Organize Your Mud Room so That the Outside Is Outside
Winter weather tends to invade the house. Dirty shoes and wet clothes can create a lot of clutter inside, especially with unnecessary items from guests, but you can organize your hallway or create a winter gear drop area to keep your home clean and dry.
First, buy a boot scraper
A good boot scraper on your porch or on your way to the door is a great place to start fighting the clutter before it even gets inside. You can buy regular boot scrapers, but you can also make your own with a few stiff bristled brushes screwed into the board and attached to your porch or deck.
For a more reliable shoe cleaner, you can cut the end of the brush into three pieces and attach the two outer pieces at right angles to the middle, creating a three-sided brush for deep stubborn dirt. A good rug can also be helpful if the amount of dirt is relatively low.
Dry your shoes and boots
To preserve the floor, you need to make a place to dry your wet shoes. In a small space, a mat and a small stool work well. You can use a larger bench and several drawers that fit underneath in a larger space. It’s important to figure out a convenient way to remove dirty shoes before soot continues to enter your home. An inverted five gallon bucket is a great chair.
There are some extra hooks to hang your drying equipment.
The next thing you’ll need is hooks to hang your wet clothes on. They can be installed directly on a rack or screwed to a board or board and attached to a wall.
You can measure to find studs that are typically 16 inches apart. In older homes, they are sometimes 24 inches apart, so if you knock on a wall and it appears hollow 16 inches from the corner, you may have an older 24-inch variety. Finding a stud is the easiest way to find what you’re looking for, but not everyone has one.
Once you’ve identified where the pins are, you can attach the hooks, keeping in mind that the distance from the floor should be appropriate for whatever garment you need to dry there. The advantage of screwing the hooks into a board that can be placed horizontally across the nails is that it will allow you to place the hooks less than 16 inches apart.
Choose a suitable wall finish
The safest option is to choose a glossy or moisture resistant wall finish. Keeping wet gear in contact with the wall surface will help prevent damage and facilitate cleaning if the surface is smooth and non-absorbent.
You can also treat the area behind the hooks like an apron and tile it. Another option is to use a set of hooks with a lining that attaches to the wall under the hooks.
A tiled floor or other resilient floor is also a good idea. Depending on your existing floor type, you can often paint your floor with deck paint or marine finish to keep it waterproof. And if that’s not an option, adding a waterproof mat will help protect the floor from moisture and sand.
A few more drying options
For more drying options for hats, mittens, socks, and other outdoor gear, you can use a sturdy rope and a few clothespins, such as a miniature household clothesline. If you are short on space, you can stretch the rope vertically instead of horizontally and secure the wet mittens with a column. You can also use a dryer, like the one used in the laundry, to collect wet clothes before they get inside.
If you have room, add a coffee table
A small shelf or table is a good addition to your hallway to store keys, coffee mugs, or cell phones. This will help make your hallway more comfortable and inviting, and simplifying it will definitely increase the chances that people won’t forget to remove their dirty gear at the door. This saves you the hassle of cleaning up mud indoors and saves your guests the hassle of lugging their belongings at the door.