dumping ground

The entry into our house from the garage (which is pretty much the only entrance we use) leads you directly into a hallway with a wall right in front of you.  Our bedroom is to the immediate right and the kitchen and laundry room are on the left.  Before we had Addison, I didn't have anything on this wall.  It tends to get a little cramped, and can be tight if you're carrying things.  Well when Addi came along our dining room table or our bed became an absolute dumping ground...coats, diaper bag, my purse, extra clothes, camera bag, school papers, and so on.  I installed these hooks for coats and bags and it worked well, for a while.  Then last summer bought this cubby system at Target.  It's not the cutest piece of furniture, but it's functional.  Even this gets to be overflowing with stuff just about every single time we walk in the door!! 

I know when baby #2 gets here the amout of stuff will double, so I'm trying to be creative with this space ahead of time...but I stuck!  There really isn't room for anything more than 12" deep (which is what the cubbies are) so a storage bench is out of the question.  Also, we can't put anything tall due to the alarm keypad, which is the white box under the far right hook. 

Sure I can find things that I like.

I mean, this one is just okay.  I might be able to walk in to this every day. 

I don't know though...

Obviously I'm totally kidding. I would SO LOVE to have a mud room or someplace to house all of our things that come and go with us daily!

This one pretty much left me drooling.  Are you kidding me?? There are even empty shelves over the coat hooks!  I would have no trouble filling those up!! And that rustic old bench in the center...let's just say I REALLY like this.  A lot.

This one is a tad more realistic...not quite as huge. But still, you have to have the space for something like this and clearly I do not.  I have a very narrow hallway and that's it!! 

Oh this one is just lovely too.  I've found SO many inspirational ideas and trust me, they are being filed away in my "someday" folder.  Don't know if "someday" will ever happen, but it's okay to keep a file on it, right?  Just so I'm prepared if the day ever comes! 

I did love this idea of backing it in corkboard.  How great to just be able to post anything you need to it...school forms, rehearsal/practice schedules, etc. 

Now back to the Hofmann house.  Here's my idea...

I'm going to raise the 6 hooks up several inches.  It will be tall for me, but that's okay, I'm use to standing on my tippy-ties!  Then I bought two more hook racks that match the existing one.  They each have 3 hooks on them (they are propped up in the picture below).  My thought is to have one for each child:  Addi's coat, school bag, etc. and the another one for the baby.  The cubby system is going to be moved into Addi's new big girl closet and then I'm going to get another one that is 2 high by 3 wide...basically what we already have if you take the top row off.  Closetmaid makes an identical system that only has 6 cubbies HERE.  I know it's going to look a little squatty, but I really think we're going to need the storage space for gloves and smaller items.  Plus, this is where our pool bag and park bag end up in the warm months.

Do you have any ideas for my space??  I really need help with this one!  Please share your thoughts, experiences, ideas, etc.  I would love to have some input!!