apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

my last apt. was so small the only landing area was the kitchen floor and table. (my husband got quite peeved with me) hopefully with our next space there will be more room

I really need to work on our landing strip...I set things up very similar in our new apt. as in our old without regard to the fact that instead of a solid wood door we now have one with (gorgeous) glass panes. I didn't really consider the whole safety aspect. Nothing a few tweaks can't fix but I do need to spend some time this week re-thinking it.

I don't now, and never have, understood why this is necessary????? I hate, hate, hate walking into someone's home and having to see all their junk. Junk that they leave there because they are too lazy to take a few steps further into the apartment and put it elsewhere. Like in a closet. Or, a drawer. These things were made to hold the junk. Not the hallway, which was designed to walk through (preferably without being smacked in the face by coat sleeves and tripping over smelly shoes and having to look at piles of junk mail).

Jenicra (above) has a lovely entrance hall...until you see the coat stuck on the wall.

I mean, come on... Can't this hideous landing strip idea finally die???

@Ms. Pea: I don't have a closet, nor a hallway. And my entry way is neat. But thanks for your constructive comments ;)

i'm kind split on the necessity of a "landing strip" myself. i tend to agree with ms. pea that they are largely unnecessary. keys and wallets belong in the bedroom. ipods and cell phones belong in the bedroom/office, the mail belongs at your desk....you get the idea. on the other hand, i do like to put outgoing mail near the door so i don't forget it. i know, how old school: actual mail that goes in envelopes.

it really isn't difficult to put things where they belong. but it is nice to have a spot for those things you don't want to forget to take with you as you leave. more like a runway for departures.

The idea behind a landing strip relates to whether you would like your home to be functional for your everyday lifestyle, or a showcase for visitors. The "junk" can always be stashed away somewhere when you are having company over, but for a lot of people a landstrip area just makes life easier.

I love having a landing strip. We don't have room for any furiture, so it's all on the wall (a piece of artwork, a shelf, and some hooks), but it works wonders. I don't think it's messy at all, but lived in. And I really don't care what other people think! It's very nice to come home, put my child down, and immediately put my things away so I can enjoy being home.

I think a landing strip is a necessity, at least for me. Right now we're "landing" at the end of our dining table, which I don't like so much. I really want to be able to leave my purse by the door, and my husband likes to do the same with his wallet and keys. That's all! I wouldn't want to see mounds of junk. I'm looking for a console of some sort to serve this purpose - it needs to be roughly 24"x10" to fit the space, which it turns out is not a particularly common size. On another note, I remember seeing a picture of a landing strip that included a tagine to hold the little things, like keys. I thought this was a brilliant idea!

I for one tend to drop things as close to the door as possible, and I don't view my entry way as anything more than an entry into other more comfortable and inviting rooms.

I love the idea of a landing strip. Yep. I'm too lazy to fight my tiny closets to hang scarves, I like my purse right by the door, and my desk is shared with my husband so I'm happy for mail to have another place than that close spot to fall till it's dealt with. Lucky if you've got spacious closets. We don't all. And even if I did, I'd still put these things down near the door.

I have a somewhat narrow landing strip area too - made so by the placement of our office area desk. Great wall suited to hooks/mirror/bulletin board. BUT directly across from the door, technically in the kitchen but still in the flow of traffic as you enter, and one of the first things you see. It's crying out for SOMETHING. Bench? Cubicle-style piece? Shelves and art are out ofthe question because the wall is concrete underneath (building structure). I've been staring at it for days pondering the problem.

Ms. Pea- I'm quite sure your landing strip can be a closet and/or drawer if that's how you like it and you have such places in your home. Whatever works for the way you live to bring in and wrangle together the things that you enter your home with.
At my house we're still working on it. We've had a few different and unsuccessful systems for incoming mail, we all put our keys in different places and are happy enough when the kids shoes don't make it out of the laundry room into the house- even if we trip on them as we leave again.
I'm sure the system we develop this week will at least be the best one yet.

Homework! It needs to be visible so it's not forgotten as it usually has to be done in a couple of days, but it can be a bit of a stack up in our post/to do sorting area.

I don't know Mrs. Pea, you make the whole landing strip idea sound so nasty; to each her own I say. We live in an old house and although there are closets upstairs, there are NONE downstairs. So, hooks on the wall behind the door and a bookcase with flowers and a Chinese pot will do the trick for me. On the top of the bookcase is a nice platter which holds the mail or other things that must leave the house. Incoming goes right to their respective homes (mostly). The bookcase is open and not too tall, but I have searched and searched for baskets to make it look neat, yet hold the necessaries- one for gloves and scarves, one for the cameras and binoculars, one for the ipod for the car, etc.

