Here is my practical tip for today: create a “prepping” station by your door, and make it child-friendly!

I wish I could even take credit for this idea, buying totally copied a friend. Basically, it’s like a hospital: a surgeon needs an area to prep before he walks into surgery, and your family needs an area to get ready before they walk out the door!

We don’t have a mud room or an entryway to use, so this is the area right at the bottom of our entryway stairs. I have all of the girls’ sneakers in a basket. We don’t wear shoes around the house (which saves on the amount of dirt/germs tracked through the house) and so this a great place for all of their shoes to permanently live! I added a little stool so they would have some place to sit while putting on shoes, which will eventually one day get painted.

My friend’s stroke of brilliance was to put the coat rack hangers AT CHILD LEVEL, so the kids can hang up their own coats. I know, it sounds so simple and I have no idea why in the world I didn’t think of that. Plus, she used a “garbage bag container” from IKEA to hold scarves and gloves, and I eagerly copied that as well. I am always fighting the piles of those things.

This project costs me only the two racks from Target, and about twenty minutes of time!

So that is my tip for today!