Our New Mud-Room

A couple of months ago, my husband got the itch to build a shed next to our house.  I have to admit that I was not on board at first.  Since we only plan to stay in our house another year or two, I'm in the "let's not spend another dime on this house" mode.  However, he is the master of convincing and told me that it will help with resale ("what guy doesn't love a shed, Ali?"), will clear out all of the junk we've accumulated in our garage, and will be the perfect place to store our growing number of tubs of kids clothes.  Yep - he made a great point and construction on the shed began.

Since it was rainy last weekend, Cary wasn't able to work on the outside of the shed, but the inside was complete enough to be filled with all of our treasures...the lawn mower, bikes, tool bench, yard equipment, the baby pool, and 9 overflowing tubs of baby clothes!  As the shed filled, our garage looked empty.  Maybe we were finally going to be able to park both cars inside!

After a long day's work on Saturday, Cary quickly fell asleep on the couch while I was on Pinterest.  And then I saw it... a picture of a perfectly organized garage "mud-room" that gave me the "why didn't I think of that" feeling.  I thought about it all night long and knew that I had to make one of my own in my garage the next day.  :)  Poor Cary didn't know what hit him...

Here's what the entry into our house from the garage looked like mid-clean-up.  This area of our garage was always a mess.  We usually had about 15 pairs of shoes in a huge pile by the door, toys were intermixed in the mess, and the rugs were covered in leaves.  It just always felt dirty and unorganized.

After a trip to Lowe's on Sunday afternoon, my very handy hubby and I came home with 2 sheets of bead-board, some white trim, white paint, two rows of metal hooks, two cloth baskets, and three closet shelving units.  After about 2 hours worth of work, we had a great new addition to our house!  A mud-room! :)

What I love most is that it looks so nice when you pull in the garage.  I feel like it gives a clean and organized feeling when you enter our house, rather than the old dirty and unorganized mess we used to deal with.  And thanks to Bobbi, I didn't have to buy a new rug.  She hadn't thrown away this long Crate and Barrel runner after getting a new one for her entryway.  What an awesome hand-me-down!  :)

I also love that the kids know where their shoes, hats and gloves go AND they think its fun to put them away.  It's a win-win!

I also love that it helps with the after-school/after-work chaos that always piled up on my kitchen counter.  I truly hate that time of day when I spend 20 minutes hanging up coats, putting away backpacks, emptying Carter's papers from his backpack, etc.  Now, most of that can be done before we even go into the house.  And Carter really likes that he has a place to hang his newest drawings!

So yes, this took time away from the shed, but Cary and I both agree that it has made a huge difference in our garage.  I smile every time I go out there...really! :)  And if it hadn't been for the shed, I wouldn't have this great little mud-room!!