IN EACH ROOM â—½ HOME
Do you have a hall tree, or hooks, or a coat rack near your door? A lot of homes do, and while they’re great for tossing and hanging all the things, they often get messy. And yet, they’re the first thing we see when we walk in the door and the last place we grab from when we’re leaving. I have to organize mine often, and I enjoy it. And it’s fun to make it pretty, as well as functional.
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There are basically seven things we have in our entry hall tree, to make it useful to both of us. We have bags and totes, and scarves. We have umbrellas, gloves and caps or hats. We, of course, have coats! And finally, we have a basket to hold things we need to remember to take.
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It’s fun to create a cohesive look when arranging all these things.
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Most of our coats hang in a coat closet because they’re bulky. But I sometimes hang one that’s pretty on a hook on the hall tree, or leave one hook blank for guests.
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I love to change out my purses, but I won’t remember to do so if they’re tucked back in my bedroom closet. I choose several for the season and some go in the drawers beneath the bench, and a couple of pretty ones hang on the hooks.
Next, I love to drape a pretty scarf that coordinates, over the bags. I have a few more in the drawer, but these are great to grab on those cold days when I need that extra warmth before heading out the door!
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Our hall tree has a few pockets along the back that can hold small umbrellas and gloves, or we can lean a pretty umbrella against the side.
As for hats and caps, we both wear these! We have a couple of deep baskets sitting on the bench which we can fill with caps, stacked on each other. And I can hang one pretty cap on a hook atop one of the bags.
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Regarding those baskets, I found them at Marshalls and they fit great on the bench. When we have to remember to take the kids something, or we have a gift to carry to a party, or any item we might forget to take when we leave, we can sit it in the basket or on top.
Now, this area can go from pretty to pretty awful every single week, so I find it actually quite fun and cathartic to organize it weekly, sometimes changing it up a bit, depending on the season and the weather.
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So, whatever you have in your entry, use it and decorate it. You can even add ambience with a battery operated light nearby, or a seasonal piece of décor hanging or sitting. Make it inviting as you come and go. And enjoy the process of keeping it tidy.