Work In Progress: An Entry Way Command Center/Mudroom

Back in July my mom and a few of my nieces came to visit me from out-of-state! My husband and the kiddos were off visiting his parents for a few weeks, which gave us girls the perfect opportunity to work on a major project that I had been scheming about for a while.

Our main entry way:

I don't think I need to comment much on the hot, bubbly mess that just so happened to be the first thing everybody saw when they walked into our home. Ejdfkjghdkjgh. It was an OCD organization aficionado's nightmare.

Plus a few cherries on top.

Thankfully, after I agreed to decrapify her spider infested barn and garage ((this would make round two, blech!)), my sweet mommy offered to sponsor a complete overhaul of this section of our home!

Best. Mother. Ever.

So I got to planning! I had already had a few ideas in mind, but it took me a while to really hash out how I wanted to set up our new entry way.

I wanted this project to be something that not only looked nice, but that also took care of some major functional problems we were having in our household as well.

Namely, a better way of organizing our family schedules, paperwork, projects, cleaning, maintenance, budgets, bills, etc.  Not to mention putting together a more aesthetically pleasing drop zone for our bags, shoes, and coats as well.

In essence, I needed to create for ourselves a command center and a mudroom, all in one!

  So I planned it all out on paper, priced out all of the items I would need (via the internet), and then took a trip with my mom and my nieces to our local handy dandy Target.

And I honestly can't think of a single time ((when shopping that is)) that I've been giddier. Like, I swear there were butterflies floating down the isles kind of giddy, people!  ((You mean I can buy anything from Target that I want?! *Starry eyes* Okay!!!))

I found a lot of great items that matched the look I was going for. The "Fresh Bulbs" chest, pictured below,  is one of my favorite finds (I'll share with you my  plans for that piece later on in the post)!

But, the mail sorter definitely comes in close second. The grey stain and the chalkboard paint? Ahh, I die!

As soon as we got home, my nieces and I began the decluttering process and started putting all of our shopping loot into place.

This is what it looked like after night one:

 Seriously? It already looked sooo much better!

It has seen a few transformations since then (we moved the file boxes to a nearby closet & added a catch spot for our library books).  After a bit more tweaking, and a DIY Chalkboard project (that still isn't finished) it currently looks like this: 

I don't know about you, but I am loving how it has turned out so far! There is definitely still more to be done, but having what I do have set up has done wonders for keeping our home clean and organized.

As far as projects left to finish, I still need to give the chalkboard another coat of spray paint and then frame and mount it to the wall. I also am going to be turning the "Fresh Bulbs" box I mentioned earlier into a charging station for all of our electronics.

Besides that, I'll probably be adding a few more decorative items. I'll update you as I go. =]

 Below are some diagrams of how we are using this new set up to organize all of our "stuff."

Something I have been leaning to, more now lately than ever before, is creating a home where our children can be capable contributors to the family. This relieves stress on the mommy and daddy and instills accomplishment in the kiddos.

Part of our effort in accomplishing this goal in our entry way was to give them a place where they could hang up their own bags and coats by themselves.

And I seriously have been loving it!

It is so cute to watch my two year old come in the door, sit down and put her shoes in her own shoe box and walk over to the coat rack to hang up her own coat.

It is amazing how able our kids can be if we make an effort to allow them to be!

So, as I mentioned just a second ago our daughter, and in fact all of us, have our own shoe 'boxes'.   Really they end up holding more than shoes, but that was their primary purpose. A place to put shoes so they don't end up strewn all over our house. 

These boxes also act, however, as catch-alls for our personal items. Aside from his shoes, my husband tends to keep his sunglasses, bike helmet, gloves, and hats in his box as well.

The dog also got one. We keep his leashes, bones, collars, etc in there.  

As far as organizing all of our schedules, budgets, etc. that I mentioned earlier, I scoured Pinterest for some of the best Family Planner printables I could find and printed them off into our binder.  I'll do a more specific post later sharing the specific links I used, the different sections I created, as well as some of the printables I created for it on my own!

The Magazine holders you see pictured above (but maybe more clearly below) was the solution I came up with for catching all of our paper clutter. Most of the time, before this, our manuals, books, coloring pages, church calendars, newsletters, etc would end up on our kitchen counter. 

And it would create one big UGLY pile. And the worst part of the pile was that at least half of the papers I didn't know what to do with, because they didn't belong to me. I didn't know where to put them, if they were important, or if I could go ahead and throw them away.

My solution was to give each person their own box. Any papers they got from school, or work, or church would go straight into their personal magazine holder and they would be responsible to clean it out, as needed.  

It may still be "clutter", but at least it is more managable clutter...and it is hidden. 

The 'hidden' part of that sentence being my favorite. ;]

As for the mail holder and sorter, it is somewhat self explantory, but just in case, I'll delve!

The mail holder is where we put our mail until which time we are able to sort it. Once we do have time,  it is divided into 4 different piles, "Trash," "Needs Action," "File Away," and "Shred."  

'Trash' is where all of our junk mail goes. 'Needs action' is where you will find the bills we need to pay or forms we need to sign. 'File Away' is where we put important notices or personal items we want to keep for the future. 'Shred' is where we put things we don't want to keep long term, but that happen to have sensitive information inside.

So anywhooo, there you have it! Our updated entry way!

It took some work... and is currently promising me more work in the future. But woo-hoo!!! Getting all of this in order has done wonders for adding more peace to my and my family's life. =] A huge blessing, for sure.

So, what have you all been up to? Any fun updates in your homes? I'd love to hear about them! Nothing better than having a project in your mind and finally having the chance to put your plans into action!