Clear the Clutter By Christmas Part 1: Entry Way

Before Picture-Yuck! I cannot believe I let it get this bad!

 

I don’t know about you but I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving and Christmas.  What could be better than a season of celebrating thankfulness and the birth of Christ?  I love the festivities but most of all I love the chance to visit and celebrate with family.  What I don’t plan on doing this year is spending every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas working myself to death-cleaning, organizing, making gifts, etc.  How may you ask?  By planning ahead big time!  (We’ll see how good it works.)  So far my goal is simple tackle one area of my home each week.  Clear out the clutter and scrub it from top to bottom. 

Invite your children to clean right along side you! Eli had so much fun!

 

I started my clutter challenge Sept. 1.  The first week I focused on the Entry Way, Front Porch and Coat Closet. 

Coat Closet De-Clutter and Clean:

1. Remove everything from the closet. 
2. Wipe down walls, shelves, and sweep floor.
3. Replace only coats that will be worn this winter.  (We also tried everyone’s coat on to see if any needed to be purchased.  Thankfully none did.) 
4. Add six extra hangers for guests to hang their coats on.   I also included a few child’s hangers since we often have friends over who have young children.  🙂 
5. I added a basket for shoes to be kept in and a 3 drawer organizer.  The top drawer holds gloves, second drawer holds mittens and scarves, while the third drawer holds a sheet for the park. 
6. Add hanging rack to the door.  This is where I keep my baby carriers 🙂 and Brandon’s hats. 
   

   After Photo: Coats hung, extra hangers added, and games stored on top shelf.

 

Don't be afraid to change-up your storage if it isn't working for you. We used a simple shelf last year and it didn't work at all. This year we are trying the basket and drawers which I think will work much better.

 

All finished! Eli ran into the picture and said cheese. What a ham! Notice the baby carriers hanging behind the door. This is a great place for them-out of sight but very handy.

Clean the Porch:

• Remove everything from the porch and place in the yard. 
• Take a broom and sweep the porch ceiling, walls, door, and porch.  Attack those cobwebs! 
• Wash front door. 
• Add festive fall rug-Thanks mom!  🙂 
• Attach fall decorations or wreath-Thanks to my mother-in-law!  🙂
• Add seating if possible or other decorations.  I added a chair. 
• Clean windows and window frame. 
• Replace lightbulbs as necessary.  Clean light fixtures. 
• Trim bushes. 
• I still would like to sew a curtain for the window panel by the door.  Something else for the to do list! 🙂 

Inside the entryway:

• Wash walls and baseboard.  Remove cob webs-hopefully you don’t find any but I did.  🙂 
• Wash front door. 
• vacuum and/or shampoo rugs.  Mop hardwood if applicable. 
• Add decorations to the wall.  I added a family picture frame, cross, and decorative key chain.  Other ideas include a mirror or wall art.  Don’t think that you have to go out and spend money.  Think about decorations in other parts of your home that could be moved around.  🙂 
• Replace light bulbs as necessary and clean light fixtures. 
  

  Stand back and admire of all of your hard work. The closet only took 40 minutes to clean top to bottom with a toddler's help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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