Getting the Kid's Stuff off of the Floor

By Stephanie LH Calahan

Hook for David's coatI don't normally write a lot on my son, but this week I'm inspired, so what the heck! I bet that I am like a lot of moms at the end of the day. So, when school began this past fall, David would come home and his book bag, coat and shoes hit the floor by the front door and he goes running. I was a bit more understanding when he was in kindergarten, but now that he is a "big" first grader, this is just unacceptable.

So, I sat him down and had a heart to heart. Yes, he knew where his things belonged. Yes, he understands that his stuff on the floor looks bad and more importantly, it is dangerous where it ends up. Yes, he knows where his stool is to reach the bar… that is when he admitted the problem.

"It takes too long Mom!" Now, I remember that to a kid a few seconds can seem like a long time, so I humor him a bit. Turned out, he did not like wrangling the stool out to hang up his coat. Now I could have lectured him, but I decided to pick my battles and find a different way.

The Solution

I took a regular wreath hook - the kind that you hang over a door to hang a wreath - and turned it upside down (see picture above.) I showed him his "special David only" hook and he was thrilled.

Hook for David's coat with coat Now, the coat is always hung up because it is right at his level. His shoes are in the cubbie (at his level) right by the coat and the book-bag is on the floor next to the cubbies. I no longer have any issues with things going where they belong.

What Organizing Rule Does This Fit?

The more steps it takes to do something, the less likely we are to do it. This rule applies to most everyone. If you have a system that you set up and it just is not working for you, check to see how many steps you have put into the system. See if there is a way to make it simple. Get rid of the steps that are not absolutely necessary and I bet you will find that you start using that great system you developed.

Believing in you,

Stephanie Calahan

http://www.ProductiveAndOrganizedHome.com

Posted April 15, 2008, filed in Repurposed Products, How I de-cluttered, Clutter Control Products, Before & after photos

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2 Comments

From Carla, April 16 2008

Very cool idea. Our big issue were the shoes thrown in the laundry room as soon as they walked in the door.

We ended up hanging a shoe rack on the door, and that has pretty much solved it. I don't particularly like looking at it when I come in, but it's better than wading through shoes and socks.

I like your post signature! Is that a Wordpress plugin?

Carla's last blog post..Does Yellow Page Advertising Work?

From Stephanie LH Calahan, July 6 2008

Carla -
I am SO SORRY for the late response on this post. Not very organized of me to respond so late! All I can say is that your comment got stuck in my junk folder and I'm sorry.

We use a number of over the door items in our home. I agree about the look and that it is better than wading through shoes! In our case (and you can kind of tell that by the picture in my post) we have shoe cubbies in the closet.

Thanks for the compl. on my sig. No it is not a plug in. It is a scanned image that I put into the posting. JPG.

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