How To Organise A Hallway Drawer – Step By Step Guide

Let’s take a look at how to organise a drawer in your hallway today. It’s a quick weekend project that will take no time at all, but is a really great win for the space. Let’s get started on exactly how to get it sorted, shall we….

Last weekend I did a quick project in my Hallway that has been on my TO DO list for a while, and I totally LOVE the results.

As such, I wanted to share it with you today, in the hope that you get inspired to try something like this yourself.

Now – this is how I organised my Hallway drawer – BUT you can use the tips to organise pretty much any drawer in your house.

I, of course, used the A.D.O.R.E method to get it done, so I’ll take you through it step by step – hope you enjoy! 

How To Organise A Hallway Drawer

Step 1 – Decide What Goes In The Space (Assess)

Of course, the very first step of any organising project is to Assess / Plan it out.

For this drawer, it’s the last storage space before we leave the house, and the first as we enter – so it was the perfect place to put all those little things that we need to grab before we go out (and conversely, to drop down when we get back).

The Hallway Drawer is the perfect place for things like the following: –

• Keys – car keys / house keys etc…
• Letter Writing Essentials (Envelopes, Stamps, Pen) – so you can quickly fill out forms and send them back without having to search high and low for what you need
• Sunglasses – how many times are you searching for these when you need them!
• Spare Change – great idea for when you need some change, or for men especially to empty their change from their trousers when they walk in
• Comb / Brush – last minute straightening before you leave the door
• Lipstick / Lip Balm – again for last minute checks in the mirror

Step 2 – Declutter The Unnecessary

Now I knew what we DID want in the drawer (the day to day stuff we needed to grab and have easy access to), it was time to look and see what was actually in there: –

Now – we had much more than this list inside the drawer, as you can see it had got out of hand a little!

The extras that really weren’t needed right there were: –

• Cheque Book – better in our command centre / paperwork area
• Maps / Walking Route books etc… – Better in our holiday area as they aren’t used on a daily basis

We also had lots of little bits and bobs that we had all just thrown in there over time – yuck – hate this stuff so much. It always seems to grow more when the space is already disorganised because it can hide a little more – another great reason to get it sorted!

It took less than 5 minutes to go through the drawer and declutter what wasn’t needed.

I moved everything that was in the wrong place to the correct place – and binned the rubbish (recycling where possible).

Already it felt better!

Step 3 – Organise What’s Left

The next step of the ADORE Method is O – Organise.

Now I had everything I wanted to put inside the drawer, it was time to work out the best way to organise it so it was: –

• Easy to grab things
• Easy to see what’s in there
• Easy to put things away

As with most drawer, having compartments works best – so you can have a section for each different thing.

So – I measured the space available and went searching online for the perfect sized storage.

TIP – Always measure the height as well as the width and depth of a drawer, because you want to get compartments that go as high up the drawer as possible. This will stop things overflowing to other sections, which ruins your organising more quickly than anything else.

It takes a while sometimes to find the exact right item, but it’s worth waiting, because then you get the right thing.

TIP – If you are struggling to find something straight away, then don’t rush in to buying something that will ‘do’. Add it to your shopping list in your handbag, along with a note of the dimensions, and then you will have all the information to make the right decision when you see it in the future. Keeping a small tape measure in your bag can be handy for this too!

… and I found the perfect size for what I wanted – with the right number of compartments as well – win!

Last thing to do was to fill up the storage with all the different things I wanted to put into the drawer:

Hopefully you can see that there’s plenty of room in there to see what’s what

Steps 4 & 5 – Live With It (Real Life) And Tweak If Necessary (Evaluate)

Of course, as this is a new project, we are going to have to live with it for a while to see whether it’s right or not.

You can’t tell completely unless you use it – so I’ll give it at least a month to see how it goes.

The proof will be if we look at it in a month and it’s looking pretty much the same as it is now.

If not – then I know that I will need to tweak things so that they work even better. Maybe we’ll find that we need to store other items there, or that we don’t need everything in it that I think we do.

Who knows!

But for now – we’re all really pleased with the finished result…