April 2, 2025
Spring ORC Week 1 – 4.2.25
For this year’s Spring One Room Challenge, I wanted to take on a space that is going to totally transform how our family lives day-to-day. Every day we walk in from the garage in to our makeshift hallway mudroom (since we don’t have a dedicated mudroom) and we drop everything! We unload our backpacks and coats on to hooks, throw shoes in baskets and move on with our lives. Sounds pretty good, right?
Except that this is what the closet looks like right now…
We only have 3 “kid” hook spaces and now have 4 kids…
And the baskets for shoes are worn out and leave little flakes of wicker all over the floor.
So in order to make a new plan for the space, I listed out the things I want to have in this mudroom hallway drop-zone. Then I’ll break them down in to manageable projects that I can take on each week for the 8 weeks of the One Room Challenge!
Be sure you’re following along on Instagram @livingstartsathome to see all of the behind the scenes of this project. And check out the One Room Challenge blog featuring all of the ORC participants and their amazing projects!
Our Drop-Zone Family Command Center Must Haves:
- drawers for shoes
- backpack and jacket hook for each kid
- wall organizer for books and papers for each kid
- space for hanging keys and sunglasses
- bulletin board for family memos, art and reminders
- calendar and chores displayed for everyone to see
- organize the closet
- space for shoes
- hanging space for jackets
- area for reusable bags
- dog food storage
- hanging storage for mop and broom
The Plan
Years ago we built this bench with baskets underneath for storing shoes and added hooks and board and batten for a custom look. It is functional and still looks beautiful but it needs a few tweaks. I’m going to replace the hooks with some that are more stiff and won’t bend under the weight of our diaper bag. And I’m going to build drawers for the open spaces underneath because I don’t like seeing the clutter of the shoes tossed in the baskets that leave tiny shards of wicker all over the floor that I’m constantly having to vacuum.
On the other wall, I’m going to move the backpack hooks to add one more, since we’ve added a 4th kiddo since we originally hung these! I also want to build an inset shelving unit to maximize storage for sunglasses and keys, but have less sticking out from the walls in to the hallway since the space is already tight. I’ll still have a calendar and a bulletin board and space for us to keep track of chores and family reminders.
I really want to build a niche between the studs to store sunglasses and keys. This will minimize the number of things that stick out in to the hallway since the space is narrow but maximize storage.
I also want to build in some better storage in the small coat closet to better utilize every square inch of that space. I’ll share the plans for that in a future post once I take on the closet!
As a busy family of 6 we need to have our home set up for both function and design! One of the most functional DIY’s I’ve ever done was this pull out stool in my kids bathroom. And this fan favorite plate rack in our kitchen is as beautiful as it is useful.
Thanks for being here and following along with this project!
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