Spec House Time Machine

I love my house. It's perfect for my family, and we have developed a system of organization that works for us. There are times, though, that I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and do a few things differently. Most of my regrets have to do with the area leading to my back door. If I had planned it right, that space could be the most efficient space in my house, but it's far from it. For example:

• I wish I'd spent more time thinking through the storage in the laundry room. I really want my laundry room to look like this

but it doesn't. It's a jumble of cupboards filled with who knows what, and no room for either laundry baskets or hampers. Sometimes the only way I can tell the clean laundry from the dirty laundry (besides the obvious) is this: the dirty laundry is on the floor waiting to be washed, the clean laundry is on the red chair in the family room waiting to be folded.

• I wish I had re-constructed the linen closet by the bathroom before I moved in. Now that I have three kids in school, I dream of a storage system that looks like this

but mine doesn't. It's filled with a mixture of toilet paper, tote bags, loaf pans, empty vases, sometimes beach towels, sometimes things JP is hiding from the kids. I dream of having those three backpacks, coats and lunch boxes staged perfectly by the back door. But, unless my kids want to grab a roll of toilet paper, a loaf pan and a handful of foreign coins on their way out the door, the closet is useless as anything but a holding pen for things I don't know what to do with.

• The powder room would be perfect if I were a single girl with the occasional visitor, but is not at all functional for a family of five. If I had it to do all over again, I would replace the toilet with an industrial strength model with would support the needs of a sorority house, and I would replace our pretty pedestal sink with a more functional model that has storage. That way Jack's vast collection of Axe personal care products could be stowed away under the sink along with extra rolls of toilet paper. As I mentioned earlier in this post, rolls of toilet paper are stored in the closet across the hall from the bathroom. Very inconvenient as you can imagine if one finds herself faced with the empty roll still on the holder and no one within shouting distance to come to the rescue.

If we decide to do some renovating in our house, that area by the back door is going to be the first thing to go. I can imagine it completely reconfigured into one big room with laundry, bath and mudrooms all in one. Maybe we can even work in a little spot for Jasper.

#3 Welcome, Santa. Come Right On In.

A Christmas doormat is one of the easiest ways to spruce up your exterior -- just place it by your front door and let the season begin! Here are some of my favorites:

Backpacks Everywhere

I'm looking forward to the end of the school year for many reasons:
I've volunteered for Jack's end of the year picnic, and Jack loves it when I volunteer for his activities
Andie graduates from middle school this year, and Jack graduates from elementary school
The backpacks can be put away for a while

Throughout the school year, it seems like backpacks are everywhere and my family room looks like this:

when I want it to look like this:

Not likely. The red chair in the family room has become a junk magnet, and everything related to the school day is dumped there the second the kids come home from school.

My project over the summer will be to develop a system Andie, Jack and Katie can use to pack their backpacks when they're done with their homework, tuck them away for the night and actually find them again in the morning. Whether my new system works perfectly or not, it's bound to be a vast improvement over my current system which consists of yelling in frustration at least once a week "Hey short people, come and get your crap. This chair is not your dumping ground!"