by Ruth Kelly, Marketing Manager, Clever Closet

 

Your hallway is one of the most frequently used spaces in your house. In most homes, the hallway is used by anyone who visits and seen by everyone who comes to the door. It creates a first impression for visitors and guests, setting a tone for your living space and showing off your personality.

Despite all of this, many people treat their hallway as an afterthought and do not put the same level of care into decorating or maintaining the space as they do for their other rooms. This may be because the function of the hallway is to connect one destination to another, and not to act as a destination in itself. It may also be the result of practical concerns – you might have a lot of shoes or coats to store, for example. If muddy shoes and wet umbrellas are a common concern, you might leave these in the hallway to save the rest of your home from getting messy.

The benefits of keeping your hallway tidy go far beyond the impression that it makes on other people. Tidiness creates space and can make your hallway feel larger; it can also create a sense of peace and calm, which is the perfect feeling to greet you when you return home after a long day. Additionally, adopting better habits in maintaining your hallway can help you to stay more organised in other areas.

Here, the experts at Clever Closet suggest five ways that you can keep your hallway tidy more easily. By starting with simple actions and committing to just one small change at a time, you can transform your habits over time and create the clean, tidy and organised home you desire.

 

1. Find out what is causing the problem

 

Start by identifying the sources of untidiness in your hallway, because different problems will each demand unique solutions. If clutter is the result of disorganisation, you may be able to invest in organisational tools that will store items tidily and help you to manage the tasks you need to accomplish.

If the hallway is untidy because you are trying to store too many things, you may need to add more storage space, or find other convenient places to keep these items. Clutter can also build up in a hallway because people put things down as they travel from one room to another. The most important thing is to identify which of these behaviours is causing the problem and investigate the solutions that will help to address that specific concern.

 

2. Add more storage

 

One of the most common problems is that there are a lot of things you may want to store in the hallway, but not many storage solutions are available. Hallways tend to be small, without much room for furniture, and this usually means that you need to get creative when trying to make more space.

Hidden storage is often the best way to approach this. That may include furniture with storage components (like bench seats with hidden compartments) or built-in items like under stairs storage solutions. These devices turn the unused area beneath your staircase into an organised storage space, which can enable you to keep your hallway free of clutter. This solution can be cost-effective and is a quick way to deal with mess, because you can put disorganised piles of clutter away until you have time to sort them out properly.

 

3. Use organisational tools

 

Organisational devices are a good way to keep things tidy, even if you have a lot of items to store. Common examples include coat rails, shoe racks and umbrella stands, but there are also less common tools like mail organisers and key hooks.

If letters are piled onto a surface, they can quickly spread around and look cluttered, but a mail organiser will hold them together and stand them up, minimising the space they occupy. Keys can also look messy, whether in a bowl or just left on the side, but a key hook can be a more convenient solution that also frees up space on your hallway surfaces.

Choosing the most suitable solution will depend on your specific requirements and what is causing the clutter. If the tool or device you need isn’t listed here, try searching for the problem online and you may be surprised by the innovative solutions you can find.

 

4. Cycle out seasonal items

 

Many people find it convenient to keep all of their outdoor gear in the hallway. This makes it easy to grab a jacket or an umbrella on the way out of the door, but it can also mean that items build up and create unnecessary clutter. Coat rails or shoe racks may be a useful solution, but they can still look very untidy if they don’t have enough space for everything you want to store.

The best approach here is to cycle out seasonal items. During the summer, store umbrellas and overcoats in your wardrobe – then, when temperatures start to drop, swap things around and put your sandals, light jackets and sun hats into storage. With the challenges of hallway storage, it is often a lot easier to find space for these items in another room.

This is also an opportunity to look through your outerwear and make sure that everything you store in the hallway is something you actually intend to wear. Otherwise, it can go into a wardrobe, be put into long-term storage, or even be thrown away.

 

5. Create more space than you need

 

A final tip is to leave some space available when you tidy up. This applies especially to coat and shoe racks – you may feel that you should maximise your use of space and keep as many of your items on the rack as possible, or just that it looks neater to have every coat hook occupied, but this can quickly turn into clutter.

The problem here is that you have no flexibility to deal with the unexpected. Remember that guests will wear shoes and coats when they visit, too, and you should have a place for them alongside yours. The same is true if you wear a special coat or pair of shoes for an occasion, and then take them off in the hallway when you return home and leave them behind. Leaving a small amount of extra space can make a big difference.

By applying these tips and thinking carefully about which approach will work best for you, you can start the process of transforming your hallway, and develop the habits you need to keep it tidy in the long term.