A couple of months ago I decided that my entryway was just driving me crazy. We have a side entrance to our house directly into what we call the mudroom. This is the entrance everyone uses: family and guests.
The kids and Mark left every pair of shoes they owned in the entryway. They also dumped their backpacks, hats, and anything else that happened to be in their hands onto the mudroom floor or the overstuffed coat rack.
So I decided it was time for a change.
I took a closet filled with miscellaneous cleaning items and tons of other “junk” that had managed to find itself onto the shelves. I threw a ton of stuff away and found new “homes” for most of the rest of what was in the closet.
We painted the inside of the closet and Mark made some new shelves that looked a little nicer. We removed the closet doors and gave the woodwork a fresh paint job.
Then I added baskets. Each person in the family has a large basket for their stuff. The smaller baskets are for some of the items that were in the former closet: party supplies, shipping supplies (from my hubby’s Ebay days), and a gift basket filled with miscellaneous gifts I’ve picked up here and there.
I love my new closet! And the best part of it is that the mudroom isn’t filled with clutter anymore!
This is such a timely post…I am in the process of organizing some overdue areas in my home…thanks for the encouragement along the way!
The people who lived in our home before us installed some tiny shelves that line the wall going down to the basement. For the longest time we didn’t use them, then they became the catch-all for anything that was on it’s way down to the basement. This winter all the boots and shoes began to clutter at the front and back doors. I finally put away all the junk on those shelves and assigned one shelf to each of the four children. Now the shoes, for the most part, stay out of the way.
I also places a tray with sides on our island to collect all the junk that people want to put on the counters. I only allow it to go until it gets full and then I put everything in it’s spot. Same with a toy basket in the living room to catch all those stray toys.
Our dining room is also the kids’ arts and crafts room. On any given day there are crayons, markers, scissors and paper strewn all over the table, because there’s no where else to put it! The only storage in that room is an overstuffed free standing pantry cabinet full of serving ware, glass pitchers and table linens. The mess was driving me crazy, but we couldn’t afford to purchase any more storage furniture just to keep markers out of sight. One day, I decided to clear out one shelf of that pantry to store the kids’ craft stuff, but I didn’t know what to do with all those dishes and glassware. I looked up, and found the perfect place for them: along the top of my kitchen cabinets! Finding a new home and purpose for my old dishes freed up some much needed storage space… and added a bit of decor, too 🙂
Vicky, sounds like a great idea!
As soon as the weather warms up I’m converting our breezeway (think screened in back porch only with louvered windows instead of screened windows) from a catch-all/mud room to a play room. It’ll clear up space in my daughter’s bedroom and give my kids a place to play where I can keep an eye on them.
Good idea! I know our porch becomes another room of the house in warm weather. I’m so ready!
We recently put down laminate flooring in our office/play room, which included moving out all the toys, bookshelf and our desk. Major mess for at least a week or so. But as we moved things back into the room, the kids and I sorted out the toys they don’t play with, books they haven’t read in ages or have out grown & I cleaned out the outdated computer equipment. I have also taken milkcrates and turned them on their side for storage of large trucks and tractors. in our living room, I have used an old dresser for our television/media area. DVD and video tapes fit in the drawers perfectly and now we have added Wii controllers to the drawers too.
Sometimes you have to make a mess to get something reorganized. Robin, I bet that the office/play room feels so fresh and simplified now!
First of all, I have switched over to all “Green” cleaning solutions (Great boook to check out is Knack Clean Home Green Home). It has lots of information and recipes to make your own cleaning solutions. It also tells about the chemicals out there and how HORRIBLE they are to the environment and your health! It is great and highly recommend it. That is my first reorganizing thing that I am doing and also Karen’s Ducks in a row brain in a binder thing. I have started, but have not yet finished it. LOL I have to get it done before I have this baby first part of June.
Erin, I’ve heard about that book. I’ll have to check it out!