Make A Launch Pad

Okay. I know you have heard this one before, but I can not NOT mention it. Especially when we are talking about kids and getting back to school.

Every home needs a launch pad. It is just a simple place where you put everything so it is ready to go out the door as you do.  Want to see some really fancy ones with all of the cubbyholes and cabinets?  WOW!  Before you start saving up to build something, it can be much more simply done and still be effective.

Take a mental inventory of all of the stuff you need daily, maybe those you have for temperamental weather (an umbrella or two, not the complete Niagara Falls gear), and very frequently if not daily.  Now get creative. Start with solutions you already have around the house.  What furniture is already near the door your family uses? Can you make some of it work for you? Can you shop the rest of you house for something that would better serve your purposes? I’ve mentioned using various hooks before, particularly for keys.  Maybe a bowl or basket is more your style.

Study those pictures in the link above. You do not have to do the whole kit-and-caboodle. See what types of things all the nooks and crannies are meant to hold. See how many of the little details you could use.

We have had all sorts of launch pads over the years made from things we already had laying around or purchased inexpensively.

• Right now we are using a decorative welcome sign that has coffee cup hooks screwed into the bottom and a shelf on the top. Directly below the sign is a chair with arms to hold my son’s backpack at his level without letting it fall onto the floor. The little shelf holds our cell phones to charge overnight, and a small bowl to hold all of Hubby’s pocket items. We have gotten into the habit of tucking envelopes, notes and other little slips of paper under each others phones. The hooks hold our keys and one extra pocket umbrella. The chair holds the backpack and a tote bag I keep to hold anything I need for errands that will not fit under my phone such as library books or packages to mail. Hubby does not like the chair. He prefers to go ahead and put anything bigger in his car.
• We have used a shelf and coat hooks on the wall behind the door.
• We have used a his and her bowl on top of the TV. It seemed like the first and last thing we would do would be turn off/on the tube. We both learned to swap the remote for our stuff.
• We cut a table round (just a wooden circle from the home improvement store) in half and attached it to the wall using a huge decorative bracket, to make a console table. Our pocket items would go on top, again a dish of some sort for our keys, and our briefcases/laptops would tuck nicely on the floor below it.
• In college I simply used a laundry bag that hung from the door knob and just tossed everything in.

Consider Having More Than One Launch Pad.

The teenager had a lot of extracurricular stuff and then work clothes, too. There was just too much to keep everything at the family door.  We kept the items mentioned above at the door and set up a second launch pad in her room where she could organize her extra equipment for the week. It split the items up so that it did not overwhelm either space, yet both were visible as she was headed out.

We also set up color coded duffels with matching cubes in the trunk of her car.  (We kept an eye out at discount stores and in clearance sections until we had all we needed.) The cubes held all of the things she did not really need to bring into the house. She would bring in the duffel and take care of anything like laundry or paperwork, put the duffel in her launch pad, then toss the duffel in the matching cube the next day.

Consider Having A Landing Strip.

Setting up a separate spot to put things as you come in can have its benefits IF you use it to take action instead of as a dumping spot. It can remind you that you have not yet finished that work project you needed to do. It gives you a chance to see everything the kids have brought in and go through it for  homework, teacher communications, and that leftover food crammed in the bottom which you will want to discover sooner rather than later. Don’t take their word for it. I am not saying they can’t be trusted. I am saying they are particularly prone to distractions and memory lapses.

If you use a landing strip, make sure everything that lands gets transitioned somewhere else ASAP. You go through the kids bags, they do their homework and it goes to the launch pad. The same for your home work. Manage mail daily. Put any groceries and other shopping away as soon as you get it all into the house.  You get the idea.

If you can’t seem to break the dumping spot habit, set yourself a specific time daily or weekly to tackle THAT pile. Do read the daily mail article to give you an idea of how to collect and catch up on some of it. And always feel free to contact me if you need specific help.