Drop Zone

Do you have a drop zone by your front door? I do, where I drop my daily essentials- purse, keys, phone, mail to post, and sometimes books to return. I use an Ikea basket by my front door for this purpose, and hooks on the wall above to hang keys and an umbrella. Its important to restrict this zone purely to essentials; sometimes the basket gets full as other bits and pieces creep in- lip balm, tape measure, hat, sunscreen, cardigan, etc etc. If this happens I de-clutter the basket and put the offending items back where they belong.

My drop-zone basket is placed here on top of a piece of furniture that is actually a shelf extender turned sideways- not the most beautiful thing!!! One day I will buy a lovely piece of furniture to replace this but thats not on our current priorities list. This shelf-thingy is multi-tasking- its also a cat scratching thingy for our cat, Princess. I nailed a spare piece of carpet onto the side and she just loves it.

Also, the shelf-thingy is used to store my magazines underneath- I've used a bread-board holder (made out of stainless steel) to keep the mags upright- nifty, eh? I hated the bread-board holder in the kitchen- too big and ugly to have on the bench; and anyway we only use one really big board for bread/ vegies and one other board for meat. I knew the board holder was too good to throw away- and was very pleased to give it this new wonderful purpose so my magazines don't have to be stacked. I know this doesnt look the prettiest- but its functional so thats good enough for me for the time being. I would love for our home to one day look something more similar to Chez Larsson's...

Hanging off my drop-zone basket are the 2 bags I use the most often. Also there in front of the basket is a shopping bag that rolls up. I also have my yoga mat here by the front door, otherwise my baby-brain would make me forget it on my way to preg-yoga.

My keys- including Lego Man brought back from Germany by my father-in-law, and my Aldi shopping trolley token

Does a drop zone by the front door work for you or do you have another system so you dont lose your keys?