As you know we are renting a townhouse while we complete the Mad County Build project. It’s our 2nd place to live in since moving to Iowa, and even smaller than our first house! It’s required a lot of creativity, purging, and organization to make the space function well for our family of 5.
I’m introducing a new series on the blog called “Small Space Organization”. Living in the townhouse is really not that challenging, but it's because we've been intentional about the spaces.
To kick off the series I’m sharing our front entry at the townhouse. It’s a long, narrow space that at first was a forgotten area. However, in comparison to the overall size it’s a lot of valuable square footage! I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I came up with some ways that we could utilize it.
Disclaimer: this space actually DOES look like this most of the time. I made the systems easy to maintain, and since it’s away from the garage entrance that we use most it doesn’t accumulate clutter that belongs in other parts of the house.
The first part of the entry is the bench with baskets. If you’ve been around awhile you’ll recognize these from the last two houses. They are actually in stock at Walmart! I have one for each person in the house and each side is labeled either “summer” or “winter”. I keep seasonal items for everyone in them, and it makes for quick clean up when we get home and need to take off coats, hats, gloves, etc. Sometimes shoes end up in these baskets too, but I try to keep those in the bins below. I have one for each kid and the extra space for a couple of quick pairs for Paul and I. We keep our nicer shoes in our closet. The trays are amazing, I can pull them out quickly for guests to put their shoes on. It saves me the trouble of having water and snow all over this time of year!
On the other side of the wall I created a kid friendly command center. We are homeschooling our two oldest this year, plus we wanted to get in a better morning routine habit, chore habit, etc. We do allow our children to earn money for tasks, but then there are set things in their routine they do without any compensation. Same for adult life!
The metal boards are oil pans I picked up at my local Walmart years ago. The kids love using their chore magnets (Target Dollar Spot find) and other magnet activities on them. I also added their daily routine charts to the top. I laminated it so it’ll last week to week.
The pockets are a 31 product that I have used SO much. Command Hooks for hanging them and they hold all sorts of school stuff along with the magnets. Yes, sometimes they empty the pockets onto the floor and we have a huge mess, but the majority of the time they work great!
I definitely want to use this set up in the new house, and add a station for Lendlee of course!
Links to products I used in this space:
Command Hooks... these are so great to have around the house!
Laminator... again, you need this in your life!
Dry Erase Markers (if you laminate your chore chart!)
Chore Chart we use (and love!)
What small spaces do you want ideas on how to make them functional? Leave me a comment and I’ll put together a post just for you!
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