The basic parts of a creative Launch Station

Do your weekday mornings consist of scrambling to find one pink sneaker, two permission slips, while packing three lunches and kissing four shiny faces (husband included) while you try to find your car keys, cell phone and ID tag on the way out the door? Do you dream of an organized system that doesn’t make your front hall or back door seem like a battle zone? Wouldn’t it be delightful to have at least one aspect of your daily routine go smoothly?

Here’s a super project that won’t take a lot of money or time to finish, and which will give all those miscellaneous papers, permission slips, signed report cards, tags, and outgoing mail a permanent home.

Colorful and Easy “Launch Pad”

Tools and supplies needed:

• Hook-and-loop tape with sticky back
• Foamcore board
• 3M Command decorative hooks that hold up to 5 lbs. – one for each family member plus one for hanging foamcore.
• Plastic 7-pocket expanding files in different colors, one for each family member
• Stick-on alphabet and/or stickers of shapes, fruit, toys or other easily recognized objects

These items can be purchased in dollar stores, supermarkets, wholesale clubs (for larger families) or might be found in your craft or office supplies and household items. For instance, I found expanding files at the supermarket for two dollars apiece.

Choosing the Site of the Launch Pad

Most families find that one exit is used most often in the morning when parents for the car, and the kids head to the school bus. This might be the front door in an apartment building or the door to the garage from the kitchen in a suburban home. Wherever you see the coats, bookbags, boots, dog leash, skateboard, bike helmets, or unopened mail piled up – that’s the spot!

On the back of the door, mark heights for the hooks that are easily reached by each person in the family, and mount them in two or three rows, so that name tags, keys, baseball caps, etc. can be hung up and retrieved before each leaves the house. Don’t forget the dog’s leash! You can use decals or stick-on letters to label each hook.

Mounting the Launch Pad

Determine a space on a wall as close to this door as possible, to hang the foamcore which will hold the expanding files. This can be as little as 30”x36” or as large as 42”x48” depending on the number of folders required for your family. The folders generally are 10” x 13”, and will need a couple of inches between each one. Once you have your measurements, purchase or cut the foamcore to fit.

Ask your children to decorate their folders and one each for Mom and Dad, with the stickers or alphabet letters. They might just put an initial for long names, or a happy face for Mom, or a truck for Dad. Make sure that each person’s folder is distinctive and cheerful! Some folders come with ready-made labels for the inner sections, such as months of the year or days of the week. You can organize these to suit your needs.

The foamcore, if it is white, could have a rocket ship or a tree or a house with windows and doors drawn in, to give it more “pop”.

The sticky-back hook-and-loop tape will mount the folders on the foam core. For extra holding strength, use more than one piece on the back of the folder, and leave room between the folders  for the flaps to be opened completely. Here’s where school papers, permission slips, notes to the teacher, even outgoing mail, can be deposited at the end of each day, so that it’s ready to be grabbed as each person leaves the house.

Attach a strong cord on the back of the foamcore and hang from the Command hook mounted on the back of the door, or use the hook-and-loop tape to mount on the wall.

(Remember that all of these can be removed when no longer needed or when they no longer serve their purposes well, because the hooks and tape are not permanent adhesives. You’re not putting any holes in the walls or door, either!)

Perhaps the oldest child can have the responsibility of checking each folder before leaving, to make sure nothing has been overlooked in the morning rush. The next one in line can make sure everyone has been kissed on the way out the door!

Stickers, hooks and Velcro fasteners complete the project