"All of the sorting should happen right at the door--that is what the landing strip is all about." {Maxwell}
I know, I know. What happened to Day 7? I'm halfway done with it, and in attempt to not skip anything, I've decided I'll get back to it Sunday, because it includes a project with some personal history and meaning. More on that later.
Today, it's all about the landing strip. Probably my second favorite discovery from Maxwell (the man behind Apartment Therapy and the Home Cure), after the outbox. His video explains the landing strip perfectly with the visual to walk you through it.
{Day 8: ESTABLISH A LANDING STRIP}
There are three components to a good filter at the entrance of a home: {1} entry rug, {2} coat rack and {3} landing strip. First, our landing strip as it was in Florida and the updated landing strip before we moved.
Now, here's our current set-up:
{1} ENTRY RUG
We have two rugs at our entryway. I don't love either of them, but they do their job. One catches moisture, etc. as we walk in the door; the other (photographed above) offers a place to put our shoes once removed rather than on the clean carpet. (Can you tell colder weather is coming?) While I'd love for this to be all the shoes that are ever here, I'm often weeding out the pile of shoes that accumulates here to one per person. The extra's get thrown in the closet which will soon have a special shoe storage to keep things organized. (Once I convince Daniel there truly is a different between having shoes nicely set on a shelf and having them thrown in a pile.)
{2} COAT RACK
I love this coat rack. My brother found it... um, at a thrift store? Yes, I believe that's where he found it. Somehow it's been in my possession ever since, and I don't foresee him taking it back anytime soon (on account of him living so far away). In the winter, it often turns into a giant coat blob barely resembling a coat rack. But it is handy, and I try to hang the "extras" in the closet and, again, keep the coats hung here down to one per person.
It's also not only handy for collecting coats and scarves in the winter, it's been useful for umbrellas, bags, hats, keys, and even my husband's sunglasses and magnetic name badge. Seriously, that is one handy coat rack. This weekend, our mission is to find coordinating hooks that we will add around Brylee's height for the kiddos to hang their own items, and provide additional hookage for when we have company that would like a spot for their personal items.
{3} LANDING STRIP
This is the part of the front-door-filter that gets a little shady in our home. Lately, it's been my desk area that collects flat surface items like wallets, phones, and mail. Of course, leaving it to me to clean up, take care of or, more often than not, ignore. Other times these items clutter the bookshelf or dining table or counters or all of these places at once. (Okay, it rarely gets that bad.) On "set-up-outbox" day, I unpacked a tub of decorative items that included the silver leaf plate in the above picture. Turns out, it's the perfect size to collect Daniel's items (my items stay in my bag that gets hung on the coat rack) and even a movie rental or two. And not so big that it collects unnecessary stuff. That still leaves mail to land on my desk, but really I'm the one that deals with that anyway.
And that's our landing strip.
Alright "STUFF," I dare you to try to come into our home!!
No, actually, stay back. Even with our "front-door-filter" we're not the best at filtering and kicking you out.
Actually, a truly good filter starts outside the home. By making decisions on items when you're at the store, at work, wherever, then you're changing the things you bring home in the first place. It's called refusing and I learned the terminology and more about it through Bea Johnson, author of the blog The Zero Waste Home. Read about refusing here, and browse more of their blog. A truly inspiring family.
{PLEASE, do share}
I'd love to hear about your own {beginner} experiences with a landing strip and the main door filter. What works for you? What are your problem areas? How do you make decisions on the things you allow into your home? Better yet, have you started The 20/20 Cure?
