Breathe New Life into your Mudroom by giving it a Total Makeover
Mudrooms are a regular fixture in homes in colder areas. A mudroom is typically connected to the front door of a house through the side, and as such acts as an adjunct to the main entrance.
Intended to be used as a storage area for muddy shoes, sodden jackets and outerwear, mudrooms often end up being extremely cluttered and disorganized as every member of the family kick off their boots and throw their coats on the floor. Most of us take a messy mudroom for granted and only bother to organize it when guests show up, but it doesn't have to be this way.
While there are no hard and fast rules to maintaining a clean and organized mudroom, there are many common sense things you can do to eliminate that unruly pile up of winter boots, umbrellas, coats and hats. Here are a few tips to help you get started:
The foyers and front entrances of most houses already have a coat closet. The sad fact is that this coat closet remains unused because most people are under the impression that they should only be used by guests. This line of thinking leads to people dropping winter coats on the floor of their mudroom when there are perfectly good coast closets sitting empty next to the front doors. Put a stop to this but making full use of your coat closet and force every family member hang up their coats there before walking into the mudroom.
Evaluate your mudroom. Most mudrooms have storage areas for boots and hooks for hanging coats, hats and gloves. Take some time to assess whether the shelf storage space, closet space and number of hooks currently available are enough to meet the needs of your whole family. Often time it turns out that the kids throw their coats on the floor and leave their shoes lying around because they have difficulty reaching the hooks or do not have enough room to properly store their shoes. Maybe now is the time for a mudroom makeover?
In most mudrooms you have a limited amount of space to work with. Organize your mudroom closet to squeeze out the maximum amount of space. Buy shoe organizers and modular dresser units that can fit inside your mudroom closet. You will be amazed at how much new space you can create by simply rearranging your closet layout and sticking in a few storage boxes.
Given enough time the amount of clothes in a mudroom will grow. Eventually you will find yourself in a situation where there are multiple bulky winter coats, several pairs of mittens and gloves that belong to just one family member taking up all the space in the mudroom closet. Nip this sort of thing in the bud. Remove all excess clothing from your mudroom and store them in other closets around your house. The mudroom is meant to keep only one set of clothes currently in use, and not as a general storage space for someone's entire winter wardrobe. By limiting each family member to one pair of shoes, gloves, hats and coats they can store in the mudroom closet, you will suddenly find yourself with heaps of extra space.
While mudrooms are necessary for keeping mud, girt and melting snow out of the rest of your house, it is no picnic living with a messy and cluttered mudroom. Give your mudroom a quick makeover and breathe new life into the tired old room by following the above steps. You will find both you and your family members will love using a clean and uncluttered mudroom.