• Cure Clock: 6 weeks to go
• Assignment: Read Week 3, pp. 100-128
• Declutter your front entrance, and create a healthy front door filter.
• Cancel unused subscriptions and get yourself off junk mail lists!
• Members: 1,698 and counting...
If you thought deep cleaning your kitchen was satisfying, just wait until this week is over. Entrances are notorious for being the home's catch-all place. In addition to what you'd expect to find there (coats, shoes, bags, keys), there's usually a whole collection of loose change, shopping bags, old magazines and mail, a gym bag or two, discarded trinkets, keepsake boxes from college, and that Hawaii girl bobblehead you got at a White Elephant party last year that never made it past the front door and into your home. (Wait, be thankful for that last one...)
Sometimes the entrance closet is so full of random stuff that it can't even accommodate what it's supposed to — namely, the coat and bag you were wearing that day. So what do you do? You kick your shoes off, drop your coat and bag on the floor, and put the mail on the kitchen counter. Before you know it, you've got a collection of mail that's living in your kitchen, you've missed two bill payments, your boyfriend broke his ankle tripping over your shoes, and your coat is permanently wrinkled from sitting in a heap by the door. Sigh.
Maybe it's not always as extreme as that, but I think you get the general idea!
We like this wicker bin for recycling newspapers and junk mail. Via AT:NYWe're now starting to seriously declutter. You've been slowly putting things into your Outbox for a couple weeks, but this is the time to start making decisions. As you go through your entrance area this week, keep these three things in mind:
- Do I use it?
- Do I love it?
- Does my apartment need it?
If it doesn't pass the test above, then put it into your Outbox. You should aim to purge at least 25% of what you have in this area now. If that sounds like a lot, think about this: do you really need 5 wool caps that look identical? (You only have one head, you know.) And we know that baseball cap and T-Shirt was free, but unless you have an undying devotion to WXYZ 98.5 Light FM Radio then you'd best let it go. Ditto on the broken umbrellas, that lonely mitten (yes, you really did leave the other one on the train), empty boxes... get rid of it all.
What a clever idea to sort mail! Apartment Therapy reader ponyinarope created this embroidery hoop to catch important mail.The point of all this is to create a healthy filter at your front door to sort the good stuff from all the useless material that we often bring into our homes (mostly in the form of junk mail). As Maxwell writes, "With a good filter, many things may approach, but nothing gets into your home unless it is good for you."
A healthy filter at your door should have three things:
- A doormat: Wipe your shoes and then take them off!
- A coat hook: Have a place to hang your coat, bag, umbrellas, dog leashes, etc.
- A landing strip: This is a flat surface where you can lay down your wallet, keys, and sort the mail. We also recommend keeping a bin or basket near the landing strip to immediately recycle junk mail.
Wes and Kayla created a DIY doormat out of FLOR sample tiles they had lying around. It made their dog Bacon very happy!
Coming Up:
In my post later this week, I'll get into ways to organize your incoming mail, and share some tips and tricks to getting off mailing lists and reducing the amount of junk mail you get every day. Also: I owe you an update on my own progress, so look for pictures and a progress report on Thursday.
TODAY'S COMMENT QUESTION
What is the thing that you need a landing strip for most? Mail? Packages? Keys and phone? Coats and bags?
POST INDEX
• Week 2.5 - Show & Tell
• Week 2 - Intro
• Week 1.5 - Tips & Tricks
• Week 1 - Intro
CURE INFO
• Main Cure Page - Fall 2009
• Sign-Up Here
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12 purses and 3 wristlets are my issue over here. I think I need some hooks in my closet to relieve this poor entryway shelf.
view chottomotto's profile
Mail is my biggest problem! What to do with it all so that it doesn't pile up in my very nice landing strip. I created a landing strip over the summer and it is great. At the moment though it is the only place for my outbox, so the more I de-clutter the worse my entryway gets.
I didn't get a chance to comment on my deeply clean kitchen!!!! What a fabulous feeling. My son came in after I was done and said "wow it looks so much bigger" I got rid of sooooo much crap! Now most of my lower cabinets are empty. Some things have come back from the outbox but mostly not.
Onward and upward!
-M
view margitnissa's profile
Thanks for the landing strip idea! My greatest need was for somewhere to drop my purse and keys. I don't own a car, and I've come to realize that my purse and other bags often end up in some less-than-sanitary locations, like the bus floor, for instance. So, I very much wanted somewhere to put my purse right inside the door so that the bus floor wouldn't end up on my dining table where I eat.
Now, I've got a three-shelf half-round entry table. My purse resides on the bottom shelf. Library books to be returned and outgoing mail are on the middle shelf. On the top shelf are a decorative red bamboo bowl for my keys and cell phone, and there's flat space for incoming mail. My commuting shoes fit under the bottom shelf out of sight. And everything I need for the next morning's commute is ready to go when I head out the door. Fabulous.
view Trish1980's profile
To get rid of junk mail - I have made a small note inside my mail box (where the mail-person can see it) that says 'no junk mail please'. It works!! Everyone really should do this. It has gotten rid of so much paper coming into my house.
view eliciamelanie's profile
eliciamelanie, does it stop circulars from coming to your house? I recently moved from NYC to Providence, RI, and one of the things I hate is the enormous amount of promotional mail that is just dropped off at the house - grocery store coupons, etc. It's probably 90% of my 'mail'! (I don't think it's actually mailed, though). If anyone knows how to get rid of it, please tell me. I hate it!
view betsbillabong's profile
I could use a place for mail - I'm pretty good about getting rid of junk right away though, so it's probably better that I don't really have a place for it. This way I deal with it immediately, instead of letting it clutter up my entranceway.
view jenc's profile