Is the entrance to your home a mess? Do you have piles of paperwork on your countertops and jackets lying on furniture? Are you constantly scrambling to get out the door when your family members can’t find their belongings? Raise your hand if you can relate to any of this? Click here to read our best practices for having a drop zone that isn’t a disaster.

Here are our top 5 tips to having a drop zone that helps your family find the things they need and even put them away!

1. Have a home for shoes & some guildines for what shoes get to live there. In our home we have a shoe rack next to the door we use most. Adults get space for 1-2 pairs of shoes and kids have bins for socks, shoes, mittens, etc. While it doesn’t always stay this tidy, 30 seconds of work can have it reset.

2. Don’t feel like all of something has to fit in one space. Our home has three spaces for jackets because that’s how things fit. Adult jackets in front coat closet near door we don’t use often. One jacket for each child lives on the dowel hooks above and extra coats go on command hooks & hangers in nearby closet.

3. Make it EASY for your family to put things away. Consider hanging hooks lower than usual so your kids can actually reach them. Let Command Hooks be your friend and a temporary solution for your kids while they’re little. There are plenty of nice looking Command options these days. Label things by person if need be so it’s clear for everyone when they’re cleaning up.

4. Have homes for paperwork and mail. We use magazine boxes as a temporary landing zone for everyone’s paperwork.

5. Make a list and create homes for additional items that are constantly brought in and out of your home. This might include keys, sunscreen/bug spray in the Spring/Summer, hats/mittens in the Fall/Winter. Then determine where they should go that make sense. On a tray, in a basket, on hooks, etc.

We hope these five practical tips will help your drop zone stay tidy!