“One of these things is not like the other…”

Do you remember that song from Sesame Street?  Keep that song in your head when you organize and especially when you think about your transitional space.  Because transitional space, the launching/landing pad, is generally right inside the home (or office), it becomes a dumping ground for all the stuff coming in or going out.  It’s not unusual to find tennis racquets next to snow boots or mittens next to beach towels because they’ve just been dumped there. The first step to organizing your transitional space is clearing out the junk.  Remove what isn’t needed in this space right now, for this season, and rehouse those items.  Eliminate the junk and what needs to be either purged or stored somewhere else will open up the space and make entering and exiting less stressful.  Your launching/landing pad is a critical part of your home organization – it’s the space that gets you in and out, likely multiple times a day.  Keep that space organized is to make that transition easier.

What works?  What needs to go?

Speaking of junk, what else did you dump in this space?  Did you clean the trash out of the car on your way in?  Great.  But don’t let that trash and junk linger in the mudroom.  Most of us don’t have space in the launching/landing pad for a trash barrel so move that right into the trash.  Seems simple, right?  But you’d be surprised that when you start to do your launching/landing pad maintenance how much you can just throw out.  Once you get rid of that, focus on what else is lying around.  In a home with young children, this can be a real challenge.  Little ones come in with their hands full and drop everything when they enter this space.  Hang up coats and backpacks and put an “inbox” for school items so these critical pieces don’t get lost and can be sorted through and not mixed in with the real trash.  Once the junk is out, figure out what needs to come back in…