Where to keep coats & shoes in tiny terrace?

[NomNomNom]

Well, to me it's not actually that small as we're moving from a flat, but what I mean is one of those terraced houses whose front door leads straight into the sitting room, rather than a hall-entrance one, iyswim...

So basically, you go straight into the sitting room, then at the other end of the sitting room you go past the stairs into the dining room. There are 2 under the stairs cupboards in the dining room, but I was thinking of putting vacuum bagged clothes in one and crockery in the other one.

Where would be the best place to keep shoes and coats and handbags - the general everyday stuff?!

In our current flat we have lots of lovely built-in cupboards, and I have a feeling I'm going to miss them. How do people keep things tidy and organised, yet easy to use in a house like this?

Hmm, tricky.

I assume there is a bit of dead space as you go up the stairs? A corner perhaps? Could you have a couple of pegs there for coats?

Or on the back of the understairs doors?

You could also get a carpenter to lift the carpet on the first couple of stairs and make simple drawers to store shoes. we are thinking about doing this when we extend our hallway. I saw it on a Grand Designs programme - looked cool.

Over the top of doors is empty space too - get a shelf put up over door ways to store books/saucepans in kitchen or other stuff you don't use much but still need.

Check out the www.holdingcompany.co.uk for some fab storage solutions.

I love those ideas, thanks! Only problem is it' a rented house, so won't be able to do the stairs idea. But I will probably be allowed to screw things into the walls, so the other 2 might work. There is not a lot of room in front of the stairs, just about enough for a 1 coat, 1 bag ki d of arrangement.

Will ask landlord about over the door shelves as that would help a lot in the kitchen.

It'll only be me and DD, so I wonder how bigger families do it!

Our first house was a small 2 bed with stairs in the lounge and I can't remember what me and DH did for coats. I think we probably kept them upstairs and just got them when needed. Annoying though.

Do the understairs cupboards have doors? I'd probably nail some coat hooks to the inside of the door if they do. Not sure about the shoes though, they're the bane of my existence - we do have a little hallway by the door, with a shoe rack in and everything, yet DP keeps finding new and interesting places to leave his...

which door will you be using to enter and leave the house? if the front then just put a row of hooks on the wall the door opens against and a rack for shoes. same if its the back door.

The cupboards do have doors. I suppose I could put the coats in there. Don't really want to keep them in the sitting room as that'll make it look like a waiting room sort of thing imo.

Argh. There are sooooo many things wrong with my current flat, but I do have a whole big cupboard just for shoes, coats and bags.

Perhaps I'll find some really pretty hooks so I can make a feature out of it?

or you could put hooks on the inside of teh front door and you can get one of those shoe 'pocket' holder things taht hangs on teh door aswell.

or what about a really nice coat and hat stand? and just keep one pair of shoes for each of you on the side of the stairs (so only two pairs tehre in total)

It is very tiresome finding a place for shoes. I have a big basket from IKEA but it starts to smell a bit when there are 16 pairs of sweaty school / work / gym shoes in it and I am forever taking as much as I can upstairs. I also have some plastic shoe storage thingies from IKEA which generally get used for gloves and scarves etc in the winter but they are quite good. The pegs on the wall where the front door opens onto is the solution I have found works best in our place. I'm never going to be clutter free i terms of coat storage so I've given up even trying. The drawers in the stairs thing on grand designs was a brilliant idea and I've thought about it once or twice but I couldn't inflict the noise created by carpetless stairs on my neighbours.

I bought a large(ish) wicker box and all the everyday shoes get stuffed in there which is brilliant. Then I bought a coat stand from Ikea for about £50 and it's solid and holds loads of coats. It sits by the back door and a barely notice it's there now.

We used to keep coats on the back of the understairs cupboard door. Everything out of season or not everyday we kept in our wardrobes so in practice only 1 or at most 2 coats there each. I had high hooks for grown ups and low hooks underneath for kids.

I'm racking my brain trying to think where shoes went but I remember now that we lined them up in the non used fireplace, which didn't look fab tbh, we were meant to keep them upstairs but it didn't happen.

Thanks for all those great ideas. I've been thinking I might have to get one of those over the door pocket things for shoes.

I also love the idea of having lower hooks for DD so she can put her stuff away herself.

Thanks!

We have a chest of drawers in the room - on top sre flowers and candles and inside - shoes and childrens stuff - works well 4 us.............

We had hooks at the bottom of the stairs for coats and at the front door there was a small amount of space between where the front door frame was and the wall, so we had some little adapted shelves at exactly the width of that space with lips at the front that shoes got chucked in.

You need to use the understairs cupboards and you need an Ikea shoe cabinet.

I've got some of those portable hooks (Homebase for nice metal ones, Morrissons for cheap plastic ones) that have another hook on the back so you can place them over doors etc. I've hooked some against my stair banisters, and put coathooks on those. You have to be a bit careful not to knock them off as you walk past, though.

Ours are in a basket (shoes) and coats hang on door under stairs. I try to put seasonal coats/shoes away in wardrobes to save space.

you can get coat hangers that you can hang over a door, so no drilling neccessary.