What I really need to find is a place for mail - both incoming and outgoing. This is related to the fact that I don't really have a desk to work at - I am exploring the idea of separating my art/music studio desk from my bills and writing desk, in an effort to really define the space as a place for play. I think I will end up using my dining table as a temporary desk, but I need to find some kind of storage to keep the things in.

I also need to find some kind of coatrack.

The rest of it is largely bedroom-based, since I got used to keeping all my important stuff (keys, wallet, phone, etc) in my bedroom when I lived in shared space. It seems to work so I am sticking with it.

BB

I think Mrs. Pea’s comment, though obviously emotional, was fantastically constructive: she explained why she felt the way she did and she described an alternative to the system she didn’t like. Comments are rarely more constructive than that!

I like my backpack, purse, and mail in the office; my coat, hat, etc. in the coat closet, my shoes on the shoe rack in my bedroom, and my keys in my pocket or in the front door. I also have a bowl in the bedroom where I put my keys and other pocket things, my glasses, and my barrette each night.

I admit that I often drop everything near the entrance as I rush in and go to the restroom, get a drink of water, and turn on the air conditioner. But that’s (usually) only for a few minutes.

Maybe I’m with davidsl. I do like to have a place to collect things that need to go out. The mail I can just put out because my mailbox is next to my door. But when I’m about to go somewhere, I like to collect things near the door. I’ve even been known to hang a bag of stuff on the doorknob, hoping that will keep me from forgetting it! Also, my mom has an idea I really like though I haven’t (yet?) instituted it, and that’s to post, near the door, a checklist of things to bring with you (or consider bringing) like purse/wallet, keys, glasses, hat, reusable grocery bags, walking stick, earplugs, dance shoes.

Thanks to these comments, I am really re-thinking what should be by the front door.

In fact, I just realized that my boyfriend’s gardening shoes are always near the back door and nearly always in my way. We definitely need to work out a convenient but good place for those.

For the landing strip haters:

I haven't got a coat closet, so I use a coat tree near the door. I believe in taking my shoes off as I come in, so I have a bookcase/shoe rack near the door. I only need my keys and wallet if I'm going out, so they go near the door. See the logic?

Sure I could stash the coats in a drawer somewhere, but that would mean finding an empty one or making an empty one and I know perfectly well that they wouldn't ever make it BACK to that drawer. I could carry my shoes into my bedroom closet but I know I won't and if they're neatly by the door, why should I? And I absolutely do not see why wallet and keys "should" be in the bedroom since I only need them on the way out the door. Things go where I need them most often. Having a landing strip sets up a place for them so I don't spend time I don't have looking for them.

Oh yeah, and I have a foyer, not a hall. They're designed to be transitional spaces between Home and The World, so I use it that way. Why should someone who only has a hall be stuck with a wasted space that could be put to good use?

Ms. Pea, don't be so cranky. Don't like walking in and seeing people's stuff? Seriously? Then don't go visit folks, because most of us actually LIVE in our homes and don't have the time or energy to spend keeping them looking like some dead showroom.

I have a hard time finding a place for my gym bag and yoga bag. They tend to live by the door. I don't have a closet, so that's just where they go. Oh well.

I do have an incredibly wobbly coat rack they could hide on, if only I could fix it. It's on my cure repair list!

I am extremely absent-minded and have a relatively hectic schedule, so the landing strip concept is the only way I am able to reliably locate my keys, wallet/purse and sunglasses on a daily basis.

I agree that the landing strip is not the ideal decorating situation, but it exists out of necessity -- not because I am lazy! Please save your judgmental & overly-rigid decorating rules for your own home, Ms. Pea.

Frankly, I'm a bit appalled at your openly hostile comment, Ms. Pea, and I wonder how your rudeness is not perceived as a flaw equal to or greater than laziness to you? I would much rather visit a messy, lazy polite person's home than the immaculate home of an angry and superior-acting person. Seriously, lighten up.

@GrainSmasher, you are right, her comment WAS constructive. I suppose I didn't get much out of it due to the tone. As the saying goes, "you catch more flies with honey..."

But agreed, I do appreciate the offer of an alternative. Though in the end, to each their own.

I agree with Ms. Pea entirely. I just cleared my front hallway this week, and now coming home from work is a joy. When I walk through the door now, the message has changed from "this is the home of your chaos" and "you've got chores" to "everything is well here, enjoy."

Now, when I have outgoing mail, I stack it neatly at the door before bed. I confess that there are hooks for a couple of coats that I wear regularly, and a couple pairs of shoes sometimes don't seem to make it back to the closet. I also keep a jar by the door (ala Eleanor Rigby?) in which I stuff bags to pick up after my dog.

But the furniture is out, save a small bench where my guests and I can sit to put on and take off our shoes. It's entirely better.

