Love your thinking. Here is a small but powerful add on:

Keep a couple of small trays that float around the house. one downstairs one upstairs. Drop things onto the trays (on the left for the garage … on the right for the basement)

You can execute your strategy even better when you have a wicker serving tray that has accumulated a dozen items on its way to the kitchen.

Also your house looks less messed up with you have 5 things on a tray, rather than five things scatter on a table waiting to be move.