My organized mudroom - pics

[KrisM]

People asked for some organizing tips. I am very proud of my mudroom and wanted to share it here. It's small - maybe 5' x 5' and has lots of doors - laundry room, garage, basement, coat closet and entry way. So, not much wall space and some of the walls get covered by doors. But, we come through this room daily from the garage.

Here is the corner between the laundry room and the entry to the house. I have Command Hooks for coats and backpacks and bins for the kids shoes. DS1 is green, DD is pink, and DS2 is blue. They know where to put their shoes and where to find them and it works great!

I hope to get peg board up on the wall, but we haven't figured a good way to hang it because of the pocket door.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa81/khaselton/DSC00043.jpg

This is the opposite corner. The back of the garage door has magnet hooks. We have swim floaties and a bag for the pool here. In the winter, we'll hang snow pants here.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa81/khaselton/DSC00042.jpg

Same corner, but the back of the basement door. It's a mesh shoe storage hanger from the Container Store. Right now, it's full of sunglasses, sun screen and other summer things. In the winter, it holds hats and mittens. The mesh lets things dry.
http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/aa81/khaselton/DSC00044.jpg

There's a boot bench next to the garage door, but it never gets sat on and it becomes a place to pile stuff. I'm thinking I'll get something for DH and I to put our shoes in or on there and get rid of the bench. But, wet boots went under it in the winter and that was nice. I'd need a new idea for the boots.

[Bens Momma]

Kris, it looks great :bighand:!! So nice to see what others are doing as motivation and for gathering ideas! I've been following your purging, cleaning, and organizing threads and I am impressed! You deserve a big pat on the back as this is a major job that's hard to do with kids at home. It takes a lot of time and effort and although it's been a struggle for you at times, it's really looking great and paying off for your family happiness and well-being I'm sure. I am in the (SLOW) process of trying to do this too and I have been motivated from your posts. I especially needed to read your recent thread on "Please help me get rid of my stuff!" as I get the first stage done and then struggle to get the stuff out of the house. I have doubts or think it has value and I should sell it, thus it ends up in boxes & bags stored all over the house/garage and adding to the clutter. It's a process but slowly I'm turning over a new leaf and making progress. Thanks for sharing the pics and your journey!

Momma to 2 ACTIVE DS :bouncy::bouncy:

[MamaKath]

Kris, you are an inspiration!!!! I have been working hard to purge, and it is great to see pics of real (not magazine) houses with workable solutions. Thank you!!!!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Wow, cool. We have almost the same color mudroom. Do you keep just one kind of jacket out at a time? We have raincoats, light jackets (always) then we add fleeces and coats, which make a disaster. Oh, plus the bunting for the baby.
What do you do in the winter?

[KrisM]

Wow, cool. We have almost the same color mudroom. Do you keep just one kind of jacket out at a time? We have raincoats, light jackets (always) then we add fleeces and coats, which make a disaster. Oh, plus the bunting for the baby.
What do you do in the winter?

Yes, I do. In the closet, I hang the raincoats, unless most days are rainy. And right now, fleece coats are in the closet, as it's in the upper 80s. In the fall, the fleece come out. In the winter, winter coats are hung there. If I didn't rotate, they'd be in a big pile on the floor :).

I'm thinking that if I get rid of the bench in there, then for the winter maybe I'd move the shoe baskets somewhere else and put a boot mat under the coats. They were boots most of the winter it seems. Or maybe just add one pair of sneakers per kid in the mudroom.

I had held off adding more hooks because of the pending pegboard, but if we don't get that up by fall, I'm adding more hooks!

I've also consider using part of a wall behind the door in the laundry room for more coats that are in-season, but not daily wear.

Our dining room and DD's room is the same green. DD would like her room to become pink :).

[KrisM]

Kris, it looks great :bighand:!! So nice to see what others are doing as motivation and for gathering ideas! I've been following your purging, cleaning, and organizing threads and I am impressed! You deserve a big pat on the back as this is a major job that's hard to do with kids at home. It takes a lot of time and effort and although it's been a struggle for you at times, it's really looking great and paying off for your family happiness and well-being I'm sure. I am in the (SLOW) process of trying to do this too and I have been motivated from your posts. I especially needed to read your recent thread on "Please help me get rid of my stuff!" as I get the first stage done and then struggle to get the stuff out of the house. I have doubts or think it has value and I should sell it, thus it ends up in boxes & bags stored all over the house/garage and adding to the clutter. It's a process but slowly I'm turning over a new leaf and making progress. Thanks for sharing the pics and your journey!

