For this week’s edition of Marie Kondo Monday we are going to tackle our entry closet! While I do think we made our little entry closet functional for us, I didn’t do it the BEST way. The best way does not mean getting a full closet makeover, I mean a custom closet would be nice. But really not the point. From my experience, to have a a highly organized closet, you need to follow the Marie Kondo Method. I did not do this the first time we organized our closet. 

Let me show you the Entry Closet BEFORE-

In the above before photo I did start to take out some coats then stopped to take a before photo. We have a nice shoe organizer, extra hooks on the back of the door, baskets below for socks (we keep all of the girls socks and shoes by the front door, makes it easy before school). But it just felt like it was exploding and messy. Kevin kept asking me if we could “Marie Kondo” the entry closet next! So this is what we did….

Pretty easy if you follow the Marie Kondo Method. Take everything out first! EVERYTHING! I said this last week but this is so important. Don’t just pull out the shoes you don’t wear or the coats that are too small. Take it all out. 

Go thru each item. Determine if it honestly brings you joy. As “woo woo” as that sounds, it is such an important question. I had my girls go thru their shoes and honestly pick out the shoes they wear. We were hanging onto boots that were once Ella’s for Lola to wear once she grew into them. Come to find out, she didn’t even like them! We were hanging onto them for all that time for no reason!! A good thing to remember if you have kids and think you should keep everything, keep in mind each child has unique style. I get that some items are expensive and not all kids get the choice- “you get what you get and don’t throw a fit!” But there are always options of selling things that kids grow out of, then buying something for the next kid that they really feel good and joyful in!

PS- for those that might be curios. I gave all of the girls clothes, shoes etc. to a family in our church and then I shipped my friend some items her daughter wanted. My favorite thing to donate to a worthy cause is coats! So don’t let those coats gather dust in your closet! Pass them onto someone who NEEDS a coat!   

Here is the Entry Closet AFTER!! Anyone else get excited in next morning to look at what you organized?? We finished this last night and I was so excited to open the closet to grab my coat to head to the gym. JOY!

We kept the same shoe organizer, which I love the size, it is from IKEA. I did find a similar one from Target HERE. I like that the openings are larger. I ended up putting THESE baskets inside each section so the girls could pull out their shoes and nothing would get lost in the back. This morning they thought that was awesome! 

Then we got rid of of the big basket of socks (that were rolled in a ball) and folded them the Marie Kondo way, just like pants, in thirds. We placed the socks in THESE organizers. Notice how the top is the folded part and then they can easily see what the socks are to grab. I thought they had A TON of socks, because that basket was full! Well, come to find out they didn’t like more than half of them. So doing this saves us time from hunting for socks in the morning. I also taught the girls how to fold them and why we are doing the socks this way. PS- now I know what they need for Valentines ❤️ socks!

Kevin panted the inside of the door in some paint that I had. It is Behr Chalkpaint- Silver Celadon. Painting the door made it feel instantly better! I was going to paint inside the entire closet, but you really can’t see much of the walls. We hung THIS gold mirror on the back of the door with tiny screws. It feels like a mini-mud room now! Funny how just one little thing can really elevate the entire space and your experience every time you open the door. 

We added THESE three new hooks. Before we had four and it just felt too crowded! And after decluttering, we realized how many hooks we actually needed!

I did wallpaper the shelf with THIS temporary wallpaper. I was able to pull the shelf all the way out and wrap it with the wallpaper. A couple of staples with the staple gun on the top kept it secure! I also switched the wood rod to THIS black rod, so it blends in nicely. Big bonus after clearing out the coats we didn’t wear, we now have space for our guests to hang their coats! 

And THESE felt baskets are my favorite!! They are soft and light weight. Easy to pull down and grab our scarves, hats and gloves.

This project took us maybe an hour and feels so much better than before! We go in and out of our front door as our main entrance. We rarely go in and out of the back. We made a habit change to use our front door, in order to keep everything in one spot, rather than by our back door (which is right in our kitchen).  Love to hear what project you are working on for Marie Kondo Monday?? Or tell me what you want to see next!  

Entry Closet Organizing Supplies-

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