I ONCE HEARD an interior designer refer to a home’s entryway storage system as the landing strip, and it’s a nice visual. You walk in the door and everything you trek with you needs somewhere to land.
But of course, no sensible airport would allow their landing strip to pile up with gear, planes and equipment without a system. Your home entryway should follow an equally strict system for maximising the welcome it gives you and guests when you cross the threshold.
If you’re tripping over shoes and piling jackets on the stair rails, you’re in need of a landing strip makeover with these inexpensive and quick tips.
1. Become a Captain of Hooks
I wish we had a hallway closet where we could hide away jackets out of sight. Sadly, we’ve got a very tight space and an abundance of jackets in this wild weather climate.
Install hooks that can hold at least three coats. If you have the space, add hooks at waist height to minimise the visual space bulky jackets will take up, keeping the upper walls lighter and airier.
Add smaller hooks to hang bags, but keep in mind that storing only the bags you use regularly at the doorway will keep the clutter at bay. The rest should have a home elsewhere, like on a multi-hook system on the back of a door.
2. Store away shoes
With a 6’4 husband with footwear the size of small boats, shoe storage was always going to be a challenge. Tripping over shoes that large can result in actual injury, so we found a cabinet that would fit in a tight space and store a lot of shoes, large and small.
The shoe cabinet from Ikea secures to the wall and despite its small footprint, ours currently holds no fewer than 20 pairs of shoes, leaving more space in upstairs wardrobes for other items.
3. Use baskets for outerwear
Of course, jackets, bags and shoes aren’t the only items that regularly make their way through the front door. At this time of year, gloves, hats and scarves need a place to live as well. Use fabric totes to store outdoor gear, and invest in a low wire basket to corral mail until you have time to sort or dispose of it.
4. Use dishes for keys and other small items
Keys, trolley tokens and other small items can be collected into a small dish – although a Garda once informed me that the worst place to store your car keys is on a hook inside the front door.
For safety in the case of an intruder, install a smaller hook in a convenient but less likely spot away from the door. But the collection of small objects that somehow find their way into the entryway can live in a dish — the prettier, the better.
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