Learn how to turn your garage entryway into an organized drop zone at the top of the stairs using easy wall mounted storage systems and versatile hanging solutions.
We have five doors that lead to the exterior of our home, but we really only use one of them to come and go. The garage door. So the way we enter and leave our house is always through the door at the top of the garage stairs that leads right into our kitchen. And while it’s a great middle-ground to enter the house, it’s not so great for storing all the things that should be in an entryway. You know, shoes, backpacks, jackets, umbrellas, keys, and all the other little stuff we take with us every day.
So after months of being frustrated about the shoe situation piling up in the kitchen, I decided I had to find a way to get them off the floor and out of the way. Actually, let me back up just a bit.
In case you’re new here, you should know that we are a strict shoes-off household. Shoes come off at the door for everyone, including guests. (You can read about how and why we adopted this rule here) We also clean our shoes before putting them back in the closet. We use a shoe cleaning and sanitizing solution to wipe down the soles before they make it back to their main selection space.
So in between the time they’re worn and they’re put away in the closet, they live in a “holding zone.” The holding zone is a place for dirty shoes to be, free from pets and floors. In the past, it has always been a shoe shelf or baskets, but I didn’t want dirty shoes sitting in my kitchen, so I came up with this idea to keep them all in the stairway of our garage entry.
Storing Shoes At The Top Of Stairs
This is the space I’m working with. Steep stairs with no space at the top to store anything. No baskets would fit here, and it’s too narrow to put wall-mounted shelving. This is a pretty typical garage entry, so if you have something similar in your own home, I’m about to blow your mind with this storage hack.
I got these peg racks from Amazon for $13 a piece. The pegs are long enough and spaced out enough for shoes to hang on them. I started by using the biggest shoe in the house (which ironically is my 13 year old son’s) to decide the height of the first peg rack. I wanted to make sure any shoe would fit on any peg.
Once I attached that peg rack, I used the biggest shoe again to decide the height of the second rack. Using a yardstick to keep them aligned and a level to make sure they’re straight, I drilled them into wall anchors. I also added a third peg rack to hold jackets and backpacks. I didn’t use the supplied anchors for this rack since sometimes backpacks are pretty heavy. Instead, I used wing anchors for holding TVs just to be on the safe side.
Look how easily the shoes hang on the pegs! This has been such a great solution for us, especially hanging them from the inside, because it gives wet shoe soles an easier way to dry without pooling up water underneath them on the floor. And it keeps all that germy ickiness from touching anything. Each peg rack can hold three pairs of shoes, and since we clean our shoes often, the rack is never completely full.
Organizing An Entryway At The Top Of Stairs
But I didn’t stop with the shoe pegs. I added two hanging baskets to hold things like umbrellas and grocery bags, and a Command hook for keys. Somehow this narrow stairway is now a perfect drop-zone for all our daily essentials.
To make sure the baskets don’t get piled up with all kinds of randomness, I added bin clip tags to them and used my Cricut Joy and Cricut Smart Label Writable Paper to make these cute labels.
While I had my Cricut Joy out, I also made a cute little Welcome Home decal to put on the freshly painted door. The entryway felt so cold and boring, even after I had added the pegs, hooks, and baskets, so a couple of coats of Studio Blue Green from Sherwin Williams and a vinyl decal made it feel more like a real entryway and less like a sterile garage.
And because I’m a sucker for details, I painted the end of the handrail the same color as the door. Why? Why not?! It’s a fun little surprise that no one may ever even notice. But I like it.
Sources For This Project:
- Paint Color: Studio Blue Green by Sherwin Williams in satin finish
- Hanging Baskets, set of two
- Peg Racks, three sets
- Heavy Duty Command Hook
- Bin Clips x2
- Cricut Joy machine, Cricut Smart Label, and Cricut Fine Point Pen in black for the tags
- Cricut Joy machine, white removable vinyl, and transfer tape for the Welcome decal
- Nonslip stair treads
Want To See More Easy Organizing Ideas?
Follow me on Instagram @lelaburris for daily tips, tricks, tutorials, and hacks for getting your home and life Organized-ish™. And scroll around the blog in the Home Organization category here for all the organizing DIY projects I’ve shared over the last six years. Get comfy, grab a notebook and pen, and start making your project list!
