By Ruth Kelly, Marketing Manager, Clever Closet

The hallway is rarely a resting place – it is usually used as a passageway between other rooms, and so it is seldom thought of as an area that needs to make a good impression or set a tone. Hallways can easily get dirty or fill with clutter when they are connected to an outside door, whether because outdoor clothing and items are left there, post and parcels pile up, or because rain and mud are brought inside.

However, the hallway often has more footfall than any other part of the house, and is seen by more visitors and guests than any other room. By keeping your hallway tidy and decorating it to set the right mood, you can feel more relaxed when you return home after a long day, or welcome visitors with a first impression that shows off your personality.

Clever Closet is familiar with the specific challenges of keeping a hallway tidy, as the company makes innovative storage solutions that fit under your staircase and turn this unused area into an organised space. Here, Clever Closet’s experts offer five useful tips to help you think differently about your approach to tidying your hallway. 

Start with your key challenges

There are a few common causes for clutter in a hallway, and you should understand why the space is untidy before you develop a plan to fix it. Is it because you don’t have a system for organising post, packages and parcels, and instead leave them on the floor? Or is your problem that you have too many shoes or coats to fit on a rack or rail? Do you lack the storage space to put away everything that you need to keep in your hallway?

There are ways to resolve all of these issues and turn your hallway into a relaxing space that provides everything you need when you return home from a long day, or that welcomes guests into your home and shows off your personality. Once you have identified the challenges that are making your hallway untidy, you can start to create the space you desire.

Give everything a place

Think about the items in your hallway and sort them into categories, separating the belongings that you need to store there from those that can be stored elsewhere. It may be convenient to ensure that shoes, coats, umbrellas and other outdoor items are kept by the front door, but these needs are often seasonal. If you are struggling for space, consider rotating these items and keeping anything you don’t use regularly in a wardrobe or cupboard in another room. 

The only limit on what you can store in your hallway is the space you have available. Be realistic about your limitations and allocate a space to everything you want to keep in the hallway. You should be specific – don’t just determine that your shoes will stand on a shoe rack, but make sure that there is comfortably enough space for every pair. If everything has a dedicated space, you can easily develop better habits in putting each item away. 

Consider flexibility

While you may have accounted for the space you need for your items, you should also take other people into account. Is there room for guests to leave shoes, coats or umbrellas? If your hallway is perfectly tidy but is full of your own belongings, it can be hard to accommodate a guest without creating clutter. If you want your hallway to offer a good first impression of your home, try to account for this when deciding how much space your possessions should occupy.

If you have a tendency to leave things in your hallway as you move through the house, you can account for this when planning how you will use the storage space you have. If you have benches, shelves or other surfaces in your hallway, it is easy to get into the habit of putting things down and forgetting about them. You can either find a place to store these items, or set aside an area that you will remember to revisit later, to prevent clutter from piling up too readily.

Add storage space

If there are more items in your hallway than you can accommodate, consider whether you can add more storage space. There are many different solutions available, including slimline shelves that are ideal for thin hallways, or tall cabinets that take advantage of high ceilings.

In some cases, an extra piece of furniture can be another obstacle in a small hallway, and hidden storage may be the best option. Clever Closet’s solutions are perfect for organising clutter, with spacious drawers and Tallboy doors, and because they are installed under your stairs they don’t take up any extra room, which can be a significant advantage in any cluttered hallway.

Decorate with care

When you decorate, taking the time to consider both your storage requirements and the feeling you want your hallway to create can help to make it a place that you cherish. The care you put into decorating the space can boost your desire to keep it clean and tidy, especially if minimalism, clean lines and a simple colour scheme are part of your aesthetic. 

Choosing storage solutions that fit with the decor will encourage you to use them. What’s more, if you need to add storage that takes up valuable space, you can counterbalance this by adding a mirror and preventing the hallway from feeling too dark or cramped. Approaching this process with balance in mind will ensure that your hallway stays tidy and creates a welcoming space for yourself and your guests when you enter your home.