Benched.

Moms can multitask.

Anyone who's ever been a mother or seen a mother in action knows this to be true. At some point during the day, I am simultaneously on the phone, carrying/feeding/changing a baby, sending an email, reminding a 6 year-old to grab her jacket, wrangling the dog, taking out the trash, coordinating a reunion/meeting/dinner, and cooking a nutrtious, tasty, and budget friendly dinner...with my little toe. Most days, I wish I had the magical and cute little nose wrinkle of Samantha on Bewitched to solve daily stressors, but alas, that has yet to be the case (although I am a big fan of using prayer as a form of magic to get me through the day.)

So instead, I, like most modern mothers, combat the day the best way I know how, by multitasking and staying on top of the chaos as best as I can. I am exceptionally organized (some might say I am a little TOO type-A) but I thrive in an organized space and operate at optimum speed when there is a place for everything and, as the song goes, everything in it's place.

So what do you do, as a contemporary wonder woman, upon getting out of the car and into the house with groceries, children, a bottle of wine (YES!), craft projects, lunchboxes, carseats, and the mail? Do you open the door, turn off the alarm, and drop everything (including the children, but hold on to the wine) on the floor? No, sweetheart, you create an organized entryway.

A lot of my friends have these clever lockers inside the backdoor, and I think that fad in home design and function is simply genius. Rhett and I are planning, in the next five years or so, to add a second story. If we do that, we'll put lockers under the stairwell by the garage entrance, and I can't wait. Not only is it a good tool for your children to keep up with their belongings, and by children I mean husband, but it's practical and can be stylish. Love it.

In the meantime, Rhett and I have decided to use repurposed items inside the entrance from the garage into the house, and we couldn't be happier.

We found on old pew that perfectly fit the wall. 81" to be exact! What a find. Bonuses- it belonged to my mother, was free to us, and is an antique. Check, check, and check. Next, we found the top of an old doorway (around $10 at an architectural antiques store) and 4 vintage, mismatched doorknobs (around $4 each at the same store). Rhett attached them and- voila!- a coat rack. Lastly, we added a vintage-looking tin sign from my old condo that tells our little troops to "Get Busy. Looking back, we created- for under $30- a perfect place to stash everything we bring home. Backpacks, carseats, laptops, and coats now have a place to rest until they are picked up again the next morning.

The best news about an organized entry? Multitasking Mom is now free to get cracking on the rest of her to-do list.