Simple Entryway Closet Organization Ideas (Hint: You Need to Declutter!)

These entryway closet organization ideas will help you turn a cluttered, messy coat closet into a fresh-looking, orderly one.

When spring finally arrives, I usually feel an extra urge to declutter and organize my home, along with the spring cleaning that I do. I just want it to feel fresh and renewed, and isn’t that what spring is about?

I noticed my entryway had accumulated a lot of random items and was looking quite cluttered and messy, so I set to work freshening it up! I’ll walk you through all of my simple steps.

Remove All Clothing and Shoes That Are Not in Season

I used to keep all of my winter, spring, summer and fall gear in the front closet all year round. Why would you want to move things back and forth when you don’t have to? Well, that may work fine for some people. I hated barely being about to squeeze a coat in on the closet rod (the worst when you have guests!) or digging through a basket full of toques to find my summer hat at the bottom of the bin. The overcrowding made it feel like there wasn’t much space to put anything!

The visual clutter is almost worse than dealing with the physical clutter! It just looks bad. So as your first step, (if it’s spring) remove all the winter coats, boots, and winter accessories. Of course, if you have a light pair of gloves that you use for cool spring mornings, keep them in the closet. The point is that every item should be one that will be used for the following season.

I put all of these winter items together in our office closet. You also could store them in a bin in your garage or another storage space. TIP: Check the pockets of all the coats before storing, especially if they’ll be stored away in a hard to get to place!

Remove All Other Clutter

These are all the items that had somehow landed in our entry closet: a bottle of power steering fluid, a couple of camping knick-knacks, a car seat that our daughter has grown out of, a car seat cover and a glass soap dispenser. These items should never have stayed there, but hey, life happens! All I had to do was take them away to the other areas of the house/garage where they belonged. Simple!

Give Everything a Cleaning

Dust and bits of who-knows-what always accumulate in places like top shelves in closets. Whenever I’m decluttering and organizing a space, I give it a good wipe down, which really makes it feel like a clean slate. Give your shoe rack, boot mat, shelves, baskets and even closet rod a good clean. If your hangers are a little dusty, wipe them too!

Entryway Closet Organization Ideas: Baskets

I love baskets. Fabric, wicker, wire baskets… I like them all. They’re pretty and they’re functional- a great way to store loose, smaller items and organize them in small spaces like an entry space. At the same time, it can be easy to just throw everything in a basket and call it good, but I encourage you to be really intentional about what you put in each basket. When we fill it just because we can, it kind of defeats the purpose. You want to be able to find things easily and quickly. So don’t overfill your baskets!

Most entry closets have a single shelf above the hanging rod. I have two baskets on that shelf in our front closet that I received from a friend at church. I decided to designate one to be the umbrellas & bug repelling products basket, and the other is the summer hat basket. So each basket holds only 4-5 small items and I can see them all when I look in it. I’m not saying this is the amount you should have, just think carefully about what your family will actually use and go with that, organizing accordingly.

Baskets are quite expensive when you buy them new, except sometimes the dollar store has some decent options. I always swing by the basket section when I’m at the thrift store, because there’s usually a good selection at a great price! You can also check out Facebook Marketplace for good deals on baskets. And if it’s not a good price, try negotiating!

Entryway Closet Organization Ideas: Shoes

Declutter them first! I had a cheap pair of shoes that had major holes in both of them! In the garbage they went. Honestly not sure why I kept them that long, but it was definitely time for them to go.

If there are shoes at your front door that never make it out the door, donate them or at least store them somewhere else. It feels so great to have only what you use out. You’ll probably discover that you really don’t use that many pairs…

If you are using a shoe rack, you can organize it by person, type of shoe or most used pairs of shoes. This will inevitably get messed up as time goes on, so don’t worry too much about it. If you’re like me, you just like to organize EVERYTHING when you’re doing an organization project. 😉

You could also use shoe organizers that hang from the closet rod, like this. This may be especially useful for large families or people who use many different types of shoes. These don’t only have to store shoes, you could store small personal items, accessories, pet supplies, mail, etc in them.

Entryway Closet Organization Ideas: Innovate with the Unused Space

I have a diaper bag and my husband has a backpack for work. These bags always used to end up on the floor or shoved onto the top shelf with other things. One day we realized we weren’t using the entire rod space, so we could put a couple of hooks on the closet wall space on one side and hang our bags there. It has worked out fabulously.

You can also see that I slid my little broom and dustpan (that I use for our front step) under the shoe rack. It’s the only thing that fits under there and you can’t see it, so it’s the perfect spot.

Take a good look at your closet space and try to imagine all the possible ways to organize your items. There is often unused space somewhere in there that you could turn into useful storage space. Don’t rush too quickly into organizing, because if you give it just a little extra thought, I guarantee you’ll come up with the best solutions for your family’s specific needs.

Entryway Closet Organization Ideas: Tips for a Prettier Closet

As you can see, our front hall closet doesn’t have a door, and this is extra motivation to keep it looking nice. But even if yours has a door, it WILL feel great to see a pretty closet every time you or someone else opens the door.

A simple change you can make is to use all the same style of hanger. Using some wood, some metal, and some plastic just looks very mismatched and disorganized. I removed all the metal and plastic hangers and replaced them with a few more wooden ones, so they all went together. It makes such a difference!!

In the before picture on the right side of the shelf, you can see my bag of reusable grocery bags. It’s a very bold bag colored pink, white and blue. I had the thought to replace it with one of my black reusable bags and fold the pink one up inside with the other bags. Such an easy switch and now my bag of bags blends in seamlessly (now in the bottom left of the closet). So the lesson here is, think about what small switches you can make in the closet to make it look more put together.

Put a little decor in there! It’s not conventional, especially for a closet with a door, but it’s a nice touch. Who doesn’t love seeing a little plant or photo to brighten things up? Since I had room, I placed a framed family photo and some dried lavender in a cute little vase. It made the whole closet look so much more put together.

Entryway Walls

If you have a wall or two near your front entry closet, no matter how small, use that space to decorate! Our wall was very boring until I decided how I wanted to dress it up. It contained only a light fixture, light switch and our thermostat. I decided to add a round mirror with a small shelf underneath to hold a tray for our keys and sunglasses, as well as a few decorative items. I love how it turned out! Mirrors always make a home’s entrance feel bigger and brighter. Here is a great article with more tips for creating a styled and inviting entryway.

Just Do It!

Once you’ve thought about these entryway closet organization ideas, just go for it and get organizing! I procrastinated this for a few days and it ended up taking me about 20 minutes. So often tasks like this take way less time than I think they will, and it could be that way for you too! There’s always such a feeling of pride and accomplishment as well, once it’s finally finished. Now I love walking into or out of my door, through my organized entryway. One step closer to a clean, organized, intentional home!

What other tips and hacks do you have for keeping an organized and beautiful entryway? Let me know in the comments below!

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