Kid Space: Cubbies

For years, I struggled with getting in and out of the door with all my kids and their things in tow efficiently. Then school started and there were backpacks and lunch boxes and library books and lots of shoes and coats. I was constantly tripping on bags and looking for things, which made me irritable too often … not the mom I wanted to be. So, I employed my handy husband to help me come up with a solution. We had a house with no mudroom or laundry room or any other obvious place to drop things other than one small coat closet (where the kids could not reach the hangers easily) and the kitchen counters (one of my pet peeve drop zones).

We looked at the blank wall under our stairway and thought, I wonder what’s under there? We decided to punch a hole in the wall to see. Low and behold — SPACE! Empty, not yet utilized space! We researched building plans online and got to work.

We decided to build one cubby per child with lots of hooks for bags and coats, a place for shoes on the bottom, and a shelf up top. Now there was no excuse for lost library books or forgotten lunch boxes! Thinking ahead to the teenage years, we also put an outlet in the back of the top shelved section for charging electronic devices during storage. After painting the cubbies white, we cut a door mat to fit in the bottom of each to keep it looking clean no matter how dirty the shoes got. We also added another storage space to the side to store taller rain boots, sports bags, etc.

Maybe not everyone has a handy person in their life, but this would be a simple job for a hired handyman. Create the space you need to fit your life! You can do it!