After School Clutter

To be able to entertain at a moments notice we need to have certain things in order...a way to free the living room, and dining room of clutter (we'll work on the other rooms later).
Take for instance when my kids come home from school...My daughter Hannah (I love her dearly) has this horrible habit of dumping everything on the floor as soon as she walks through the door, be it her gym bag, back pack, shoes, coat whatever it is...it's all on the floor. Then she proceeds to rummage through her back pack and do her homework in the middle of the walking area between the dining room and the living room- UGH! My son Andrew on the other hand (bless his soul) spreads everything out across the kitchen table. He does it in such a manner that there is no way my daughter could even get a note book on the table. Heaven forbid if friends dropped by while my children and doing their homework. They would see my house as a library blown up. Both Andrew and Hannah have desks in their rooms for this very reason but do they use them? Oh heavens no! That would be wanting too much from them at this moment, LOL! So one of my first things is to have a designated place for them to put their backpacks after their home work is done, this is a must! It needs to be near the door for them to grab on their way to catching the bus in the morning.
This is the first step in conquering the clutter in our living space. Now to work on the 2nd thing...I'll let you know how that goes.
It's little things here and there that one can do to keep from having a messy looking home. It's developing habits and sticking to them (and getting the rest of your family members to do the same). It takes about 30 days to develop and maintain a good habit or routine. Since school just started again I've got to get my children back into their old routine...this will be a hard one but it will get done. Hannah's routine of dumping everything in the middle of the floor or in the door way has got to go! I can deal with Andrew not sharing the table a lot more than Hannah's dumping habit. But I hope the be able to get my children to get back in the habit of using those desks in their bedrooms to do their homework.