Our entry hall and its one row of hooks

[almondbutterandjelly]

I collect totes.  Does anyone else?  They're just so useful!  And they used to hang up in the front hallway, but just now, as I was perusing some coat hook racks to create a second row of wall-mounted hooks in the hallway, dh decided to declutter.  He put the beach bag on the top shelf of the small coat closet.  He hung our two umbrellas on a hanger in the coat closet.  (Okay, we don't have more than, say, 8 or 10 coats, but there's also a large suitcase in there).  He hung our two see-through purses (for events where clear purses are required) on a hanger in the coat closet.  He took my dd's Vera Bradley tennis bag and its two rackets and the tote full of tennis balls and crammed them into the wooden chest where we keep a few outdoor items like a cheap croquet set.  He asked if all the totes (and a handful of purses) were necessary, and I said they were.  He put two backpacks on the top shelf in the coat closet.  I'm concerned things will fall on me next time I open that closet.  But the hallway hooks now have fewer items on them and he kiboshed my second row of hooks.  Sigh.  I mean, we all know that there is no such thing as too many books, only a lack of shelving.  Isn't the same true for totes and other front hall items?  The lack of hooks is really the problem?

Edited June 27, 2020 by perkybunch
spelling error

[Carrie12345]

Ooooh, I sympathize with you both.
I am a lover of totes, but a hater of visual clutter!

[domestic_engineer]

11 minutes ago, perkybunch said:

I mean, we all know that there is no such thing as too many books, only a lack of shelving.  Isn't the same true for totes and other front hall items?  The lack of hooks is really the problem?

Yes. You speak truth. 

[LucyStoner]

A couple of thoughts.  

1.  It doesn’t sound like he has decluttered so much as stuffed things out of sight.  Organization needs to work for all users and address the needs of everyone sharing the space.  Systems that are imposed by one person based on that person’s preferences often don’t work in shared spaces and usually break down.  My guess is that over time, at least some of the items that he’s moved out will migrate back to the entryway.  

2. In the entry at our place, there’s a place for everything that needs to be there.  Some things aren’t there that could be but everyone has their designated spots.  We each have one shoe shelf, one hook for our hoodies/coats and the boys each have a hook for their backpacks. In the entry closet near the shoe racks, there’s space for sports equipment in the warmer months and boots in winter. There’s one hook for a swimming tote where I like to have everything we need for swimming in one bag.  It is understood that my husband and I keep our work bags and purse like things in the office off the hallway.  The closet in the office is where the bin of skating stuff lives.  I keep some sports stuff, the umbrella (which is only used at soccer practices), folding chairs and stuff like that in the van which is where we need it.  

3. I found  it really helpful to put everything in the living room and figure out what needs to be in the entry way and if it needs to be there all year.  If you do that and there aren’t enough hooks, add more.  Extra unused totes might go in a different spot but I would keep them all together so you can find them when you need them.    
 

last thought:  you can’t declutter for other people.  So everyone needs to look at their stuff and the available space.  If any totes are going away, that’s up to you.  I say this as someone who reviles clutter and has a husband who has a tendency to collect useless shit (think 25 year old computer parts he thinks are interesting.) Our understanding is that he has his spots for that stuff and it’s up to him to decide what to toss.  If it exceeds the amount of space he has, he has to make some choices, lol.  

Edited June 27, 2020 by LucyStoner

2 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

found  it really helpful to put everything in the living room and figure out what needs to be in the entry way and if it needs to be there all year.

I did something like this several years ago when our garage was a disaster and I was tired of repurchasing things I knew we had...somewhere.  The week I had all three kids at day camp I took every single item off the shelves in the garage on put them in piles on the garage floor with like items.  Every night he had homework when he got home from work to sort through what he wanted put back and what should be stored together.  I don’t think the shelves had been wiped down in decades.  I bought totes for the shelves and labeled them.  It is about time to do it again to at least clean the shelves, but when I mention it I do get a bit of initiative.  But no, you can’t decide what is valuable to someone else although my mother tries to do it to my father without success.  Interestingly, my husband cleaned out his closet of his own initiative the first couple days of the stay at home order (boredom?) and then it sat on our cedar chest for 3 1/2 months.  I was SO very happy when the resale shops reopened.  I can’t handle the visual clutter, but the rest of family could care less.

[Ausmumof3]

Can you have an entryway rule where only stuff that gets used weekly stays visible and the rest goes away?  

[athena1277]

I use totes as organization a lot.  And now I need hooks to hang them on. 😁

[MEmama]

Hooks are good, but visually messy. It takes a lot of constant upkeep and purging to keep them Pinterest pretty.
 

Open baskets are my organisational go to. They keep visual clutter in check for my needs, and are easy enough for DH and DS to use regularly.

My entry has a shelving unit with 3 baskets—one for each of us for hats/gloves/scarves etc. There is also a bench with two baskets underneath, one for house shoes and one for my extra purses and bags. The closet is ridiculous, but at least the door closes so I don’t have to look at the eleventy billion pairs of running shoes. 

[katilac]

15 hours ago, LucyStoner said:

  It doesn’t sound like he has decluttered so much as stuffed things out of sight.    

My beloved is notorious for this, lol. And then he has no idea where anything is, even his own stuff. 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

I love totes, too, and I never know where to put them.

I have one for choir—that stays in the trunk of the car except when we are off for the summer..  There is one for book club and another one for Bible study.  A bunch for knitting project (hey, grab and go!).  One for going to outdoor movies (it’s a thing here, you have to be ready).  No permanent home for any of those.  There are various work-related ones, which do have ‘parking spaces’.  One for health supplies, ditto (this has backup prescriptions, a thermometer, an oximeter, and a bunch of OTC meds).  

The totes are mostly customized for each thing, and so they really don’t look all that great together.  I would not want to store them on hooks in the entryway unless they coordinated more.  Having said that, having them dumped on the floor of the hall is not much better. 

[katilac]

20 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

I love totes, too, and I never know where to put them.

If you have anywhere you can fit a cube-style bookshelf, you can put each one in a cube and the bookshelf kind of pulls the look together. 

[aggie96]

When my tote and bag collection started to spill out if the drawer I kept them in, I found this idea online. I took care of the tote problem and DH extensive ball cap collection. This is maybe a third of the whole stash. It was decluttered when we put the house up for sale. Curtain rods and clips for hats with shower curtain hooks for totes. Up high and out of the way. Perfect.  Think up high for out of the way storage. DH used a dowel from Depot with a hook to reach up high. The DIY version of those long clothing store poles. 
 

I cannot get the photo to rotate. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

7 minutes ago, aggie96 said:

When my tote and bag collection started to spill out if the drawer I kept them in, I found this idea online. I took care of the tote problem and DH extensive ball cap collection. This is maybe a third of the whole stash. It was decluttered when we put the house up for sale. Curtain rods and clips for hats with shower curtain hooks for totes. Up high and out of the way. Perfect.  Think up high for out of the way storage. DH used a dowel from Depot with a hook to reach up high. The DIY version of those long clothing store poles. 
 

I cannot get the photo to rotate. 

Wow!  That is a fantastic idea.  Going to have to think on that...