Conference moira::parenting

    All snow traffic comes into the house through the garage.  We have a 
    boot mat inside the door (from the garage to the family room
    - which does have carpet).  Anyone coming in the house takes off their
    shoes.  Snow pants, mittens, hats, etc go right into the dryer - if
    they're wet from play or from clearing the driveway,etc.
    
    If visitors come through the kitchen door, they too take off their
    shoes (typically, their coats are not wet and get hung in the hall
    closet).
    
    The boot mat has saved the carpet and floors (you should see
    the puddles it saves from hitting the rug).  The dryer gets the outside
    clothes ready for another trip out to play (while the kids have hot
    chocolate...).  So far this has worked well at our house.  
    
    Chris

    
    Most traffic comes thru the garage where we have 2 doormats,
    one after another. Once inside, we have a cotton rug (machine
    washable) right by the door on which we take off our shoes/boots. 
    Right next to the cotton rug is a coat tree where we hang our 
    coats and dry accessories. Underneath the coat tree is another
    cotton rug to absorb any dripping. Wet shoes/boots go on this
    rug also, so they don't block the door to the garage. Anything 
    really wet goes either in the dryer which is in the 1/2 bath next 
    to the coat tree. Anything that is not dryer proof (like wool
    hats and scarves) goes next to any baseboard. We try to confine
    the moisture (and dirt) to the cotton rugs since we have ceramic 
    tile floors which can be deadly when wet. The cotton rugs are
    shaken out often and washed occasionally. It seems to me that
    the more rugs I have for the mess, the cleaner the rest of the
    house is.
    
    Eva

    We have 2 rugs on the kitchen floor, and a porch.  Within the next
    week, I also plan to buy something similar to a sweater-box, for boots
    and shoes.  The shoe-mat does not hold enough water.  
    
    The kids have to jump around outside to get most of the snow off of
    them, and take their boots off either outside on the porch, or on one
    of the 2 rugs in the kitchen.  The rugs are "known wet" until March or
    so, now.  This at least keeps the puddles off of the kitchen floor. 
    
    When we move, in Jan, we will have a walk-in basement.  THAT will be
    where all the kids come in, and we'll have hangers and stuff for the
    snowsuits.  The boots will probably make it back upstairs (hopefully
    near the top of the stairs) to warm up and dry out.  But again, in a
    "bucket" or on a mat.
    
    I find the biggest problem being having enough ROOM for all of this -
    it tends to come in the door in loads of 3-4 kids at a time, and that
    gets tough.  For now, 2 get the rugs, and whoever else either waits, or
    takes off their outer stuff outside.  If they're REALLY snowy, I send
    them straight downstairs and let them get the basement floor all wet. 
    Not that much ends up in the kitchen.
    
    But how do you teach a 2 yr old to smack their boots together to get
    the snow off?  The inside of my car's getting puddles .... (-;

    
    	We have a mudroom, and can enter the house by the mudroom door
    	or through the garage.  I prefer the garage at this time of
    	year.  We nailed carpet scraps to the stairs leading from the 
    	garage to the door.  Wet shoes can be wiped on those carpets.
    	We try to take of the kids wet clothes while they are on the
    	top step, then lift the dry kid into the house.  All wet coats,
    	hats, and mittens go right into the dryer, and we have a large
    	24" by 18" boot tray right inside the door.  After all the snow
    	has melted off the boots, we usually transfer them to a nearby
    	closet, which also has a shoe mat on its floor.  Then we can 
    	keep the hallway clutter down, and wipe up the water in the
    	boot tray if necessary.
    
    	We've put two plastic drawer bins in our main coat closet, and all
    	the kids' mittens and hats go into those drawers when they are dry.
    
    	The drawers have only been there a month, but both of my kids know
    	where to find their mittens and where to put them away.  We've got
    	another spot for my husband and my gloves and hats, up on a top
    	shelf where the kids can't get them.
    
    	My husband did most of the organizing, and so far, it's working out
    	great.  I think the hardest part was just getting a plan.  It's
    	simple to carry it out, we just didn't have convenient place to		
    	put things before.
    
    	Karen
    

    
    I saw the *BESTEST* thing I've ever seen for hat/mitten clutter, and I
    have to admit, after implementing it, with 5 kids, it's been a dream!
    
    AND I have to give my sister all the credit .... not sure if she
    heard/saw it elsewhere, but I got it from her house.  A very simple
    idea.
    
    You need to spring-style clothespins, and some heavy string or thin
    rope.  I think she's using clothesline.  I am using heavy string.
    
