What's in your hall?

[YuleNeverKnow]

So it's 4 days before Christmas Day. Here's what's in my hall, spread across 2 tables and the floor:

Vase of half-dead flowers, advent calendar, wall-clock (but not on the wall), a pile of magazines, an empty jiffy bag, a stanley knife, 1 tower of 3 boxes containing the rest of the Christmas decors which we cba to put up, a new headlamp unit (enormous) for my car, 12 bottles of wine, DH's briefcase, laptop bag and work rucksack, DH's old rucksack, a bag for the charity shop, a huge empty cardboard box ('because it might be useful), 2 pairs of DH's gloves, 2 of DH's hats (hmm, I'm starting to see a pattern), various candles in holders.

All downstairs rooms are cluttered with stuff in the wrong places. The tidiest room is our bedroom, but I'm not serving Christmas dinner in there.

I feel some serious decluttering coming on!!

What's your house like today?

Oh, hahahahaha! I thought this was going to be a question about how to furnish a hallway, and I was going to make some facetious remark about all the crap scattered around my hallway. We have 4.5 pair of shoes (one shoe out in the yard covered in dog poo), a bag of books for the charity shop, also a Jiffy bag, a hammer and box of picture hooks, two bottles of shower gel and one of carpet shampoo, a bag of dog toys, a bag of bird food, the coat hook that fell off the wall about 2 years ago and never got fixed, a jumble of junk mail and unsorted bank statements, a jam jar with assorted screws/buttons/coins/fluff...

Definitely going to do some decluttering over the next day or two. Quite a few jobs to finish off over Christmas.

Case of wine. Crate of fizz. Rack of wine. Rack of spirits. In fact I hardly drink myself (true), so some flavoured waters as well. Two rolls of nice new cream carpet (after carpeting the previous house to sell it, I scored the rest of the roll cut to size of two bedrooms in this one). Some coats and shoes. Car wash and garden stuff by the back door.

This week there are also two portiere rods and two door curtains waiting for the fairies to put them up over the holiday.

I wish I had a hall big enough to accomodate all that

Mine is just a narrow soul-less passage with random crap that the DCs have dumped in it

When it is tidy: shoes on the shoe rack with the key bowl on top and the post beside. Then the coats hanging on the rail beside and a basket with gloves, hats, scarves etc in. The buggy folded and leaning against the wall and a basket containing outdoor toys like footballs, frisbees etc.

At the moment: there is a all the kids nursery stuff dumped there waiting to be sorted, all dh's stuff dumped there waiting to be sorted, shopping and laundry waiting to be put away, the cat carrier and two bags of rubbish. There is sort of a narrow walkway between all the stuff. Might go and sort it

Nothing, other than a jacket over the newel post.

It did have three doors, muddy golf shoes, two spare pots of paint, plastic wrapping, wrapping paper, light switches, etc, until we cleared it out for a party yesterday. All that rubbish has just been relocated around the house...

Too many bikes...

The floor is at least clear and hoovered, and coats and shoes are stashed under the stairs.

DH has been planning a bike shed for some time.

Oh this is a boast about the size of your hallway!!!

No but really I bet your house is lovely, and I'm sure the hallway looks cluttered to you, but other people would think its nice and welcoming and homely. I can't stand empty-looking homes.

My hallway has lots of pairs of shoes, some wine in a rack under the stairs, and a big pile of paperwork and catalogues which probably needs sorting out.

Mostly dog hair because I stopped hoovering at the kitchen and am now sat down having a cup of tea.

I feel so much better now ...
Yes it is a relatively big hall, but with all that clutter it doesn't look it. It's just that most of the stuff I listed really needed to be somewhere else, and the same was true of every other room downstairs.
It's all much better today - not perfect, but better.

Happy decluttering!

I've no room for half that stuff!! I've got shoe rack and coat pegs and that's it!

Four life sized elephant statues, three gilded chandeliers, two palm trees in pots, the three Afghan Hounds, a selection of paintings, an ornamental fountain in portland stone, a couple of bookcases, three leather armchairs, a wicker table and six chairs under the grapevine, two ornamental ponds filled with carp, our private letter box, doorways to the servants quarters, the boot room, the gun room, and the winter garden, and Higgins, our faithful retainer whose job it is to open the front door and take our guests coats, hats and umbrellas.

Mine is tidy

[smug]

A (dressed) Christmas tree
A piano with cards on top
A console table with pair of lamps, lamps, big bowl for keys (sounds dodgy, isn't), small pile of post, DH's charging iPod, DD's phone, small bowl with coins in (we chuck our change into it and DD helps herself for school bus fare).
Rug (vacuumed)

[smuggy mcsmugpants]

Don't look in the study though, that's where all the crap lives

Oh and obv the chair for the piano.

Rest of the house is relatively ok as we are a bit clean obsessive so to most people it probably looks pretty good. I'm supposed to be finishing running the vac around.

Mine isn't cluttered, but I'm unable to decorate, I lack skill. So my guests will enter into a freshly painted hallway devoid of any cheer!

No idea why I mentioned lamps twice. I'm an eejit

2 muddy prams (as car boots are full of presents ready to go to people's houses!)
A wicker reindeer.
Heaps of shoes.
Several 'Sorry we missed you' dreaded notes from deliveries!!!!
Three amazon boxes.

(And DD2's grobag for some reason??! I suspect DD1 at play....)

do you have a piano in your hall, NDP?

Perhaps I should get one. the minstrels' gallery isn't really big enough :-(

There are five people living in this house and approximately 15 coats .... Couple of umbrellas, shoerack, more shoes, some more shoes. Shoe cupboard. Mirror with mirror shelf covered in hair bobbles etc. Top of shoe cupboard ditto. Memo board. Advent calendar. Gardening gloves. Binoculars.

We have a big hall now (4 pushchairs, trunk, cupboard, hoover, bookcase, chair, mirror and masses of STUFF) but we're moving, and I'm going to need something to fit in a narrow one, a sort of cupboardy-chest of drawersy type thing, not more than about a foot deep.

Has anyone got any recommendations? Seems the place to ask

shoe cabinet. They have special tilting drawerfronts

Well hmmm, grand idea in principle but it's not got to have shoes in, because they simply would not fit.

It's for stuff like gloves and bills I don't want to open. The shoes will have their own étage.

But thankyou kindly. I shall go and look at those anyway.