This is why, in many newer homes, the laundry room and mud room have been combined.
But I digress.
As fall progresses, the mud room seems to collect far more clothing items than its meagre shoe cubbies and coat hooks allow. This in-between-season calls for Crocs and a hoodie one day; boots and a down vest the next. Add kids to the mix and the space becomes not just cluttered, but chaotic.
I wish I could say that before I had children my mud room looked like an ad from California Closets. With custom-built lockers in the back entry it definitely had potential. Sadly, shoes have always been my downfall, leaving their multiple muddy prints on clean tiles before piling up for lack of enough room to properly line up. Now there are even more pairs kicking around -- my son's tiny Robeez slippers and my daughter's white and pink Adidas and fashion-forward leopard-print flats all need floor space.
"Girls like our shoes and our purses ... we get too (many) of them," says professional organizer Deanne Eade of Dee-Clutter. She organizes closets for a living and frequently works with young families. She understands how extra sets of shoes and mittens can snowball into a style crisis that needs straightening out.
Eade also has two children of her own, a 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter. Apropos of an organizer, she engendered in them a love of all things neat and orderly from an early age. As soon as they could walk and talk, Eade had them putting away their runners and stowing their scarves.
So, perhaps I have been the architect of my own angst for failing to train my three-year-old in a similar fashion. Which raises the question: At what age is it reasonable to expect children to put away their own stuff when they breeze through the front door?
"It depends on what age you send them to military school," says Calgary interior designer Bruce Johnson of Johnson & Associates.
He's joking. Sort of. His five-year-old daughter started on the path to cubby super-stardom at the age of three, while his 10-year-old son still needs to be reminded. Every day.
It helps if kids have a designated space to discard their outdoor wear, say Johnson and Eade. It could be their own entry locker complete with shoe stall, drawer for hats and gloves, and hooks for coats and backpacks. Or, in a traditional entry with a coat closet, it could be a shelf and basket for shoes and accessories. Show your children where everything goes, and involve them in the organizing process.
Once they're willing to help, the space is easier to keep tidy and the battle half-won. Winning the war -- getting organized in the first place -- is tougher. Eade and Johnson offer these ideas:
Entry closet
If you didn't design it, there are options for turning a builder-standard entry closet into an organized, kid-friendly space.
"It's really looking at the space as a vertical space" instead of a horizontal one, Johnson says.
Move the coat bar higher, then add another half-width bar low enough for kids to hang up their own coats.
On the other half of the closet, install shelving. Use the bottom shelves for shoes (keep in mind winter boots are taller and require more room). Make sure it's a tight wire-mesh or solid shelf so children's shoes don't fall through. Place rubber mats on the floor to catch mud and water drips from footwear. Beware too-deep shelves: "Stuff just gets lost back there," Johnson says.
Purchase some plastic bins or wicker baskets for the top shelves. Use them to collect hats, gloves, scarves and other accessories.
Ideally, each family member will have his or her own shelf and basket.
Can't be bothered with shelving? Move an old chest of drawers into the hall closet. Each drawer becomes an insta-cubby and the top becomes a shelf.
Open mud room or entry
Many newer homes have a mud room connecting the garage to the kitchen; older homes have an open entry with a tiny coat closet. Without designated places to put stuff, these spaces quickly become overwhelmed when kids pull off hats in a hurry.
Invest in a coat tree. An antique adds classic style and offers a place to hang your hat and coats.
Mount a row of double coat hooks on an entry wall. Ideally, they'll be in a place that's not in the way. Hang one to two hooks per child, at an accessible height.
A simple shelving unit pushed against an entry wall can be dressed up with inexpensive lined wicker or faux-wicker baskets purchased from a retailer such as Superstore or Ikea.
-- Canwest News Service
