entryway storage

Our house entryway is narrow, on one side there is the stairwell and on the other side,

 there are a small coat closet, a foot of wall, and then the powder room.

In order to be able to open the door and enter/leave the house, 

everything must be put away in the little closet.

On this little space on the wall, I have installed a mirror with some hooks,

 perfect to keep the dog leash and an umbrella but that’s about it.

My kids are very average in their interest at putting stuff away, 

which means everything has a tendency to get piled up on

 the kitchen table: coat, backpack, lunch boxes, 

helmets (they both ride their bike to school), not shoes luckily!

It makes for an unpleasant sight coming back home at night.

In the past we have tried to come up with different solutions: reorganizing the closet,

 adding shelves, adding hooks, but none really helped.

I looked around blogs and Pinterest to see what other people were doing, 

and I saw beautiful mudrooms,laundry room, garages, all perfect but not applicable to our house, 

we live in a sixties modern home without a garage, and laundry in the basement!

But we have a very interesting stairwell, with large landings…

so I saw it as the perfect place to recreate this transition area.

I kept it very simple, with just a set of five hooks (numbered one through five), 

that I found at Home depot for $5, and a wide board found in the basement.

I stained the wood, attached the hook to the wood, and then screwed everything to the studs.

And it worked! The kids have been using it, hanging their jackets and helmets, 

leaving their backpack right there.

Since there are 5 hooks and 2 kids, it totally works out: 3 helmets 

(2 bikes, 1 horseback riding) and 2 coats.

The shoes still need to be stored in the coat closet, but because they are not fighting
 for space with the backpacks, it is actually easy to do.

 The adults and guests have space to hang their coats in the closet, 

without fearing for their toes to be smashed by flying helmets.

Currently, as it is summer time and pool season,
 the backpacks have been replaced by towels and goggles,
 the helmets are still there, the kids bike to the pool.

Of course it never looks like the ones on the Pinterest board, life cannot be staged!

But it is fun to play pretend!

Happy day!