I’m always jealous of the large mudrooms I see from houses in other areas, where each kid has their own locker-like storage space and there’s a place to put everything when you walk through the door. So, I used our little entry closet to make a miniature mudroom and decided to store all of our media there too.
Backpack Hangers
My husband created this great hanging rack for our kids’s backpacks. He took a 2X4 and cut it the length of the closet. Then he cut three 6-inch lengths from a wooden dowel that is 1-inch in diameter. He used a 1-inch drill bit to drill three holes in the 2X4 at about a 30 degree angle, then used wood glue to glue the 6-inch dowels into each hole. He found the studs in the back of the closet wall and attached the 2X4 to the wall with screws that went through the the board and into the studs.
The great thing about this design is that because the dowels are at an angle, the weight of the backpacks pushes into the wall more than pulling the board downward.
DVD and Gaming Storage Shelves
DVDs and other media boxes never seems to look very nice.Storing them in this closet keeps them easily accessible by everyone in our family, but still out of sight. We used cheap shelves from Ikea because it doesn’t matter much how nice they look since they are inside a closet. The only drawback of this setup is the plastic brackets. They stick down lower than the tops of the DVD cases, so those spaces had to be used for shorter disks. I should have used metal L-brackets instead.
Board Game Storage
I think I must be short because the top shelf in every closet always feels too high to be useful. This one works well for board games, though. The closet is light enough that we can easily see all of the games when we’re deciding what to play. I like keeping our board games in their original boxes, and I can stack all the different shapes and sizes of boxes pretty high on this shelf. I do have to grab a stool to reach most of the games, sadly. And the kids keep the games they play all the time in their own room. But I really like this storage solution because we have a lot of family games.
The Shoe Box
Our shoe box is just a large amazon box with a lining. Having a shoe box by the front door stops us from wearing our dirty shoes throughout the house (think of all the gross things you might be stepping in or on outside—yuck!). A shoe box keeps all those nasty things off my floors. Having all of the shoes together also prevents last minute frantic searches for kids’ missing shoes. Most of the time.
Closet tip: In all the before and after closet photos I’ve seen, the messy closets have stuff piled on the floor and the organized closets have nearly empty floors. I try to keep the closets in my home clean enough that you can see the floor.
Umbrellas, etc.
Because we didn’t remove anything from the original entry closet, there is still a hanging bar. We don’t usually hang coats on it, but it’s a great place to store umbrellas. Easy to reach, but out of the way. We also have Rock Band guitar hanging on hook there cause we’re cool like that.
Door Hooks
The door had these great little hooks on it when we moved in. I would probably have done all sturdier hooks like the center one, but so far they are all holding up. We hang keys and jackets and anything else we need to grab on the way out the door here.
I love our useful and convenient little entry closet. And my favorite part is that I can close the door so that no one can see all the messy stuff inside. Do you have any storage ideas for your entry closet? Please share them in the comments below. Thanks!
Update: I just read a post on Up to Date Interiors called Keeping an Organized Foyer about an entry that uses a lot of similar ideas. It’s a smaller foyer, but it is beautifully designed, and has an excellent use of space. Take a look for some great storage and entry design ideas.
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