Mudroom: Keep chaos at bay with an organized and clutter-free mudroom.
School is officially out so we did a quick organization refresh to this mudroom cleaning it up and getting it ready for summer keeping beach towels, sunscreen, and their pool bag at arm’s reach. This client had a great space but after a year of using it during the school year there were a few things that weren’t functioning well. They realized that the backpack hooks were too high for kids to grab their own gear, they needed a better way to contain re-usable bags, the hat and glove storage had gotten out of control and the flimsy hangers just weren’t cutting it.
We followed our basic principles of organization:
- Empty everything out, sorting items into piles.
- Clean
- Identify what needs to go back in. In this case we removed coats that were bulky and not needed for the warmer months, moving them to a closet in the basement. Even though hats and gloves aren’t necessary now we knew we had room and wanted to leave them in this space so we could set ourselves up for success in the fall. We also did a quick fashion show trying on all the shoes to know which ones were outgrown or in disrepair. We ended with new piles: put back in, keep but relocate, donate and toss.
- Assess storage products needed – knowing what needed to go back into the closets helped us to identify what products would work best to house these items as well as function in the space. In this case we selected clear pull-out drawers to give hassle-free access without the need to label for winter hats and gloves, wood hangers that would be sturdy enough to hold winter coats, open sided bins for top shelves to allow easy reach and this super cool vertical organizer for all those re-usable bags.
- Install – We re-arranged the adjustable shelves between the closets to create new zones then used the existing boot trays the client had and reinstalled them along with our new products.
This client had some organizational systems in place, but they weren’t maximizing the potential of this space or functioning properly. By re-arranging some of the shelves and getting back to the basics of each closet’s purpose we were able to make some minor changes to increase their functionality. Here’s a breakdown of the four closets in this space:
- Top: Extra hats, gloves and scarves Bottom: Frequently used coats, hats, gloves and scarves
- Top: Extra backpacks and purses, travel high chair Bottom: Shoes and Boots
- Top: Ski gear and travel items Bottom: In use purses, sunglasses, catch all tray, summer hats, backpacks
- Top: Re-usable bags Bottom: Empty coat closet for guests, beach bag, beach towels, lost and found bins
These small changes to the mudroom took half a day to complete and will make this space more functional for the summer and setting them up for success moving into fall. By incorporating organizational products they had on hand with a handful pf new products we were able to refresh this space with minimal cost while maximizing it’s functionality on a beautiful way.
Here are some of the items we used for this project:
