A basket with a lid on it near your front door would probably do the trick.

I use over the door shoe organizers on the back of the coat closet (or any other closet) door to hold hats, gloves, scarves, sunglasses, anything! You can also mount baskets or bins on the wall if you don't have much floor space.

I like the shoe organizer idea. I have a basket inside my coat closet that I use for stuff like that.
My plan is to eventually get a small 3 drawer dresser near the front door and use that for purses, hats, gloves, etc. I haven't found the perfect one yet.
I find that anything sitting out in the open always ends up overflowing and creating an eyesore even if it has a lid and no matter how hard you try to keep it looking neat.

Try an Ikea shoe cabinet that attaches to the wall. I have a very narrow hall, so I got this one which is only 7" deep: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/50178171/
It fits on the wall behind where my door opens. I use it for my daughter's shoes and winter things. There's a taller, narrower version, as well as other styles.

i second the basket - but i keep my scarves on 2 hangers in my coat closet - kind of like this:

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/tutorials/scarves-how-i-wear-em.html

We use a hanging shoe organizer in the closet - the tall skinny kind that hangs on a rod, rather than over the door or so.

One of the easiest methods that has worked for me is to really pare down the items. Really pare down. If you can keep just 2 or 3 coats, then you can shove appropriate gloves in each coat's pockets & hang the coordinating scarf around the neck of the coat.

For example- your dress coat would hold your leather gloves & your cashmere scarf. Your casual coat would hold fleece gloves and scarf. Ok, so I'm a bit specific, but you get what I mean.

Hats- if you have a really nice dress hat (not many people do nowadays), it would come in a nice hat box that can be put on a shelf or in the closet. A knit watch cap will roll up easily into another coat pocket.

If you have several caps/ hats/ scarves that you like to change out regularly, you can hang hooks or a hook system on the inside of your coat closet door. If you use a coat tree, this method will work ok, too, as long as you limit the number of extras. A small basket or bin will fit in the bottom of a closet, even a shallow one. Take a look around your house to see if you already have some storage you can shuffle around & maybe even move a piece of furniture if you need to for the season. A small nightstand or a small dresser can be placed near the front door to create a little landing area.

If you have stuff like ski/ snowboard gear, that stuff should go elsewhere stored in a closet unless you use it every weekend.

Good luck!

I love the basket idea, I just wish we had a mudroom. For coats and scarves, we use hooks on the wall in either the closets or on the back stairwell. It's a dream for space saving.

since OJ sold Isotoners

If you don't have a real entryway, have you tried creating an entry space with a table or shelving unit? If so, then just incorporated some pretty, lidded storage into that. For instance, we keep stuff for our kids on the bottom shelf of one of our bookshelves in the front halway, and further up I recently added all the hairbrushes and combs and a little 3-drawer unit that holds all the headbands, pontails, and clips since we always frantically do hair as we're trying to put on booksacks and get in the car. If you have a table in there, get a long ottoman/bench with storage inside and slid it under the table. It can be seating for parties and putting on shoes, turn the table into a desk, and hide all the stuff.

I second the Ikea shoe cabinet for gloves, hats, scarves. The cabinets are so narrow, they fit in almost any entryway and have great stuffable bins, which work for things other than shoes. The ledge atop the shoe cabinet doubles as a great area for a catch all; put a decorative bowl on in for keys, wallet etc. Now if only they would make a low and long one we could put under our windows...

I agree with c in westchester: Ikea shoe bins! We have two mounted to the wall, one for gloves, one for hats. I put my keys in a bowl on top, along with a vase that holds sunglasses. It's our landing strip, and it works so, so well!

I can't believe I never thought of "keep a pair of gloves in each coat pocket." Brilliant!

I like the idea of hanging file holders like this or this. They can't be too deep or it will be hard to take things out of them.

My luggage is in my front hall closet. My winter accessories are in my luggage!
You dont have to buy anything else, make space for anything else.
You just utilize the dead space in your luggage.
usually put in tote first, then in my luggage, so that I can easily pull out if I get to go anywhere warm!