Momma to 2 ACTIVE DS :bouncy::bouncy:


Kris, you are an inspiration!!!! I have been working hard to purge, and it is great to see pics of real (not magazine) houses with workable solutions. Thank you!!!!

Thanks so much! It's been a lot of work, but it's so worth it!

I do a mom2mom sale each season and 1 garage sale a summer. If something doesn't sell after 2 tries, off it goes. I'm really picky now about what I save for ebay, as I just don't have enough time to list it all. I need to get better at CL, too. Otherwise, I'd end up with huge piles everywhere as well.

[o_mom]

For the pocket door issue... what we did at our old house was use a molly bolt which is a threaded anchor that expands inside the cavity. Once it was in and expanded, we swapped the screw that came with it for a shorter one or the same diameter that would clear the door. We hung a microwave using these, so pegboard should not be a problem.

You can measure how much clearance there is by closing the door (so the wall is empty), drilling a small pilot hole, opening the door, and then using a piece of wire, like a coat hanger, to probe the depth. Be sure to open and close the door a couple times with the probe in and then get a screw that is the next size shorter.

[KrisM]

For the pocket door issue... what we did at our old house was use a molly bolt which is a threaded anchor that expands inside the cavity. Once it was in and expanded, we swapped the screw that came with it for a shorter one or the same diameter that would clear the door. We hung a microwave using these, so pegboard should not be a problem.

You can measure how much clearance there is by closing the door (so the wall is empty), drilling a small pilot hole, opening the door, and then using a piece of wire, like a coat hanger, to probe the depth. Be sure to open and close the door a couple times with the probe in and then get a screw that is the next size shorter.

Great idea! We have the pegboard cut and framed and in the garage and we completely forgot about the pocket door until we went to hang it up! The pegboard needs to be painted still, but that's easy. I can't wait to try this! Thanks.

[o_mom]

Great idea! We have the pegboard cut and framed and in the garage and we completely forgot about the pocket door until we went to hang it up! The pegboard needs to be painted still, but that's easy. I can't wait to try this! Thanks.

Yeah, we had already removed the range hood, bought the new microwave and cut down the cabinet before it hit us that there was a pocket door. Talk about some major panic, lol!

[cono0507]

I love the mesh shoe hanger over the door idea for the small seasonal stuff (mittens, sunscreen, etc)! I'll definitely be borrowing that idea! Thanks! :)

[KrisM]

I love the mesh shoe hanger over the door idea for the small seasonal stuff (mittens, sunscreen, etc)! I'll definitely be borrowing that idea! Thanks! :)

FYI, my DH would freak if I hung it over the door and scraped the wood, so it's on with Command Hooks. I love those things!

[StantonHyde]

I love those pocket hangers. Our mudroom doors see really high use--in/out constantly so I knew it wouldn't be good to do an over the door organizer. I just took the hooks out of the organizers and nailed them to the wall!! One keeps mittens and hats, the other shoes.

Only now, the kids' shoes are too big to fit in the pockets! So I got a 3 level shoe rack at Target--a sturdy one, not the flimsy plastic. I like the idea of putting sunglasses etc in the pockets I will have leftover!

[kristac]

Loving the pocket idea. Totally swiping that though I need to put it inside the coat closet door since we don't have a "mud room" just a foyer.

Talk to me about the command hooks. I wanted to buy some for backpacks and my diaper bag but they say they only hold 5 lbs. I think my diaper bag is over for sure and wondered about the backpacks once you add library books, etc.

[KrisM]

I don't leave heavy stuff in the bags with those hooks. I do leave school folders in and sometimes have a lunchbox and a backpack hanging on one hook. I've never had a hook fail, but I think if it got too heavy, it would.

But, I love the command hooks still. I have a ton of them here. I use the picture hanging hooks all over instead of nails. We had the same hooks in the mudroom and took them down to paint. No issues pulling the adhesive off - left no marks at all.