This Small-Space Organizing Hack Gets My Kids Out the Door Fast

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I’m a New York City teacher, and last school year my morning commute consisted of leaving the breakfast table, walking up the stairs of our cottage, and sitting down in my “cloffice” (the closet office that I designed in our bedroom closet!) to log onto my computer. My kindergarten daughter’s morning commute consisted of grabbing her laptop and finding a learning spot that wasn’t in direct contact with toys, stuffed animals, or her two younger sisters.

This fall, for the first time in nearly 17 months, I’ll be once again facing the prospect of leaving the house and commuting to school. I teach 7th grade at a K-8 school in Queens, NY, and my oldest daughter will start 1st grade there this school year, so I’ll be walking to work with my 6-year-old in tow.

Getting out the door in the mornings, dropping kids off on time, and arriving at work on time is one of the most daunting routines for parents. But there’s an organizational trick that I’ve discovered that helps my family get out the door efficiently. At the start of each season, we set up a getting-out-the-door station.

Our getting-out-the-door station holds all of our essential seasonal items that are needed when we’re bravely facing NYC weather. All of these items are stored in a location close to our apartment door, so that when we are all scrambling to get out the door, we aren’t going into the bedrooms or closets to look for items. This area also allows us to put those items right back in their place when we’re coming back in the door.

In our 750-square-foot NYC apartment we don’t have a closet near our entry door, so we’ve had to get creative about this space. Our getting-out-the-door station consists of a small metal cabinet (any sturdy, shelved cabinet will do, though!), wall hooks, over-the-door hooks, a mail and key holder, and floor shoe trays. Inside the small metal cabinet we use a mini 3-drawer container, and other small bins to organize all of the seasonal accessories we may need to take out the door with us.

For the back-to-school commute, this area includes backpacks, umbrellas, uniform shoes, helmets (my daughter’s preferred school commute method is riding her scooter), school supplies, keys, and my school bag.

When we chose how to organize our seasonal items, we first got down to the level of our kids and thought about where things should be strategically placed. We placed small bins on the lowest shelves in the cabinet so they could reach them independently. We placed labels on the outside of bins to distinguish items. We installed low hooks at their level so they could hang their jackets and backpacks by themselves. 

Once the station is set for the new season, we take our kids on a tour and show them how and where things are organized. They feel a sense of comfort when they know where their things are, and they are better set up for success when they understand how the system works.

We began by modeling how to use the station in order to get out the door. We explicitly named the steps that we follow (i.e. “First I put on my shoes, then I grab my bag…”). Then we gradually began to give over more responsibility to our kids by coaching them on the sequence of steps in order to get out the door (i.e. “What should we do first?”, “What comes next?”). 

Our 4-year-old and 6-year-old are consistently gaining independence by using the station to prepare themselves. Even our 1-year-old knows exactly where to go when we say, “It’s time to put on our shoes.” We also intentionally praise growth and progress. The reality with three young children is that ANYTHING our kids can do independently to help our family get out the door efficiently is a win.

As the weather shifts from fall to winter, the items we store in this area will evolve again. We like to restock our getting-out-the-door area at the start of each season. In the winter, the bins get loaded with scarves, gloves, and winter hats (check out my IG reel showing this space stocked for winter). In the summer, we spend some time at our cottage in the Poconos and set up a similar getting-out-the-door area by filling a 3-tier cart with sunglasses, sunscreen, and beach toys (check out my IG reel showing this cart stocked for summer and here’s an IG remix reel I created to compare our apartment and cottage getting-out-the-door areas in the summer).

This getting-out-the-door area of our home evolves with every season, but it always serves our family well.