If you are lucky enough to have a mudroom, aka the catch-all space in the house, it’s usually the first and last room that you see every day. Instead of having it trashed most of the time, let’s organize and make it work for you with these tips. You probably already have most of these simple tools to organize already in your home.
Here’s the before of the built-ins, the coat hooks, and the closet, which are all in the mudroom.
The organizing had to be done all at once, so we could see what we really had. It’s the same 5-step SPACE process we go through on every organizing project.
One really big change you can see on the large picture above was that instead of having all the cookbooks on the second level of the bookshelf, we moved the less frequently used books up to the top shelf, which is not adjustable, but can be reached with the nearby stool. We also used the dreaded accordion folder to organize printouts of recipes, which can be a perfect use for these types of folders.
All of the adult coats that were taking up space on the hooks can now be hung in the closet. Before, the closet was too packed and coats were falling off of flimsy hangers, so it was a real struggle to even get the adult coats in there, and that’s why they ended up on the hooks. We swapped out the flimsy wire hangers for sturdy plastic ones, but plan to upgrade to wooden hangers before long. So now the little people can keep their coats and bags off the floor and on the hooks.
Did you notice the closet floor and the bottom cabinet? Both had been overrun with re-usable shopping bags, many of which were donated during our purge. What’s left of the bags we are keeping are gathered together in the yellow tote you see on the bottom right.
The real brains of the system is in the bookcase. We stashed all of the home improvement projects and returns in the To Do basket on the left.
The To Go basket on the right holds things needed when coming or going, like the lint brush, compact umbrella, and sunglasses. A change jar sits nearby.
We pulled the clementine box right off the kitchen counter and stashed sunscreen and lotion in there, close enough to grab, but not neatly disguised.
Several magazine files turned on their sides become mail slots for mom, dad, and the littles. Each one is labelled. No more mail piles on the island in the kitchen!
Not everyone has the luxury of space in a separate room, but even if your “mudroom” is only the last few feet of the kitchen counter, it’s wise to give every little piece of real estate a job and a label so everyone at home can help you keep it organized.
The simple tools we used here were:
- Fabric bins
- Cardboard magazine files
- A clementine box
- An accordion folder
- Card stock + Sharpie to label the bins
- Sturdy plastic coat hangers
- Woven baskets for the top shelf of the closet
- A fabric shopping bag to contain the other fabric shopping bags
