Where you come home from a long, hard day, there is GREAT temptation to just toss your stuff any old place, crack open a bottle of wine and put your feet up…But what if you could get to the fun part after you quickly get organized for the next day? That’s what a perfectly functioning Landing Strip in your home should do for you (and your family): Get you good & ready for the next day’s activities/work.
So! With those thoughts in mind, let’s get to it!
Do you have a Landing Strip in your home, a spot where you and/or your family plunks everything down? This could be a bench near the front door, a shelf, an alcove with a shallow table, a space that’s unobtrusive yet works for this purpose. (You can also identify part of something else in your home for this purpose-for me, it’s part of my kitchen table and a nearby chair.)
Once you have identified where it is, take a good, hard look: Does it make you feel … well..anxious? Or does it make you feel calm and okay? (We want to go for calm and okay!) If it does NOT make you feel good, try to identify where and how you could change it.
If you have it, but it needs some changing, make a small list, or see if you have any items at hand that could make it function better: For example, do you have some hooks you could place over the bench for the kid’s jackets and backpacks? Or a few large, pretty baskets to toss shoes into? Try to re-purpose what’s around your house for this Tiny Tidy, and see what you can find…
If you don’t need to change it, but want to, try to see where you naturally gravitate towards when you arrive home. If it’s your bedroom, maybe your Landing Strip is a chair where you can place your bag and computer easily at hand, and can set-up a charging station for your devices near there, too. If you have a large family, maybe you can march everyone into the laundry room, and use a part of that space to keep clutter at a minimum, or clean out a hall closet to stash backpacks, shoes, and sports bags for their other, random stuff. Make it a ritual with the kiddos, and make them responsible for their own stuff from now on! No more running to the car to get their homework, etc. (They will thank you later for this, believe me!)
If you have a Landing Strip area that you like to use, then see if you can make it better: I love the Marie Kondo of putting her day bag in a drawer, so it’s out of site, and she does this as soon as she walks in the door. Maybe your Landing Strip area is in a few spots: You can maybe try stashing everything in a closet when you arrive home, and just have a charging station for your laptop and phone that’s equally out of the way, but convenient.
Try setting up a mail processing space in the Landing Strip area, too: I know this sounds ridiculous, because so few of use get tons of mail anymore, but make it a habit to keep any bills or parking tickets that are not automated and still arrive via the mail nearby, and RECYCLE everything and anything you don’t need IMMEDIATELY! As you know , a few days of junk mail build-up and make it seem like you have heaps of mail to go through. You don’t. And you won’t, if you recycle it all right away…!
De-clutter anything that really doesn’t belong there, including above-said old mail, invites, fliers for expired events, whatever else you have hanging around there
Enjoy your new, clutter-free Landing Strip area-you are DONE! xo
Check out these sleek, chic & so cute bamboo baskets from my friends at Target:
