Organization for a Small Entryway

My home has an open floor plan, and the front door enters directly into the living room and a small foyer. Most of the first floor of my house is carpeted (to my chagrin), with only a 6-foot by 4-foot patch of linoleum by the front door foyer to protect the beige carpeting from dirty shoes and boots.

Which means that when my family of four enters the home together, we all try to fit ourselves onto that small 24-square-foot patch of foyer space to take off our shoes before the mud, dirt, etc., finds its way to the carpeting. The area by our front door serves as a “mudroom” of sorts.

This tactic doesn’t always work. Inevitably, one of us gets squeezed off the foyer area, leaving bits of dirt in the carpeting. I’ve had professional cleaners scrub that dirty strip of carpeting, but nobody has been able to get the dirt stains out completely.

Creating a Mudroom Area

I’ve put a matching piece of remnant carpet on top of the wall-to-wall carpeting (where the carpeting meets the linoleum), but the rug often doesn’t do its job. Frequently, the remnant shifts, allowing dirty shoes to fall on the wall-to-wall carpeting. Worse, the remnant carpet often bunches up, causing people to trip.

I’ve installed a coat and a shoe rack by the door to create a mini mudroom area and store all our gear, (since my home lacks a coat closet by the front door) but while the racks work, they are not the prettiest things to behold, as all our stuff is out in the open and sometimes spills onto the floor. As the entryway is the main entrance into our home, I’d love for it to have a more formal, pulled-together look.

I’d like to expand our entryway by ripping up the carpeting and installing wood floors on our first floor, but that would come at a huge expense. (Not to mention that my husband likes the carpeting.) A neighbor suggested that I take up the linoleum, put tile there, and expand the entry and mudroom area by widening the space where the tile would go.  (I could also tile the kitchen which currently has a linoleum floor, too.) That would work, but it would also mean giving up my dreams of having all wood floors downstairs someday.

Shoe and Coat Storage

I’ve read other blogs on the subject, and found some great mudroom storage ideas to consider. I like what Jen at www.iheartorganizing did with her mudroom storage. She added a cabinet next to her front door in which she hides her family’s shoes, with extra boot storage in a leather-looking storage ottoman. I also like the first two entryways shown in a post on the subject at the Anyone Can Decorate Blog.

Do you have any ideas on mudroom storage or how to solve my home’s problematic foyer/entryway? If so, please share them in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.