Command center, life saver, organizational wonder…your home’s drop zone is all that and a bag of chips. Situated right by an exterior door, it’s an area devoted to making your home less cluttered and getting you out the door in a hurry. Whether your drop zone is a nook or an entire room, builders often outfit them with cabinetry, hooks, benches, charging drawers and cubbies. Either way, once tailored to your family’s needs, flip-flops will no longer litter the living room, nor will coats and hoodies be flung across chairs and counters. “Where are my keys?!” will be a phrase that ceases to ring throughout the house.

Ready to create a stylish and efficient drop zone in your home? Our Senior Designer and Brand Manager, Roseli Kim, has sourced the essentials to get you started.

Shelves and cubbies create an organizational framework, but you’ll still need to wrangle everything that’s stored within. That’s where boxes with lids shine. Keep magazines and papers close at hand but out of sight with sturdy lidded milk crates. For larger items, the gray lidded storage box goes well with any décor and fits nicely in a large square cubby.

Corral keys, garage door openers, sunglasses and other bits of life’s ephemera into pretty little decorative boxes. The matte black finish and Cubist-inspired design of the Braque Box adds a chic quotient that will help the space harmonize with the rest of your modern décor. The pattern and blue-and-white palette of the Bone Box Set make them gorgeous receptacles for all sorts of odds and ends. Placed prominently on your drop zone’s counter, they’ll add color and beauty to one of your home’s most utilitarian spaces. Durable milk crates with chalkboards enable you to label each container (so fantastic!) and, because of their wood construction, bring warmth to a room. We’d use Roseli’s pick to store outdoor play things, dog chew toys and leashes, umbrellas…pretty much anything!

Drop zones are fantastic for handling mail, sorting bills, displaying schedules and keeping kids organized. Carve out a space in yours that can function as a mini-desk and ensure it stays tidy with clever tools like a stacked letter tray. The fun aqua hue of Roseli’s pick offers a playful pop of color and will keep your writing surface clear. Handy for capturing paperclips, rubber bands, stamps and the like, a desk organizer is a real asset. Roseli’s find can even serve as a cradle for your mobile phone! School books, cookbooks and other tomes often find their way to the drop zone, so keep everything together and looking polished with the Crystal Sphere Bookends.

One of the most essential duties of a drop zone is to keep coats, hoodies, and purses from being tossed into heaps on chairs. Whether your area has a bench or the perfect amount of wall space beside the door, hooks are indispensable. You can’t go wrong with a classic nickel-plated hook. A few placed beside the door or above a bench will work wonders as far as bags, hats, and outerwear go. For a more modern appearance, Roseli is a fan of the Peg Hook. It blends well with contemporary, bungalow and transitional décor, plus it has a little notch that easily catches handbag straps.

1. Storage Box With Handles | 2. Milk Crate Storage Box | 3. Braque Boxes | 4. Bone Box Set | 5. Bookends | 6. Wood Milk Crate | 7. Stacked Desk Organizer | 8. Desk Organizer | 9. Peg Hook | 10. Wall Hook

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