Making An Straightforward Dropzone On A Small Wall

I am not so much a clean freak as an organizational freak. I am a firm believer that everything should have a designated place or you are destined to end up with unorganized piles of clutter all over the house. So I have consistently been partial to storage systems with specific functions in mind- take our rolling laundry storage caddy for instance (see our home video for live action coverage of it).

Another equally hardworking organizational system would have to be this fantastic “portable mudroom” that you can put anywhere to instantly create a place to hang coats, backpacks, purses, scarves, dog leashes, and anything else you shed when you come inside. There is even a handy place to sit down to remove your shoes (with hidden storage underneath the seat). What will the folks at Pottery Barn think of next?

But since we do not have $1279 (!) to spare, we chose to see if we could get a similar effect for less. A lot less. So we headed to our go-to neighborhood Target, where we picked up a handsome brown leather ottoman with hidden storage under the seat ($79) and a pleasant dark wood wall mounting coat rack ($19) with six big double hooks for hanging everything we could possibly be wearing when we come in out of the cold. For under $100 we could not be more pleased with the portable mudroom we created.