The Simple Dollar Tree DIY You Need To Curb The Entryway Mess

No matter how organized our homes are, certain areas always seem to attract clutter. The house's primary entryway, whether it's the actual front door or a more convenient side entrance, is definitely one of these areas. Keys, sunglasses, purses, and wallets are all necessary items to take out of the house but not generally needed inside it, so the entryway is the perfect place to set them. Yet, this area almost never stays tidy, and the more people (and pets) who live in your house, the more cluttered the foyer can get. This is where some small decorative pails from Dollar Tree can make for a simple entryway organization DIY project. Every member of the family can get a pail, and these can be hung or placed by the entrance to store all their daily outing needs inside. 

Most people have a set of hooks or a stylish coat hanger by the door, but not everything we need for our daily outings can be hung on a hook. Moreover, it can be easy to grab the wrong set of keys when they're all thrown together in a dish. Having a set of individualized pails at the main entrance is a cute and easy way to eliminate that mess while also making everyone's items easier to find. Even children will be able to participate in the cleanup and sorting of this area by pairing each item with the right pail. 

Clutter around the entryway can make your home look much messier than it is. With items from the Dollar Tree, you can quickly fix this problem. The store sells 4.5-inch tall tin pails in galvanized silver or solid colors that are ready for personalization with any paints, stencils, and stickers you desire. If you're feeling a little more whimsical, you can opt for some of the seasonally-decorative tins available at different times of the year. As expected, these items from the Dollar Tree are all $1.25 each.

Simply choose the pails you like best and be sure to get one for every member of your household — this includes any animals that go out on leashes or have outdoor wear. You can go for a monochromatic look, matching all the pails to each other, or get each individual their own distinct color or style. Whichever you choose, you want to make it clear whose is whose. Paint marker pens, which are available on Amazon for about $14, allow for the most creativity and can be used with a stencil. However, simple Dollar Tree letter stickers that cost $1.25 would work, too. Each pail gets its own hook, and each individual gets to fill their pail with all the small items they always take with them when they leave the house. If you don't have hooks, the pails can be laid out neatly on a shelf or hall tree bench for similar convenient access.

Dollar Tree's tin pails are only big enough to hold a few essentials, but most people don't take many large items with them in the way of personal effects when they go to work or to run errands. However, if you have a rear or side entrance mudroom that tends to hold backyard toys or gardening gear, you might need larger sorting options. Thankfully, there's a Dollar Tree hack for affordable storage in this space, too. For a utilitarian option that can be hosed down whenever it gets caked in dirt, Dollar Tree has plastic buckets with handles for $1.25 each. These can hold 9 quarts, so you can fill them with more items than you could the smaller pails by the entryway.

The DIY process here will be the same, but instead of purchasing for one for each person, you may want to sort by use (for instance, yard toys versus gardening tools). Then, label each one with stickers or painted stencils. Hang them from large, heavy duty hooks in your mudroom (because these will carry a heavier weight), or place them on (or under) a sturdy bench or shelf. You can then fill the pails with a lot more gear: gardening gloves, jump ropes, sidewalk chalk, pruning shears, sunscreen, bug spray, or any other number of things you need on hand for a fun day in the backyard.