Dear friends -- I'm too lazy tonight to straighten up this shameful display. But this is just because I promised I'd post the scene. My excuse is I'm recovering from seasonal sneezes and misery but it does often get like this. Anyway, you see to the right is the refrigerator already! Previously I had a shelf on the wall next to the door facing stairs. I realised one day that I hated to go into the kitchen because I was always squeezing by! Yes, I've got to clean up those magnets on the door. There are some shoes on the bottom two shelves of that book case and the top part becomes a catchall. The tidiest place I ever lived was when my family had a 2nd floor apartment and you came through the door into a long hall that led directly to the kitchen. Things did get dumped there (my poor mother) but they got cleared out right away. I have never ever lived in a place with a so-called landing pad which is probably why I haven't organized better. It's a new term for me. Hoping you can see this and thanks for all the help you gave me. I'll go with the Ikea and reorganize the TINY closet to the right of the bottom stairs in the photo.

This is a high-degree-of-difficulty request! :) No wall space, three car seats (do they never live in the car?), and more. Is this whole space entry? e.g., is there any real furniture that would appear in the first photo, or is this all empty? what is the mat on the left in that shot? Without closing up any windows, I'd say use the zone where the window is higher to set up a bunch of hooks and/or cubbies for coats and bags. Under the picture window you could put a long bench, with a mat/tray underneath for shoes and boots. (As the kids get older, this may need to evolve into more closed storage, but start small.) Add a chest on the wall by the door, where mittens and other small stuff can be stored. More suggestions with more info...

OK, so I confess--I'm captivated by this problem. I spent my evening commute thinking of you and your tiny entryway and your shoes. The slimmest possible profile would be shoe pockets. You could do the tension-rod thing up near the ceiling, and use a chain or cord to hang the pockets. Then anchor the thing at the bottom by staple-gunning it to the wooden baseboard (even if you rent--covering the hole in the baseboard will be easy to do when you move out). What if you relied on shoe pockets, but cut them in half, to be two pockets wide? Get a seamstress to sew the extra pockets on at the top or bottom, and remake the two bottom-most pockets to be taller for the boots to go in sideways (one boot per pocket)? And dye the entire thing maroon or red-orange to blend in with the wall better. (Since I sew, if it were my problem, I'd make my own set of shoe pockets, and make the pockets taller so that they cover more of the shoe, and put elastic in the top hem of the pocket to pull the extra fabric back in so the shoe doesn't flop out into the space.) And anchored the pockets to the baseboard at the bottom (you can fill in nail holes on woodwork pretty easily, so you could do this even if you're renting). If you wanted a curtain, you could cut a piece of wood to attach a curtain rod to (they make curtain rods that stick out 3" or 4"; that's what I'd get, and then you couldn't have very many lumps affecting the curtain or getting in the way when you moved it), and then sandwich the wood between the tension rod and the brick wall (put something rubbery or sandpapery on the back of the wood so it resists slipping against the brick). This would mean your curtain would be really tall, up to the ceiling (or wherever you decided to put the tension rods--flush against the ceiling would be least obtrusive) but that would sort of look neat. And you would need only a narrow curtain, so whatever you buy, you could cut in half vertically and sew end-to-end so you would probably have enough length Using curtain rings that slide easily would mean it's easy to pull the curtain back out of the way.

The narrow Hemnes Ikea shoe cabinet is just great for entryways, though you might need something else for the construction boots--big basket. Other option is a long, attractive bench with great looking baskets underneath. The trick to any of these storage options is to put a red stop sign in front of the rest of the house that no one can pass unless their shoes go inside whatever unit you have. :) P.S. Why not remove the doors on the console cabinet you already have and give everyone a section for their shoes? That's honestly the best solution. If you don't want to look at shoes, then get baskets that fit the shelves on the cabinet.