We use the over-the-door shoe pockets, too. One row of pockets for each person in the family, with an extra row for foldable umbrellas and such. It actually hangs on the outside of the powder room door, since we don't have any closets on the first floor. (Old, old house.) The organizer is made of heavy-duty fabric in a bold, abstract floral print that I actually like looking at. I love that all the hats, scarves and gloves are organized and easy to find.

Love the gloves in coat pocket idea. In the trunk of your car is a good place too. We keep our least favorite winter gear in there, along with our "second least favorite" winter gear. If we forget something, at least we have half decent gloves / scarves etc. Even worse scenario we break down somewhere, we have plenty of warm clothing.

I use the shoe pocket thingy, too. It works great. I've also used the type that hangs from the closet rod (makes a mini shelving unit inside the closet). For awhile I repurposed an old CD shelf by the back door to hold gloves and hats, but it was too much of a mess magnet. I still think the idea was a good one, but we do better with the clutter behind a door.

We also have milk crates in the bottom of our coat closet to collect extra gloves, hats and scarves that are used less frequently. I go through yearly and give away anything that NEVER seems to get used, but for a family of 4 it is nice to have lots of extras and most do get pulled out during each winter.

I am too fixated on the picture to even give you advice-- I had those gloves when I was little but mine were hearts, not penguins.

I had a similar situation and hung several pretty canvas tote bags on hooks and used one for each persons hats, mitten etc.

In our last house, we had a really nice antique chest of drawers that we kept near the front door. Each of us (my husband, myself, and our two sons) had our own drawer where we kept our hats and mittens in the winter, and our sunglasses and hats and summer things in the summer. It was a great system and it looked awesome, too.

I've found that those temporary 5M hooks (is that what they're called) are WONDERFUL for things like this, especially when -- the hook/storage needs are temporary and / or you're a renter and you don't want to be drilling holes.

You can buy these temporary hooks in a variety of sizes and finishes -- brushed nickel, darker "oil-rubbed" bronze for example,

Place several of them on the back of your door or somewhere in the entryway where the wall is smooth. I find they adhere best to oil-painted smooth surfaces. You can hang your scarves directly on that, or if you want, get some pretty satchels or baskets to throw stuff into.

You might find baskets like this:
http://www.dibor.co.uk/images/prod/N518.jpg
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Primitive-Wall-Hanging-Basket/dp/B005078CAS
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002D48YTK/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B005078CAS&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1SQW7HKX5VJVB9V89SX6
http://www.etsy.com/listing/86651735/vintage-wicker-basket-hanging-wall?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=hanging+wall+basket&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
http://www.etsy.com/listing/111243312/hanging-wall-basket-vintage-jv?ref=sr_gallery_6&ga_search_query=hanging+wall+basket&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
http://www.etsy.com/listing/112200696/indigo-storage-pod-selection-with?ref=sr_gallery_44&ga_search_query=hanging+storage+basket&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
http://www.etsy.com/listing/112658602/crochet-hanging-basket?ref=sr_gallery_18&ga_search_query=hanging+storage+basket&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=all

I do this too, perfect on the inside of my hall closet door!

I used clothesline and clothes pins for mittens and gloves. I tied a loop in one end and hung it from a coat hook. Then I threaded the clothesline through the clothes pins (this was a little tricky--I think I wrapped the end in some kind of tape to make it stiff enough to thread). I could thread as many pins as I wanted and move them up or down. The angle of the pins and the friction keep the pins in position--some higher for adults and some lower for kids. Then I just pin the gloves and mittens on the line. Suppose you could pin hats too.

I've struggled with the same issue. We have a teeny entryway, which luckily has some shelves on the side hidden by a curtain (the last tenants were geniuses). But I have way too many winter accessories to fit them all neatly there, especially since this storage area also houses our broom, recycling, kitchen stuff (we don't have kitchen cabinets--talk about a storage nightmare!), etc. So this year, I've cleared out part of a drawer of my dresser in the bedroom by moving some summer things to a box under the bed, and am keeping my extra winter hats/scarves in there. It's tight quarters, but I promise I do a thorough weeding a few times a year--these are the keepers I'm referring to. :)