Week #2 Challenge - The Launch Pad

The second weekly challenge from Toni at "A Bowl Full of Lemons" is our launch and landing pads in our home. Well, technically, it's from Laurie, of "Handy Man, Crafty Woman" who is guest posting on Toni's blog for this week's challenge.

So here I am to show you our launch and landing pads. Our system maybe isn't the greatest, but it works well for our family. And I need to apologize right now for the pictures, I have misplaced my camera cord so I am using the camera on my phone to take pictures with and it's not the greatest quality.

First off, when you come into our house, you are standing in our living room. Our living room is mostly carpet, except for the part of the floor that you are standing on when you first come through the door. That area is about 3 feet by 5 feet and is linoleum. I hate linoleum, by the way. But we live in a rental and the flooring is not our choice. If it were my choice, the whole area would be hardwood.

So, anyhow, we have a rug here where we put our shoes and boots while they are wet and/or muddy. With six people in our family and with each person having mulitple pairs of shoes, we have a LOT of shoes, so we try to keep only one pair of shoes in use at each time. The rest we try to keep in the front closet, which is just beyond the linoleum.

We have four hooks on the wall above the linoleum (and behind the door). These hooks are used predominately for the kids' coats and backpacks. It's an easy system for them because they all have hooks at their schools as well. Plus, it seems to be easier for our kids to keep their coats picked up when we remove as many extra steps as possible, such as opening a closet door and using a coat hanger. When we have guests over, we move the kids' coats to the closet and we use the hooks for our guests' coats and purses.

We also have a little shelf with three hooks on the wall next to the door. I use these hooks for our keys as they are really not sufficient for coats and such. I also will occasionally hang a gait belt on one of the hooks so that I don't forget to put it on before leaving for work.

For our kids' paperwork from school, I go through their backpacks once they are on their hooks and pull out all of the papers that I need to look through, which I do at the kitchen table. That is also where I sort through the mail. It's convenient because it is also right next to the trash can and the recycling bin. I sit down with the kids' paperwork and have them rapid-fire decide whether to keep it or toss it once I have had a chance to look through it. I do the same thing with the mail. I sort through it and then toss out anything that doesn't need to be kept. I need to come up with a better plan for organizing the bill paperwork, but I recently brought up an old plastic file box that I can use to sort it. I plan to keep it under the desk.

There is also our large family calendar on the wall close to our kitchen table, so I can mark down our activities as well as the due dates on the bills.

That pretty well covers most of the landing and a little bit of the launch. For the kids, our launch includes their backpacks, coats and shoes being ready and accessible by the door and the things that need to go back to school being already in their backpacks.

For Hubby, he doesn't really need to launch each day so he is kind of on his own for that. For me, I keep my work bag and my suitcase in my car, so that I don't have to try to remember it. Because here's a little secret - I constantly forget it otherwise. :)

So that is our home and our launch pad.