Help me organize my entryway?

[Magelet]

Please, help me organize my entryway. We have a little (dark) square "room" in our entryway. A door leads to the bathroom, and an door opening leads to the main room, where there lies a giant pile of shoes next to my bed, and then my pile of books. I would love for it to look nice first thing on walking into our apartment, and this is a major problem zone.

Our clear (to me) needs:
A home for the keys
Organize the shoes and boots so they take up less space and are organized looking.
Find something to put my books and a couple bedside odds and ends on/in (nail clippers, comb, glasses, waterglass) that works in that corner. DP's side of the bed always looks nice because his stuff is piled on a small shelving unit, but I don't know that it would work in this corner.
ideas for mason jar storage? we're running out of shelves/cabinets in the kitchen.
ideas for the vacume? we have a big one we just borrowing the closet also missing a home. that's part of closet clean up though I think.
a home for DP's work bag. I wish there was a way to make him dropping his bag by the door look organized, and like it's home, rather than just dropped by the door. Is that silly?

I wish, but it seems unlikely:
a coat hanging place. I generally drop them in the main room, then take them to the closet every other day or so. I'd rather hang them in the entryway til I take them to the closet. (the closet isn't far, but it's so precarious getting into it. there's probably... 1/2 a sq foot of floor space for your feet in our small badly designed walk in closet. so it's hard to figure out where to put your feet.)
a light. no ceiling light, and a floor lamp would mean dragging an extension cord halfway across the apartment for a decorative and non essential light. It's just so much dimmer than these photos.

Our limitations:
almost no money for furniture (we could probably find 10-15, but I work sun and can't shop sat so it's been a long time since we went garage saleing. haven't found anything helpful at goodwill yet. I'm hoping you guy could tell us what to look for/how to make it.)
we're pretty handy so we could make some stuff, I think.
we can't put anything over 5 pounds in the walls (hooks/pictures etc)


here's a short photoset i took to show you the problem areas.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1480880...7623657541835/

I'm new to decluttering and organizing, and any suggustions/help you could give me would be great. I feel like that area where the shoes are is really weirdly shaped and am not sure what needs to go there to solve the shoe/bedside table dilema.

Thank you so so much for your help.

[zoebird]

ah, the entry way. . . probably my favorite room of all.

ok. clutter makes it look even smaller, huh?

so, lets start with coats, shoes, and bags. try freecycle and craigs list, and see if you can find over-the-door hooks. place this on the bathroom door facing your entry door. keep this door closed (it's better for feng shui anyway), and when you come in, there is a hook RIGHT THERE for your coats. the over-the-door hook that we have has 6 hooks!

for shoes and bags, i would use the area where the mason jars are. I would create a tall set of cubes that are deep or wide enough to hold bags and shoes. a friend of mine made one for her apartment out of old pallets that she picked up behind a grocery store (cut to size, nailed together, sanded, painted white). the bottom cubby was the largest, where she would put her bag. above that was a cube divided into 4 smaller cubes, and so she would put 4 pair of shoes there. above that, she had another cubby divided in half where she would put her hat, gloves, and scarf on the bottom (in a basket she found to fit like a drawer) and then she would put her mail into the upper slot in a different basket. she attached a hook on one side to hold her coats (hook had two hooks, yk?). and on top, she had a bowl where she would put her keys. i think the project took her a whole weekend because she built it on one day and put on the first coat of paint, and then did another coat of paint the next day.

so, you could build a shelf that goes all the way up to the height of the door that can store shoes, bags, and whatever else you might need it do (extra books, etc), or just up to chest height, with a mirror above and bowl on top just to bounce a bit of light and hold the keys. keep the tree where it is right next to it.

bedside space -- i see that you are basically on the floor. creating a way for that bed to look "truly made" will help a lot with the sense of clutter. when we had our mattress on the floor, the only way it looked made was to be unmade. i know that sounds funny. LOL essentially, instead of spreading blankets over it, i would fold up the blankets. so, i would have the sheets tucked under the mattress and it would like crisp and was easy to make it look crisp (hospital corners and such). and then i would fluff up the pillows, and then put a blanket under each one (my husband and i have separate blankets). it just looked cleaner that way, and before bed, i would spread the blankets out. making the bed takes about 3-5 minutes, but makes a place look amazingly clean--so take the time as soon as you get up. actually, who ever gets up last, makes the bed. that's the rule in our house. since i always get up last, that's me. LOL but it works. as soon as i leave the bed--before doing anything else--i make the bed. makes a world of difference.

now, to what you asked. being on the floor means that my original idea might not be too functional. first, if your cubbies are high enough (for the entry way), your books might find a home there. but if not, i would get a decorative basket or box and put the books in it. you might even consider using some of the wood from making cubbies to make a crate of sorts that you can put your books in to keep them next to your bed (if you need/want them to be there).

next to my bed--when it was on the floor--i had a tray that held my things. i grant you, it, too, was on the floor, and was lower than my bed even, but it was a nice touch that gave a sense of weight to the space--as if it was a bedside table. DH's tray had the alarm clock, his small reading light, and his book. My tray -- depending upon mommy need and such -- varied, but generally held a bottle of water, my book, and a small lamp (because i would need more light often).

in the alternative to this, you might also just create a small shelving unit for your side like the cubbies. i can't tell if your side table would be on the wall where the pile of stuff is next to the door, or what. but if it were to go against that wall, you could make one as low as the bed but as long as the wall, and then have books beneath and a jar with your stuff on top and a glass of water.

a ceiling light is do-able. from the outlet that you have, run a cord along the floor board, up the corner, across the ceiling to where you want it to be, and hang the cord down as far as you need it to go. this means measuring carefully and giving yourself enough slack to manage a stiff cord, but not so much that things are hanging too low or whatever.

you need to get tacks shaped like a U that is wide enough to support the cord and push into the wall, and then you need to tack them in often enough as to not have slack or gaps or whatever.

my sister and I did this in a number of our apartments as a way to do any number of lighting. i can't even tell you. i had one room where i had a lamp on either side of my bed, hanging as if they were bed-side table lamps from the one electrical outlet on the opposite side of the room. i plugged them in "way over there" and then tacked them along the floorboards to the wall with the bed--one stacked on top of the other--and then when i got to the bed, i ran one up the wall to the ceiling, across the ceiling a bit and then hanging down on the left side of the bed; then the second cord continued to run toward the left side of the bed, and i then ran it up the wall, across the ceiling a bit, and down on that left side.

IKEA provided what i needed. seriously, you can find what you need there OR you can go to home depot, etc, and you can ask someone in the electrical department to put together the right size cord for you with a plug and light on the ends. but IKEA has always had insanely long ones that have always worked for us. also, the lamp shades are so varied, you can go with nearly any design style.

i think that should at least give you some ideas. you might need to do a purge and reorganize of the kitchen and closet to manage the jars and vacuum. can't really think of anyhting for that right now.

that's what i've got.

[Magelet]

thank you very much zoebird. I like the idea to build a little shelf unit where the mason jars are. I could definitely do that. (particularly since DP is buying a drill/(which can also screw screws in) for work today, so I should be able to use that )

I'll look for an over the door hanger for coats

I'm not totally clear on the light thing. Are you saying you hang the light from the ceiling? how do you install it/stick it?

I love the idea for a bedside tray. It would be perfect for making it look organized.

Thanks a million! It will be so nice for the entryway to be organized. I feel like that will improve the energy so much, that the first thing you see looks nice. (hahahahaha I've turned into my mother!!! she always hated because I dropped my backpack and coats at the door and the first thing you saw was a mess. of course, I think I just need storage for my enter and drop habit, not to "fix" it.)
I'd love to hear other people suggustions

[zoebird]

yes, you can hang it from the ceiling.

at IKEA they have very long cords that have a plug on one end and a light bulb on the other. you can attach a lamp shade to this.

you plug it in where your plug is, and then using U shaped nails/tacks, you tack it from the outlet to the corner, up the corner, across the ceiling, and then hanging down. so the wire isn't "loose" but it is visible. if the walls are white, and you get a white cord at ikea, you don't see it that much.