boys share one. We just keep one or two pairs of shoes each in here that we can throw on real quick to go outside. It is also nice to have the bench to sit down on and put our shoes on – or just sit and sort the mail.
3. Display Kids’ Work
This hallway off the mudroom is where we keep some of our boys’ artwork. I don’t keep every single piece of artwork that they do. But we keep their best work, artwork they did a great job on, or any awards they get from school. We keep most of these in their memory boxes in the attic. But we hang a few great pieces of work from each of our boys on this twine clothes-line style display.
Do you have an area were you display your kids’ best school/artwork?I hope this provides some motivation for you to get started cleaning and organizing your entryways and making sure they are welcoming to guests and to your family when you come home. Let me know how it goes for you and if you have any other tips to share!
Watch the video below to see how I clean and organize the mudroom and for more tips!
I hope this post was helpful and you found some good tips and ideas to help you organize the entryway in your home and make it work for you and your family’s needs! Let me know how the foyer and mudroom organization goes for you and any other tips you have to share!
