Get Rid Of Hallway Clutter {15 Minute Mission}

Today's mission is to get rid of hallway clutter, either around your entryway or wherever else in your home you've got a hall.


This mission is designed to be done as part of the Organize Your Entryway & Mudroom Challenge here on the site, which is part of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge.

Typically, you want your hallway to be mainly clear so you can use it for its purpose, as a walkway between rooms or areas of your home.

But these types of areas are also typically the type where items get laid down and then forgotten, and soon enough it is easy enough not to even "see" the clutter anymore. It's just kind of there.

However, today go into your home's hallway and really look. Maybe even take a quick picture with your phone just so you can "see" the clutter that over time has accumulated.

Take a few minutes to put things away where they go, to get rid of trash or other items you don't need, and just clear up the space a bit.

Or maybe you don't suffer from invisible clutter, but you know exactly what clutter problem you're facing in your hallway. That's exactly what happened with this reader, Melissa, who basically had a shoe explosion in her hallway.



Melissa said, "Ugh! We are a family of 5 (three kids ages 17,16, & 8). I have a shoe rack as you can see in the picture but what I don't have are kids who put there shoes on the shoe rack (which is actually reaching its capacity). Can someone come help organize my shoes...lol?!?"

Sometimes decluttering and organizing your hallway means facing organization problems like these head on, and creating a place for the items which are causing the clutter if you can't actually get rid of them.

(By the way, if your clutter problem in your home is shoes, check out the article on how to declutter shoes here. If you have another particular issue I suggest checking out the Declutter 365 list of tasks here to find the right article to help you.)

It is hard to find storage solutions for this narrow area though, but I have a suggestion below to help you out, right after I show you some pictures from readers who've already done this mission themselves.

If you've done this mission also make sure to submit your photos of what you've decluttered, so I can add them to this article. You can submit your photos here.

Top photo courtesy of Steve Winton, Flickr Creative Commons

Photos From Readers Who've Done This Mission

Here are photos from readers who've done this mission, to show you what they accomplished and get you inspired to tackle this task for yourself.

The photo above is from a reader, Heide. She said, "Spent all afternoon cleaning the hallway. When daughter and her boys moved in, last May, boxes were left temporarily. 7 months later, they are finally gone. I put my donation box here temporarily until I get the hall closet done. Then it will go there."


This next photo is from another reader, Marlo. She said, "This is the hallway in my master bedroom with closets on both sides and the bathroom at the end! I've been working on this area for a while as it became a catch all as you can see in the before pictures. I'm so happy to have this space clean and clutter free. I vacuumed the floor last night and then cleaned the walls and baseboards!"

They both did great on this mission, don't you think?

Use Narrow Storage Furniture If Needed In Your Hallway

Ideally your hallway will be pretty empty, since it is typically used for a walkway. But sometimes you need to have some storage in this area to keep clutter at bay.

If that's the case my suggestion is to look for narrow storage furniture that won't take up too much space, but give you a much needed place to put items so they aren't just laying around.

That's exactly what a reader, Jennifer, did, and she shared the photos shown above.

She explained, "I have a very narrow hall, so I was looking at something skinny. This cabinet is about 8" wide. Best investment ever! You can get these at Ikea or they sell the bins individually as well for much less than the cabinet. The wall tree is a wall vinyl with $20 in hooks from Home Depot."

Jennifer first submitted this photo onto the Facebook page, and was asked by another reader if shoes actually fit into such a narrow piece of furniture, so she submitted this second photo as well, and explained, "Yes, here is a pic of an open drawer. About 4-6 pairs per. My 4 year old can fit 8 pairs."

Tell Me How You've Done With This Mission

Once you've done this mission don't forget to submit your photos of your declutter hallways for me. I'd love to add them to the page! You can submit them here.

Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!

Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.

The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!

Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.

Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.

In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.

If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!

One thing you'll find is that even after clearing the clutter from your hallway that clutter and mess will re-accumulate, as people move through this space.

To keep the area looking nice, combine this decluttering mission with a good daily tidy up routine in your halls, to keep them looking good from now on.

You can find out more about this daily routine here:




Photo courtesy of maine-homeseller

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