LIVING ROOM ORGANIZATION HELP
Somehow the living room in your house always becomes a cluttered mess. People come in, shed their things, dump the mail in a pile and move on. This area can become a problem and make your house look messier than it really is. Get this area organized and decorated just right. It will make your house look more like a home, keep things where they are supposed to be, and make school and work mornings easier to manage.
People get their first impressions of you and your home when they set foot in the front door. Houses with children especially need room for storage. But you don't want just a bunch of buckets or bins sitting by the door. You want your entryway to look nice and serve as an area to catch things that could end up cluttering the living room.
A basic style entryway organizer is simply a shelf with cubby holes and coat hooks beneath it. Hanging a shelf like this is great if you don't have much room to spare, but need something attractive and useful by the door. You can put baskets or bins inside of the cubbies while family members can hang backpacks or jackets on the hooks. You can personalize this area by setting family photos, flowers or other decorative items on top of the shelf. This type of unit is usually the bare minimum of what most people need in their foyer.
To get a little more organization into your entryway, consider a bench style organizer. These go great with the hanging cubby shelf. Benches can actually be storage boxes with a pad on top. Or, you can take sturdy shelves and turn them on their side. This will create a seat with cubby areas underneath. You can put baskets or bins underneath the seat, or you can leave the area empty for shoes, boots, backpacks and more.
Locker style entryway organizers are very popular. These are more elaborate systems and can really beautify your home. They usually have a bench or series of seats that open up to reveal storage areas underneath. They have a wood back that goes up high enough to hang coats and backpacks above people's heads when they are sitting on the seat. Above that can be shelves, cubbies, hooks, and storage bins.
Some people put hooks on the sides down low enough for children to use. You can decorate the sides with mirrors for checking yourself as you go out the door. You could get even more creative by adding a charging valet station to the side. Here you can toss keys, wallets, change, plug in your phone and camera, before you even make it all the way in the house. The cords can be hidden inside the system.
Even more elaborate systems may actually house a hanging bar for your coats. For studio apartments or open floor-plan homes, you can use the locker style foyer organizer as a room divider. Put the hanging bar on the back side and you've got an instant coat closet. Finish it out with some luxurious clothes hangers, like wood hangers, and you've got a beautiful, practical entryway addition.
About the Author: Jo Granville is on the staff of Only Hangers, a leading online resource for quality made clothing hangers. For more information, please visit www.OnlyHangers.com