    What you do, is thread the rope/string through the spring portion of
    the clothespin, so the pin ends up, essentially "attached" to the rope.
    Since I used thinner stuff, I had to tie a single knot around each pin,
    but it's simple.  Her rope was thick enough that the pins were "snug"
    on the line, and hers can be moved (slid easily) on the rope.  Tie on
    as many clothespins as you think you'll use, plus a few.  
    
    Now hang the whole thing somewhere in the general vacinity of "outside
    stuff".  Hers and mine happened to work wonderfully, as there's a
    heater right near there.  I just put a couple of nails into the wall,
    and tied the string to that.
    
    When you bring in wet gloves/hats, you clip them onto the rope, with
    the clothespins, and they hang to dry.  When they're dry, I tend to
    double-up the gloves, so the kids can easily distinguish between a dry
    pair and a wet pair (plus it gives me more room).  Hats - you just clip
    them on.  And the kids always know right where everything is.  Make
    sure you hang it low enough that the kids can work the clips.
    
    Now I'm trying to figure out how to do the same thing with coats and
    snow pants! (-;  Need stronger clips ....
    
    It's not real classy looking, but it sure does WORK!!!!!  I haven't had
    to hunt for a single glove/hat since, and actually, we've found a few!
    
    ENJOY!
    

   re: .-1

   Ooooohhh...  I like that... 
   
   I've taken a spare bathroom floor rug for the kitchen floor and that
   has helped with boots - I may even get something a little bigger or
   thicker, but this is a good start...
   
   but that idea with the clips is neat.... I've seen something like that
   in catalogs for displaying baseball hats, or for keeping track of
   small things like stuffed critters... I never made the jump across to
   gloves and hats, though.
   
   Thanks, and keep those great ideas flowing....
   
   regards,
   
   - Tom

    We use a shoe bag, the plastic, quilted kind with the pockets.  We hang
    it inside the coat closet door, and we place mittens, gloves, hats,
    earmuffs, etc. in the pockets.  It's not very attractive, but it keeps
    things pretty well organized and out of sight.  It's not a good idea
    for  wet things (like the clothespin idea), but it helps with dry
    winter or summer clutter.
    
    We don't have a garage or mudroom, or even a foyer.  You enter our
    house through the living room (or off the deck into the kitchen, but
    that's hard to do in the winter because you have to trudge through
    snow...).  We keep some mats near the door, but we inevitably get snow
    and dirt on the living room rug.
    
    Our solution is to put our house on the market and buy a new house with
    an attached garage and mudroom ;-)

    I also like the clothespin idea.  I might try setting it up for my
    son's stuff.
    
    My biggest problem at the moment is my shoes.  We alway come in through
    our basement, and having my son take off his shoes at before going
    upstairs is no problem.  But Michelle is 8 months old, and when she's
    in the bulky snowsuit, I can't put her down on the cement floor.  I
    either have to get my son to untie mommy's shoes or go upstairs with
    them on and track all that mess into the kitchen.  Then Michelle
    promptly tries to crawl and play in the puddles....
    
    I can't wait till next year when I can sit her down on the steps or
    something!
    
    	marianne

    Marianne,
    
    What about putting a cushion or an extra baby-seat in the basement to
    set the baby on??  Even a clothesbasket with a blanket in the bottom
    would do for the 2 mins it takes to untie your shoes.
    
    OR .... undress the baby in the basement ?? (coat)

    Mmmmmm...The laundry basket just might work.  She crawls at what seems
    to approach light-speed, so just a cushion on the floor wouldn't work. 
    Undressing her in the basement would just give her that much more speed
    to get to the puddles....
    
    But there is almost always a basket of laundry down there - I could
    park her in the empty basket long enough to get the boots off.
    
    thanks for the idea,
    		marianne

    I used the old plastic mat that I used to put under the kids' high
    chair to collect wet boots, coats, etc.  Everyone comes in the house
    through the kitchen.  Boots, coats, etc., are removed and dropped onto
    either the two rugs or the plastic mat.  Wet coats/snowpants, etc. are
    hung up on hangers over the shower rod in the bathroom, and the booots
    go on the pad of newspapers next to the refrigerator.  I may start
    having everyone troop down to the basement to remove their wet stuff,
    but it's COLD down there!!  Plus, there's no carpet on the stairs, and
    I['m afraid someone will slip on the bare wood. 
    
    Solution:  Move to where it doesn't snow....

    Re: .5
    
    	I have one of those, but it's really for use in drying
    	wet stuff using the shower, though...I think it's
    	meant to stretch from shower head to shower pole, some-
    	how...It has a plastic hook on each end, a springy 
    	'rope' and attached hooks. I just hook one end to a 
    	shaker peg rack and clip on the matched set of mittens;
    	I think there is a similar device for toys. Anyway,
    	point is you can make or buy similar...just check out
        the bath or toy departments.