Rant about your lack of closet space if you must, but you ought to at least consider whether your closet space is limited in truth because you own too much and whether you're upset with Ms. Pea because you are a slob.

(As for being a slob: it's really a matter of not taking the time to organize your home so that everything has its place. If you take the time to do that, suddenly the slob within that seemed so intrinsic to your personality is a thing of the past. Trust me, I've been there. But if you take the time to figure out where the crap in your life accumulates and, more important, why it accumulates there and how you can fix it, bye bye slob.)

I should add, however, that the hooks are in an alcove made for just that purpose and the shoes go under the bench. The stack of mail by the door lasts for as long as I sleep, since it goes out the day after it "lands" at the door. So Ms. Pea won't have sleeves smacking her in the face, nor will she trip over shoes. She will never see my mail, unless she sleeps over.

Ms. Pea's comment was not constructive at all--it was her usual rant about something that has been explained to her previously as an integral part of the Apartment Therapy Cure process. In other words, it was her same damn complaint for the umpteenth time, and really, I am extremely sick of it. WE ALL KNOW HOW YOU FEEL. Please be gracious for once and stop reminding us of your opinion on this matter.

While Ms. Pea and thebradseed have a point, they didn't present it very nicely. I think people are reacting to their tone more than to their message.

As for me, the thing I have the hardest time finding a home for in my landing strip is mail that needs to be dealt with later. I can sort my mail easily enough when it comes in (junk to trash, letters to husband and bills to his desk, etc.), but if it's something that needs to be dealt with later, it sits there... and after a couple of weeks, I've got a pile I don't know what to do with. That's the ugliest part of my landing strip.

And PS: I thought Rachel Ray always said "yummo"?

why on earth would keys belong in a bedroom? for me, that is the furthest room in the house from the place i use my keys (the door). there is no sense in walking through my kitchen, dining room, hallway, library, upstairs and into my bedroom to set my keys (and purse & phone), where, on my nightstand? why? :p that really made me laugh . . .

doubledutch, for those of us who keep our keys in our pants pockets, it makes the most sense to put them in the bedroom when we remove our pants at night. they're still there when we put our pants on in the morning.

while ms pea has every right to offer alternatives they are just that. She doesn't get to dictate where items SHOULD belong and I don't believe Maxwell ever said you HAVE to keep your keys and wallet by the door. In fact, on Monday he clearly stated that he keeps his in the bedroom.

I prefer to keep my bedroom for bedroom activities and it makes more sense in my life to keep my keys and purse by the front door since I only need them when I'm walking out the door. And if my ipod is only used outside the house why must it belong in the depths of my house?

i have the PERFECT area for my landing strip... i'm on a 2nd floor in a 2 flat and the entire stairs up and nook are mine only and there is another door to my apt. ... it's just the habit and feeling like this area is part of my home. i only see it the few seconds i come home or leave.
mail is the worst part of my routine. i think it's the routine i need to get down, because i have organized my landing strip a million times.

oh man wait, i had a lightbulb, the biggest thing that needs to be filtered in my home... the computer i am typing on! I bring my work laptop home as i tend to need to do work outside of the workplace, and my habit has been to not use my personal laptop and instead sit my laptop on the couch and combine use on it. the problem is if i am sitting on the couch and thinking about what i could do with a free hour or day or 15 minutes, i usually stop there and grab my laptop and start working and browsing the internet.

i am going to start making it stay on the table or in my office so my free time is my free time and i do more for myself at home. i'm loving this.

After running back through the comments to this Cure post, I wanted to throw my hat back in the ring about landing strips.

The reason we encourage a landing strip, and the whole idea of leaving everything near the entrance of your home is because we want to shed the outside world, the things we need to survive in it and the things we need to utilize daily to get along in it... at the door.

They are things that don't have to be in the rest of our home if they are mainly used for purposes away from our spaces. It not only keeps clutter and traffic down, but discourages our desires to pile, stack and leave little things here and there.

I urge everyone to take a look back at Maxwell's Monday post and re-read how this greatly helps his home and why it works.

-Sarah Rae

Personally, I think this is a great post. I have a walk-in coat closet right next to my front door, and yet I do not use my comparatively large space well at all. I have never considered how silly this was - it always just struck me that it was a place that I could allow things to hang out for a while because this space serves no further function. This post has inspired me to get working at using this space efficiently as a filter for all the stuff that gets trudged into the apartment. I am going to install some hooks for bags - the thing that I have the biggest problem storing and always tend to find their way into a big pile on a closet floor. Then I will get rid of all the clutter, old junk mail, and see if I can find an appropriately sized chest or bench. Add a house plant and I'm good to go. This should be fun!