A typical morning not too long ago used to go like this.

“Ella, put your socks on.”

“I don’t like those socks, they have lines.”

“Ok, what about these… do these have lines?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, well just try them.”

“They hurt”

“Chloe?! Get your shoes on”

“Where are they?”

20 minutes later one shoe is found under the bed and the other in the car. Ella is in sandals.

Kids, at least my kids take their shoes off in random places. I understand it. Isn’t childhood supposed to be about running through the grass with no shoes on? But this makes it very hard to get out the door in the morning.

We have found some solutions that are actually working! The extra 20 minutes saved daily has given us more time to do some household upgrades too. Boom!

First was the socks problem. Apparently Ella is not the only child to have this issue with “Lines”. If you google it, there are tons of parent chat groups about it. This led us to Jefferies Socks. No lines and comfy. Ella approves and will wear them every day.

My first solution to the shoe issue was to have them take their shoes off when they come in the door. However see picture below.

This obviously was not working.

Then my mother-in-law gave me a pretty sturdy shoe organizer. (Apparently she wasn’t enjoying being greeted by the large mess of shoes either and was dropping a subtle hint) It was one of those that is meant to be installed in a closet. It was an ugly white, so I spray painted it a mixture of red and copper. The girls love it and really like putting their shoes in there.

Getting the kids out the door has never been so easy and now I am working on a whole front entry revamp while spending as little money as possible.

My husband was so happy with how efficient we’ve become that he was willing to rush in the morning to go pick up these lighting fixtures that were left by a neighbor. One of these will go in our new front entry way.

And now I won’t cringe when she does this…