It must be the new year kicking in, but I am on a cleaning organizing craze.  I want our house to better function for us, and I want it to be tidy.  I know little Theo is going to be on the move eventually so we need places for all the crap that spreads out right now. 

My craze has started in the kitchen.  We don't have a mudroom, or a good drop zone in our house, the door from the garage opens onto steps to either come up into the house or go down into the basement.  So the door in our kitchen tends to have piles of shoes around it as well as beer, water etc.  Nothing puts me in a bad mood faster than carrying Theo inside and tripping over shoes.    The amount of dirt / rocks that is drug in during the winter is also driving me crazy.  Our back door area typically looks like this, except even more shoes.

For now we have a very simple solution.  We bought a rug to go along the wall.  We'll put shoes on the rug between the door stop and the fridge.  The beer etc. got put away in a closet we are turning into a pantry, and I moved the extra coats into a closet.  Such a stupid simple change, but just giving these items a home has made me feel so much better, even if that home is just on a rug. 

Eventually I'd like to add a little storage unit on the wall.  Ikea has some awesome ones, but to fit between the doorstop and fridge, not stick out much, and be short enough to fit under the light switch is a tall order.  

Please tell me little tweaks in your home make you feel so much better as well!  This one was super cheap, and brings me a ridiculous amount of joy.  I have also rearranged the countertop appliances into zones that make more sense, and maybe most importantly I am working hard to never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink.  That one will be hard, but I love waking up to a clean kitchen to start the day.  Now if I could only get into the habit of making my bed every day.