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How to Create a Kitchen Coming-Home Center

A Kitchen Coming Home Center: Most kitchen clutter happens as kids come in from school and adults come home from work.

We're tired, we're hungry. Sometimes we're cranky, too.

As a result, we all dump whatever we're carrying - books, newspapers, mail, shoes, shopping bags, coats, papers for Mom to sign, soccer balls, briefcases, etc. - on the first solid surface inside the door (often the counter or table).

We're just happy to be home at least, where we can take a load off.

The solution?

1. Declare this entry a "no-dumping" zone.

No one, including you and your significant other, is allowed to dump stuff on the table or counters. Not even for a minute.

2. Establish a loading and unloading zone outside the door where you and the troops tromp in.

Establish a clutter-catchall loading and unloading zone outside the door where you and the troops tromp in. (Yellow paint not required.)

There, you'll create convenient places to stash this stuff.

This is where the family will remove muddy shoes and hang up outerwear.

3. It's okay to have hang-ups here.

Hang decorative hooks in pewter or gold near an entry door to give kids a quick place to hang up coats by themselves rather than throwing them onto the floor.

Put up hooks for backpacks, car keys, umbrellas, dog leashes, and doggie bags. Hang a clean, dry (old) towel for drying Poochie off on rainy or snowy days.

4. Then again, you can always shelve it.

Install a low shelf for depositing backpacks, lunch boxes, papers to be signed, and the rest of the daily clutter, to be sifted through and emptied later, once tummies are full.

5. Consider cubbies, baskets, tubs and coatracks.

Also position coat racks for coats, cubbies for mail, baskets for newspapers and magazines, and tubs for sports equipment and lunch boxes nearby.

Why should all this stuff be mucking up the heart of your home?

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About the Author

Tara Aronson is a native Californian. Having grown up in San Diego, she studied journalism and Spanish to pursue a career in newspaper writing. Tara, whose three children - Chris, Lyndsay, and Payne - are the light of her life, now lives and writes in Los Angeles. She also regularly appears on television news programs throughout the U.S.