Keep shoes by the door

Reduce last minute scrambles 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to keep shoes by the door. Getting out
the door in the morning can sometimes be challenging, but
there is no reason to be delayed by misplaced necessities.

(00:28):
So I've been doing a lot of interviews lately as
I'm doing publicity for my upcoming book, Big Time. We
often talk about schedule issues and where time goes awry.
One of the most common pain points people ask me
about is getting out the door in the morning. The
usual assumption is that if you have kids, and particularly
if you have a lot of kids, then there will

(00:50):
just be general chaos. A frequent example of why you
are running late is that a kid can't find a
missing shoe. Now, I will admit that we sometimes run
late and have rushed mornings as well. I don't think
anyone is immune to that, But I do find these
questions interesting because in my house we are almost never

(01:12):
missing shoes. We have plenty of other problems, but not
that one. This is because people under the age of
adulthood are required to take off their shoes the second
they come in the house, and to leave said shoes
in the mudroom by the door. If any everyday shoe
is ever found elsewhere in the house, it will be

(01:32):
immediately returned to the mudroom. Now, guests and adults can
do whatever they want, but my husband and I tend
to follow the mudroom rule as well. This taking off
your shoes by the door habit has been done so
often and for so many years that my children automatically
take off their shoes when they enter anyone else's house
as well. Now, it is not like we have an

(01:54):
infinite number of doors in the house, we are pretty
much always leaving from the mudroom. As a result, when
we need to leave, the shoes the children are most
likely to wear are right there. Again, I am not
saying other things won't go wrong. People need to wear
dress shoes or something that is an entirely different matter.

(02:15):
But the shoes by the door of rule means we
have more or less eliminated one potential source of weekday
morning chaos. I kind of figured this solution was obvious,
but given the number of times this example comes up,
I decided it was worth talking about. Whether you have
kids or not, it is smart to have shoes live
by the door you use to leave the house. Maybe

(02:37):
not all your shoes, those precious Jimmy shoes you wear
on special occasions should not live in a rough and
tumble entryway. But if you generally wear the same pair
of shoes, or even the same two to three pairs
of shoes in your everyday life, they should all be
kept near the spot where you will put them on.
You can put them in a cute little bin if

(02:58):
you want or not, but if you need them to
get out the door and they are always by the door,
then they will not be missing when you want to leave.
As a bonus, if your shoes come off by the door,
you won't track mud or germs into the house. But
even beyond that, you are going to take the shoes
off at some point before you get into bed at night.

(03:20):
Given that they are going to come off somewhere, best
to take them off at a time and place that
will minimize potential problems. I'd say this is true for
other getting out the door necessities as well, keys, coats, umbrellas.
If children are old enough to have significant homework, then
their backpacks can go to their rooms for studying. But

(03:42):
those children are probably old enough to manage their stuff.
Young kids backpacks live in the mudroom. Now. I know
not everyone has a mudroom, but any entryway can be
outfitted for the storage necessary for these policies. And yes,
that means there might be shoes all for your entryway.
At any given moment, there are a dozen pairs of

(04:05):
shoes on the floor in my mondroom. Perhaps that might
look disorganized, but it Isn't Those shoes sitting on the
floor mean we get out the door on time, at
least most of the time. I think it's best to
choose function over aesthetics in the meantime. This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

(04:28):
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

(04:51):
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