Tips on Keeping Your Mudroom Organized This Winter
Do you have winter coats, boots, mittens, skates, sports gear, etc. taking over your mudroom this winter? If you answered yes, just take a deep breath and keep reading to learn a few tips on how to keep everything in its place with some organizational tips. Throughout the winter we cover up with layers upon layers depending on the flux of the temperature. Overtime, most people’s “drop zones” and hanging spaces tend to get left unorganized in the excited shuffle of getting home to a warm house. Read on to learn a few easy steps to keeping your mudroom organized this winter.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the new “craze” (or beautiful person rather) hitting the internet by one big beautifully organized and tiny force: Marie Kondo. She is a professional organizer from Japan who has written books to help the not-so-savvy organizers live their lives with more joy by limiting the number of things that we don’t necessarily need. See the list below of her books:
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
- Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up
- The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying up: A Magical Story
I’ll admit that I purchased ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’ book quite a while ago because of the beautiful cover, but I still haven’t opened it. However, I do tend to keep my home fairly organized and I also just moved into a new house, so I’ve had to purge and relearn where to put things. Once I find this book in my stash, I’m definitely diving in. She also has a new show on Netflix, and other viewing platforms, called: Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. In this show, her signature words are along the lines of, “if doesn’t spark joy in your life, then you don’t need it.” While some winter gear won’t spark joy, you might have other items within your mudroom space that could be tested (clutter piles, shoes etc).
Follow these tips below to make sure you keep your mudroom or any part of your house up to “Marie Kondo” code – bring some peace to a busy part of your home:
- A Space for Everyone
- If you have multiple people using the mudroom, designate a space, big or small, for every person’s items. You can do this by getting color coded bins or baskets, then making labels for them with each name. You can even make this a fun activity for the kids to make their own name tag for their bins. If you have a blank wall in or near your mudroom, add hooks and designate a hook for every person to hang their own coat. Wall space is your friend. If there are items in the mudroom that are not used on a daily basis, store these in another closet instead. Once you start a habit, they say it usually takes 30 days for it to stick, so try to keep up with a routine for everyone in the family to get organized so everyone can live in peace in the house but also to simplify your life!
- Wet Boots & Clothes
- Find an area in the garage or right inside your main door for wet boots/shoes to drip dry. There are many plastic and rubber trays for purchase at department and hardware stores or craft a metal rack to place your shoes on with a tray underneath for faster drying. Make space in the garage to store wet and snowy clothes with a small coat rack on the wall or just a couple of hooks. If you don’t have an attached garage, try looking for an over-the-door hanger with multiple hooks so items have space to be able to dry after having too much fun playing in the snow. This option is removable so it could be taken down in the warmer months when layers aren’t as necessary.
- Change the Look
- If just a couple of additions are just not enough for you, look into a whole mudroom organization system. Do you have room for a bench with hooks and/or cubbies above? The bench can be used as added storage with a hinged top for all those extra items or this space could be used for your pets’ toys and food storage! To keep things tidy, you can use decorative baskets in the cubbies above to store everyone’s mittens and hats. Think about utilizing the whole space as in floor to ceiling as well. You can always store stuff up high that isn’t used as frequently, but it is still easy to get to. If your family has a busy schedule, its a great idea to get the kids together to make a large personalized calendar on an empty wall so everyone knows whats going on and where they’re supposed to be. A quick and fun way to do this would be to use chalk paint and paint a large rectangle on the wall. This makes it easy to change month after month, and fun for the whole family too! If you’re anything like our team at Che Bella Interiors, we enjoy and take pride in an organized schedule!
There are many ways to keep a home tidy if you put your mind to it! Follow our tips to jump start a few new habits this year and maybe that habit will lead you to other parts of the house. Happy Organizing!
Written by Stefanie from the Che Bella team
