Eleanor’s Cure: A Crash Landing, Averted

I count myself pretty lucky that my flat has a built-in Landing Strip, in the form of a covered radiator with mirror in the entry, and hooks for coats further along the hall. I know not everyone is this fortunate (I lived for years in a flat where the keys-mail-coat situation happened right in the kitchen, using up valuable counter space), so I’m definitely grateful for my current situation.

The only problem with having a ready and waiting landing strip is that you do tend to abuse it. While I’m generally quite organized, I do like to, er, spread out in my home. In fact, during the 15 years I lived with my parents at their current house, I co-opted an entire armchair as my personal landing strip, despite having not one but two coat closets on the ground floor. What can I say – it was in the living room, right next to the front hall, and always seemed the most reasonable spot to dump my coat, backpack and all my school stuff. Sorry about that, mum.

Anyway, the only thing I needed to complete today’s Cure task was to spend a bit of time sorting (old mail) and relegating (shoes and coats to other parts of the flat). To the radiator shelf I added a wooden mail organizer I bought years ago at a Paris flea market, with a dedicated place for both my and my flatmate’s mail. I’m already quite good about recycling junk and catalogues as they come in, so I’m hoping that this new system works for us.

A quick tidy of the shoes and coats (most went to our bedrooms, and some to the linen closet) made the rest of the front hall look instantly more appealing.

Does your home have a dedicated landing strip, or are you having to create one today?

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