Slow Home 101: The Entryway/Landing Strip
One of the key elements of a slow home (as identified by the founders of the Slow Home Movement) is a clearly defined, efficient entry point to your house.Sounds simple enough. Everyone has a door at the front of their house, right?But when you think about what you use the entry to your house for, you begin to see just how important it is to have an efficient landing strip - because if you do this right, you're setting your home up to be organised, clutter-free and easy.
A good entryway/landing strip should:
- provide somewhere specific and neat to drop your keys/purse/wallet
- have somewhere to hang your bag/jacket/scarf/umbrella/dog leash
- have a seat or a bench where you can sit to put on/take off your shoes
- give you somewhere to keep the shoes you wear most often - work shoes and the like
- give you somewhere to put your mail, as well as somewhere to open it and recycle the junk straight away; action and file any bills etc
- be inviting but highly usable
- not be cluttered (easier said than done when you look at this list!)
The ideal would be to have a wide hallway with a storage closet, which then opens out into the rest of the house. But, as I've said before, I'm not about to tell you to remodel your house so we'll work with what we have.Tomorrow, I'll take you through our entryway - mostly because it leaves quite a lot to be desired and this may just be the kick in the pants I need to get it sorted. But also because it may help you in putting together an effective entryway to your house.
Want to Know More?
- Apartment Therapy's A Guide to a Slow Home: Entryway and Landing Strip
- This 2-minute video on good and bad entry design from Slow Home Studio
- Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure