No entryway but I still need help organizing things for work and school

Our house is an older house that doesn't have a true entryway. We leave our house by going through the kitchen downstairs to the garage.

I'd like to have a 'landing place' for our backpacks, keys, briefcases, purses, etc... but I'm not sure where to put those.

Our kitchen is a galley style kitchen so it's also small.

I have attached a picture of the space that might be available for organizational help. (Never mind the mess . . . that will be gone soon!)

Any help that you can suggest for creating a place for us to put things that need to go with us in the morning would be most helpful!

Comments for No entryway but I still need help organizing things for work and school

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Sep 02, 2011
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by: Samantha

Think about what's going to go in the space. You definitely need a 'landing spot' to place things you need to grab in go in the morning.

Ask yourself are you going to keep kid's stuff like back packs in the house, or in the garage?

If it's in the garage you can create cubbies for each kid with hooks to hang their stuff on. Same thing inside. I don't have too much space inside, so depending on the time of year (weather), I change between keeping cubbies in the garage and simple hooks for each kid's stuff inside.

I found some pretty fleur de lis hooks off eBay that I hung in my laundry room to capture back packs and jackets. I keep my purse on a separate decorative hook on another wall high up away from little hands. A small hanging basket is kept on the wall right by the door to put car/house keys in as we come in the door. Since your space is small you may want to keep as much as possible off the ground by hanging items. If you're at all handy, you can also check out the following fun site for building plans to build your own organizational cubby system for your family.

http://ana-white.com/plancatalog?page=1&keys=dining%20table&term_node_tid_depth=All&collections=All&findplansbyroom=All&findplansbyskilllevel=All&estimated_lumber_cost=All&style=All

If the link doesn't come up, simply copy and paste it into your browser. There's a ton of plans to build those expensive organizational systems you see in Pottery Barn and the like for a fraction of the cost.

I'm partial to keeping things off the ground using decorative hooks, but I've found that a small table/chest/flat surface is necessary to have handy to place things on I walk in the door. A good mat is essential too to capture dirt and dust and keep it from entering the house.

If you do go the route of a floor based organizational system such as cubbies, be sure to utilize baskets/bins to categorize and capture like items. For instance mittens, hats, scarves look much better in a basket rather than strewn about on a shelf. You can also use vintage trays, bowls, tins, etc. This keeps misc. items looking nice and neat.

I hope this helps, let me via the contact us link on the bottom left know if you have any questions.

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