Do you have a dumping zone in your house?

[windybay]

And if not - how?

Whenever anyone gets home everything is dumped on the kitchen table. And left there until I tidy it away. And I'm so sick of it! Post, paperwork, receipts, hats, belts, jackets, keys, shopping bags etc etc.

Does every house have somewhere like this?

We're about to move and I'm wondering if there's any genius way I can set up the new house to avoid this? I hate clutter!

Not really. You just need places for all of those things so they don't get dumped in the first place.

Post and paperwork - tray in kitchen.
Reciepts - a small box in kitchen. throw in everything you might need to keep, sort every few weeks into correct location if needd to keep or bin

Hats, belt - basket in hallway, in straight away same time as shoes off

Jackets - straight in hook as enter house, near shoes

Resuable shopping bags - on hook back of kithen door. I try and us fabric reuseble 99% of the time. any odd other straight in recycling

Basically anything you see lying around that causes dumping problems needs a location thats convenient so you put on straight away before you reach the kitchen table

We have several.
Dining table - DH leaves work things, propagating plants, seeds and a smattering of spilled soil, kids leave beads, drawings, homework etc (and they have a table of their own.)

Under the stairs - loose kid shoes, kid bags, DHs trousers (grubby job, strips in the hall ). Sometimes the kid delights don't even make it under the stairs, just middle of the hall floor until I yell.
Our bedroom- years of business paperwork, home paperwork, camping gear etc.

I'm resigned to a certain level of untidiness though as the only solution I can thing of involves living on my own .

At least yours is limited to just the kitchen table op.
There are several dumping zones in my house.
The console table in the hall is the first port of call. The dining room table. The sofa. The kitchen worktop.
Drives me potty.
I have brought tidy trays / baskets etc in the past but the success was limited and short lived.
No advice I’m afraid, just sympathies!

strawberry I'm trying to Marie Kondo our house at the moment. Fantastic book that helped me see where I've been going wrong for years.

The conclusion I've come to is we all need less stuff, there are convenient places for things but still not as convenient as the middle of the floor (DC esp guilty!). DH is has definite hoarding tendencies too.

The bookcase in our hall. This is timely as I have literally just moved everything off it that doesn’t actually live there and have found various ‘lost’ items in the process, including DH’s glasses and a year’s worth of the cat’s flea treatment, both of which have been expensively replaced recently .

All the random shite is now on the dining room table instead (see pic) - I will (probably) deal with my stuff and the kids’ over the course of the weekend but I can virtually guarantee that all of DH’s bits will either be back in the bookcase by the end of the week or stuffed in a cupboard where they also don’t belong .

No, we put things away.

Yes we have several dumping places too! Hall cupboard, floor, most kitchen surfaces. Anywhere horizontal really. Drives me crazy. We have a coat cupboard in the hall, a key rack, shoe racks, tray for post etc. Guess who is the only one who uses them?!

Luckily one dd dumps all her stuff in her room so I can shut the door on that. But DH is the worst offender, followed by dd2 who chucks things wherever she likes, then blames me when she can't find them. I do fantasise sometimes about taking the cats and living in a one bedroomed flat by myself!

oh yes far less stuff to start with helps with dumping as less inclined to dump if theres a clear space tp put it. We moveda few years ago and did a major clear out and charity dump of everything. we never really had loads but its really helped. ie 6 winter hats, charity 4, leaving just one thicker and one thinner which easily fit in lidded basket (other family members stuff also)

We have a similar thing to this in our mud room. I got a local joiner to make it for me and it's the best thing I've ever done.

Wow I need one of those @peachandmango