Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to keep shoes by the door. Getting out
Speaker 1: the door in the morning can sometimes be challenging, but
Speaker 1: there is no reason to be delayed by misplaced necessities.
Speaker 1: So I've been doing a lot of interviews lately as
Speaker 1: I'm doing publicity for my upcoming book, Big Time. We
Speaker 1: often talk about schedule issues and where time goes awry.
Speaker 1: One of the most common pain points people ask me
Speaker 1: about is getting out the door in the morning. The
Speaker 1: usual assumption is that if you have kids, and particularly
Speaker 1: if you have a lot of kids, then there will
Speaker 1: just be general chaos. A frequent example of why you
Speaker 1: are running late is that a kid can't find a
Speaker 1: missing shoe. Now, I will admit that we sometimes run
Speaker 1: late and have rushed mornings as well. I don't think
Speaker 1: anyone is immune to that, But I do find these
Speaker 1: questions interesting because in my house we are almost never
Speaker 1: missing shoes. We have plenty of other problems, but not
Speaker 1: that one. This is because people under the age of
Speaker 1: adulthood are required to take off their shoes the second
Speaker 1: they come in the house, and to leave said shoes
Speaker 1: in the mudroom by the door. If any everyday shoe
Speaker 1: is ever found elsewhere in the house, it will be
Speaker 1: immediately returned to the mudroom. Now, guests and adults can
Speaker 1: do whatever they want, but my husband and I tend
Speaker 1: to follow the mudroom rule as well. This taking off
Speaker 1: your shoes by the door habit has been done so
Speaker 1: often and for so many years that my children automatically
Speaker 1: take off their shoes when they enter anyone else's house
Speaker 1: as well. Now, it is not like we have an
Speaker 1: infinite number of doors in the house, we are pretty
Speaker 1: much always leaving from the mudroom. As a result, when
Speaker 1: we need to leave, the shoes the children are most
Speaker 1: likely to wear are right there. Again, I am not
Speaker 1: saying other things won't go wrong. People need to wear
Speaker 1: dress shoes or something that is an entirely different matter.
Speaker 1: But the shoes by the door of rule means we
Speaker 1: have more or less eliminated one potential source of weekday
Speaker 1: morning chaos. I kind of figured this solution was obvious,
Speaker 1: but given the number of times this example comes up,
Speaker 1: I decided it was worth talking about. Whether you have
Speaker 1: kids or not, it is smart to have shoes live
Speaker 1: by the door you use to leave the house. Maybe
Speaker 1: not all your shoes, those precious Jimmy shoes you wear
Speaker 1: on special occasions should not live in a rough and
Speaker 1: tumble entryway. But if you generally wear the same pair
Speaker 1: of shoes, or even the same two to three pairs
Speaker 1: of shoes in your everyday life, they should all be
Speaker 1: kept near the spot where you will put them on.
Speaker 1: You can put them in a cute little bin if
Speaker 1: you want or not, but if you need them to
Speaker 1: get out the door and they are always by the door,
Speaker 1: then they will not be missing when you want to leave.
Speaker 1: As a bonus, if your shoes come off by the door,
Speaker 1: you won't track mud or germs into the house. But
Speaker 1: even beyond that, you are going to take the shoes
Speaker 1: off at some point before you get into bed at night.
Speaker 1: Given that they are going to come off somewhere, best
Speaker 1: to take them off at a time and place that
Speaker 1: will minimize potential problems. I'd say this is true for
Speaker 1: other getting out the door necessities as well, keys, coats, umbrellas.
Speaker 1: If children are old enough to have significant homework, then
Speaker 1: their backpacks can go to their rooms for studying. But
Speaker 1: those children are probably old enough to manage their stuff.
Speaker 1: Young kids backpacks live in the mudroom. Now. I know
Speaker 1: not everyone has a mudroom, but any entryway can be
Speaker 1: outfitted for the storage necessary for these policies. And yes,
Speaker 1: that means there might be shoes all for your entryway.
Speaker 1: At any given moment, there are a dozen pairs of
Speaker 1: shoes on the floor in my mondroom. Perhaps that might
Speaker 1: look disorganized, but it Isn't Those shoes sitting on the
Speaker 1: floor mean we get out the door on time, at
Speaker 1: least most of the time. I think it's best to
Speaker 1: choose function over aesthetics in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
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