shelf help

So I need some shelf help — no, not self-help, well maybe a little of that too — but for now I’m talking about shelves … let me give you a quick tour of our entry way. When you walk into our house you use a side door, not the front door as this is the door that is connected directly to the driveway. I believe that it used to be a “breezeway” but the lovely people who owned the house before us decided to put the most awesome addition of a family room/sunroom/entryway. So this is the view when you walk up three little stairs to get into the house:

Above: Amazing kitchen to your right, big closet to the left, gloriously sunny family room in front of you.

Here I am standing at the refrigerator looking back towards that entrance … do you see them? the empty shelves?! Also note on the right hand side is the big closet I mentioned — it’s huge, and 3/4 empty itself.  (PS there’s my old car, Hi Jetta! I kinda miss you but my Rogue is way cooler and bigger then you were!)

Hopefully this photos shows you a little more of the awkwardness. As you can see Greg and I usually drop our work bags/purse here or on the chair. We use the chair to tie shoes which are usually on this rug and we have a pretty little tray for keys, garage door opener, sunglasses on the top of the shelves.

Here is my dilemma – the shelves are so short! Not in height, but in depth. They are less than 6 inches, so no books fit in them, nor pretty much anything else we have tried to put on them (picture frames are too low for the eye to see … and vases are the only other thing I can think of that we really tried.) We could definitely do some sort of “collection” here, but I *hate* clutter. Hate it. And with a baby on the way – what is the point of putting knick-knacks on a shelf for him to crawl towards and swallow.

So what say you people? What would YOU put on these terribly awkward shelves? Or are they not as awk as I think they are and I should just leave them empty? Any and all suggestions welcome!!