Friday, October 30, 2015

Drop Zone

Now that Ollie and Rhett are both in school and the weather is cooling, I'm finding the backpacks/shoes/coats mess a bit unbearable. Our house has no mudroom nor garage, so when you enter the front door, well, you're in the family room. We have a box where shoes are supposed to be deposited. We have a coat closet, but really, the kids can't reach to hang up clothes there. We also have buckets in that same closet where kids are supposed to put hats and gloves, but let's be honest: they never make it that far until I ask nicely, or not-so-nicely. Basically everything gets dropped right at the door. Not awesome.

My so-smart sister-in-law (who has such a nice mudroom/drop zone, lucky her) suggested making the backdoor (the one that enters the playroom) our main door. We could create some sort of "lockers" for the kids to put their things.

So there you have it: our two options. Now you get have to vote. Here are some examples and pros and cons of each.

Front Door:
We'd need to add/create something like this:


or this:


or this:

Pro: The pergo floors in that room are better suited for Maryland's wet climate.
Con: All of that mess would be in our main room, probably making me crazy.
Con: We'd have to move/take down what's already there, and I like what's already there.

Back Door:
We could go with something simple, like the first picture (but would include a second hook for coats and storage underneath for shoes and gloves and probably exclude the large corkboards):


or create something more elaborate like this:

Pro: As the boys know their letters (well, Ollie is getting there), taking down what we have on the designated wall is no problem and probably, timely.
Con: The carpeted floors will get destroyed.
Con: We'd have to move around some stuff to make room.

So what do you think? What do you do in your house, because maybe that would work for me? Rule: If you read this, you must comment. This policy will be strictly enforced by unknown methods.

3 comments:

  1. So I love all those ideas and I don't know what to tell you! But I would probably go for the back-door - that's what we use for going to and coming from school. I could not stand the mess in my front room. Maybe take out a little bit of the carpet and have a "pergo" landing pad or sorts?

    So what we have done is Ben created a coat hook. There are 4 sides on the post/beam and then each side has 4 pegs - a hat, gloves, and backpack/coat. It works well, but I still have to remind my kids (years later) to hang up everything. But it doesn't take too much space and fits right in a corner in our back room.

    Here are some things I found on pinterest:
    Our is kind of like this, but shorter and with 4 pegs on each side -
    http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2013/12/diy-coat-rack.html

    Scroll down to about the 6th picture, this would be quick and easy:
    http://palletfurniturediy.com/pallet-furniture/30-diy-furniture-made-from-wooden-pallets/

    Ours is similar to the 5th picture, but our post is square, not round-
    http://www.digsdigs.com/keeping-clothes-off-the-floor-28-coat-rack-and-stands/

    Very similar to ours, we just have a wider post -
    http://ana-white.com/2011/02/coat-tree-under-10

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well I guess since I HAVE to comment now, here are my thoughts. ;)

    I would hate having the mess in the front room as well (although I am living with it now, haha), but I would consider what will ACTUALLY work for you guys....will you really use the back door to enter rather than the front? Since the front door is closer to the driveway, it seems to me that you would still be tempted to use it more often than the back door (I would anyway). And if the hooks/mudroom area are by the back door and people are actually coming in the front door, I guarantee the mess will stay in the front room. No one is going to go in the back to hang things up unless they are yelled at by mom. Just sayin'. Also...when guests come over, they will want to hang stuff up too mostly likely. And they will come through the front. However...if you can get people to commit to using the back, I would say keep the mess back there.

    Whichever one you choose, I have no doubt it will be cute and crafty and pinterest-worthy. As for what we do, we hung up some simple coat racks with hooks both at kid level and adult level, and it has been life-changing. It's super ugly to look at, but I really wish we would have done it sooner.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You know this is the stuff of my dreams... literally! I like the first picture a lot and dream of something like that in my dream house with my dream garage. I also like the first picture in the "back door" series. Add a basket below for shoes and another one for hats/gloves. Either way, good luck! What fun to be able to work on this project and rearrange things!

    ReplyDelete