And today’s post was prompted by exactly that.  Even though I have the most FANTASTIC “mudroom” in the garage, my kids still find it impossible to hang up their coats and backpacks. They don’t take the time to stop in the garage, take them off and put them away.

We have a coat closet immediately as you enter the house and that has become the standard dumping ground.

Sweatshirts, jackets, uniforms and backpacks all find their way to the closet floor (since they are too short to reach the hangers) and half the time I can’t even get the door closed.

After many months of attempted re-training, I have given up and decided it was time to take drastic action.  I designated a 'drop zone' immediately next to the door and wanted to put up hooks to hold all the kids’ stuff.  However, I didn’t just want to install hooks directly on the wall.. I wanted something prettier.

A few weeks ago, I was cruising through the “AS-IS” section of Ikea (which is becoming my favorite area! Cheap Ikea stuff ON SALE!)  Anyhoo.. I found a couple of cabinet doors (or drawer fronts) that were marked down for under $1!  In fact, this one was only 97 cents!

I knew I couldn’t even buy a board and finish it for that cheap!   I picked up three coat hooks from Home Depot and that was everything I needed!


First I measured the door to space the hooks out evenly:

Then I pre-drilled holes for the screws since I didn’t want to crack the door:

The screws that came with the hooks were way too long and so I replaced them with much shorter ones:

I used one hook per child (since my husband and I have no trouble reaching the hangers in the closet):

My 4 year old assisted me with installing it on the wall (plus it helped to know she could actually reach the hooks.) With all this practice, she’ll be a DIY pro one day:

At this point I could have left the coat rack as-is.  It is pretty cute, but knowing my kids they would bicker over whose hook was whose, or someone would try to claim all of them.

And of course, I have my new toy which makes personalizing stuff quick and easy.

Also.. here is a little unsolicited child naming advice.  If you have lots of kids, and want to personalize stuff with a single letter monogram.. DON’T NAME YOUR CHILDREN WITH THE SAME FIRST LETTER!  Ah.. live and learn!

In any case, we now have a backpack drop station, and hopefully it will do the trick!

Since they can no longer argue that they don’t know where THEIR stuff goes.