WFMW

This is an easy quick tip. My kids are forever losing shoes and coats. We had the cute little show cubby organizer thing and that wound up mostly holding various toys and on several occasions food that the kids swore they finished at dinner...you know the usual..brussel sprouts, green beans etc. More then anything that cubby thing took up space and held junk.

so I finally came up with a shoe and coat basket. Since I implemented the rule that we don't wear shoes in the house to protect the carpet..since it is already in such great shape with playdough on it you know. We come in and leave through the garage and that is where I put two laundry baskets. The kids know the coats go in one and the shoes go in the other. I also have special shoes that are not worn a lot like my daughters dress shoes, and the boys dress shoes put up and away for those rare occasions. So really the kids know they cannot step foot into the house until the right materials are in the corresponding baskets. It has saved a lot of time and energy although the first few weeks the kids though their names were "honeynutputyourshoesinthebasketnotonthesideofit"! But now the way it goes is if someone does not put their shoes or coats in the basket then they do without for that trip, usually becasue I hear it as we are walking out the door. They have only forgotten a couple times to put the stuff away right.

Works for me!
The Cheerio Queen