Friday Greetings

It's Friday - congratulations on making it to the end of the week!  Here in Seattle the wind is blowing and the rain is coming down like cats and dogs.  It's the perfect day to curl up on the couch and watch a good movie.  

I hope you have a wonderfully un-busy weekend with time to catch up on your reading list or binge-watch that show you’ve been dying to see.  I wish you a lingering breakfast in comfy clothing with good company and time to ruminate on the things that make you happy. 

And may you get the necessary rest so that you feel restored and replenished for the inevitable frenzy that Monday brings.  But don’t think about Monday too much as you are meandering through your Saturday and Sunday.  Life is too short to not take in and enjoy all the beauty of the present moment. 

Take a deep breath and remember that now is a great time to be alive.  Set aside the bad and look at the good with fresh eyes. 

Have a great weekend!

Michelle 

Entryway Organization

Unlike other blogs that you are probably accustomed to seeing, this post is not about how to create the perfect entryway with the seven essential items that you need.  This is more of a cry for help.  Our entryway is something I have battled with since the day we moved into our house, nearly 11 years ago.  We started with an inexpensive book shelf that was purchased from Target by my husband, back when he was just my boyfriend and he was renting a room before we could afford to move into our first apartment together.  We have since "upgraded" to this lovely 3x3 Closetmaid cubicle shelf which I have experienced limited success with.

Junk tends to pile up near the door because, like with many people, it is where things get dropped as soon as we enter the house.  Paper tends to be the main source of our problems.  It seems no matter how much thought I put into it, I cannot come up with a system to manage the pile up.  I try rather judiciously to limit the number of new items that enter our house, especially if I know it won't have an immediate home, but advertisements and paperwork from Chris' school always ends up accumulating in this area.

I would love to know how you organize your entryway and what really works for you in keeping everything organized.  I've been to friends' homes and their main living areas always seem immaculately clean.  Where is their mail?  Do they throw all of it away or hide it in cabinets?  People often say that life is messy, and that's okay.  But I would like it if my house was not always a reflection of that.

I am planning to replace the cube shelf at some point, but I want to make sure that I'm getting the right piece of furniture for this space.  Attractive looking is one of the criteria but above all else, it needs to be functional.  And function is one of the things that I am focusing on when it comes to organizing our home in general because the more efficient we can make things, the smoother the household will run.  The goal is less time spent searching for things and improving the morning routine by eliminating a lot of back and forth trips as we're trying to get out the door.  The idea is to design everything around the people that live in the house.

I would love to hear your thoughts on my entryway struggles and any other organization nuggets of wisdom that you have.

XOXO,

Michelle