Quick Fix: the Kids Stuff Drop Zone
Pardon the quick detour from our basement reveal series, but had to sneak in a couple non-basement fixes! This is an update to one we've already shared because my how quickly things change! It's only been two years since we cleaned up our laundry room and made a drop zone for the kids stuff. But as they grow, their stuff continues to grow with them. (Don't even get me started on the fact Hank's clothes are now big enough that I have to do TWO loads of laundry for him. haha) But between the winter coats, bags of snow gear and more, we started running out of room in our oh-so-organized coat closet and needed to figure out a better place to control the chaos - and my sanity. Enter: another drop zone fix in our laundry room. It really had started to become unruly...
I decided we needed something primarily for coats and backpacks, and shoes that could be fully dedicated to the kids. Since we've recently gone electronic with a family scheduler app, the wall space we were using for our calendar wasn't being used anymore.
It's not a big space - only about 48" wide - so I wanted to go vertical... with everything cleared out, we had a blank slate and I set out to find a mudroom style hall tree with hooks and drawers.
Zach will attest to this, but when I get something on my mind, and I find a few hours to make it happen, I GO. So when I found Home Depot had a hall tree that I could order online and it'd arrive just one day later while we were all home over New Years, I jumped.
It took a couple hours of assembly, but came together pretty easily. Luckily we had just moved our kitchen table downstairs so I had plenty of room for that. This would have been an issue if you're limited on space.
The Kids Drop Zone Hall Tree
Fully assembled, I anchored it to the wall and we were ready to roll. My only complaint was this color was advertised as "Polar Off White" - in person, it gives off a little bit too green of an undertone for me, but with items on it, it's not as noticeable.
As much as I don't love storing things "out in the open" - this controls the kids' stuff and has been (amazingly) a game changer in changing how they enter the house and where they drop their stuff.
They used to walk in and dump their stuff on the kitchen table, no matter how many times we asked them to hit the laundry room first.
Now, they've got their spot, it's easy to get to, and doesn't require opening any doors... plus it's kind tucked away still from things... the magic of getting kids to do what you want them to when they have a dedicated space!
That's it. A whole blog where I could have just said, "we added a hall tree to the laundry room." But it was more fun this way, right? Ok ok... more basement updates coming next week - promise!
Need a coat and shoe organization fix? Here's what we used:
