The first impression you get when you step into a space shapes your emotions and your mood. If you walk into a house and the first thing you see is disorder, that sense of chaos will accompany you through the rest of the home, no matter how tidy everything else might be.
That is why it is so important to keep the hallway orderly. In fact, looking after the entrance to improve that initial impression on entering is one of the small but impactful adjustments you can make to improve your home and feel better there.
To achieve this, following a few tips and turning to certain pieces of furniture and objects can be very helpful.
Why is order in the hallway so important?
When we want to put the house in order, there are many different theories about where we should start (the kitchen?, the bathroom?…). Sara Domínguez, professional organiser and creator of the From Chaos to Calm method, is clear that the first place to tackle should be the hallway.
“When you arrive home tired, if you open the door and what greets you is chaos, what is your first emotion?,” she reflected on the podcast Tiene Sentido Pódcast. When this happens, you think you have to start working again, this time at home. By contrast, when you enter and a tidy space greets you, the feeling is very different and much more pleasant, a sense of peace and calm.
The problem is that, being a throughfare where haste tends to reign (because we’re late, because we come back tired and leave things lying around…), it’s very easy for disorder to take over.
Key tips for keeping the hallway tidy
“The hallway needs to be easy to maintain for anyone who enters,” says Domínguez, “it must be a space where leaving things and putting things away is straightforward.” In other words, it should be easy, for anyone passing through, to leave things in the right place intuitively and without creating chaos. There are some pieces of furniture and objects that can make this task much easier:
1. Coat hooks
Often when we get home we’re laden with a lot of stuff and it isn’t easy to start rummaging through cupboards, hanging coats on hangers… The best way to facilitate order and life for all family members (and especially the children) is to place hooks where they can leave the coats and scarves, for example behind the door.
“This doesn’t mean we have to keep every coat there, just the everyday ones,” the expert notes. All clothing that isn’t in season or that we no longer wear should be stored away, discarded or donated.
2. A shoe rack
With shoes, things work similarly to coats. If there isn’t a specific place to keep them tidy, they’ll end up piling up and filling the hallway.
Domínguez recommends having a very easy-to-use shelf or shoe storage where all family members can put on and take off their shoes with ease. With simple tricks, such as a pinch of coffee grounds or bicarbonate of soda, you’ll also ensure the shoe storage smells fresh.
3. A landing zone
When we get home, there are several things we carry in our hands that we must drop: keys, letters we’ve collected in the mailbox, leaflets, the children’s toys… If we leave them in the first place we find, the only thing we’ll end up with are piles of clutter.
“I always recommend having a landing zone,” says the organising expert. It is a place where we can drop the things we’re carrying.
That said, to preserve order it must be a contained zone, such as a tray, a basket, a box or any sort of container.
From landing… but not a parking space
It isn’t about filling that tray or basket with every possible object, but about leaving there the things we’re carrying for a moment and then, when we have a moment, review them and either throw away or place them in their proper spot.
The mere fact that the items are inside a small basket already gives us the impression that the hallway is orderly. Conversely, if we drop them on the furniture, it visually suggests they’re scattered about.
