Joey asked me about our mud room I mentioned in this post.Hubby and I started calling the little inside porch the "mud room" because that was what it was. Literally. The back yard was wet with little grass and lots of mud when we moved here. That didn't dampen our enthusiasm for moving here last October.
We now have a wooden walkway across the back of the house so we walk through the kitchen into the mud room, out the back door onto the wooden walkway all the way to the garage. Hubby is planting grass seed and some new grass is greeting us now.
Wikipedia explains "mud room" this way:
"Many suburban American houses have a mud room, a casual, generally secondary entryway intended as an area to remove and store footwear, outerwear, and wet clothing before entering the house proper. As well as providing storage space, a mud room serves to increase the cleanliness of a house proper. They can often double as laundry room."
Our mud room is a place for us to enter the little hippie cottage at the back of the house, plenty of rugs on the floor to wipe feet, four shelves to store lanterns and muddy shoes. This is the picture of our little mud room taken at seven in the evening with light in the mud room window.
While I don't have a proper mud room, my utility room is a crowded mess. Shelves and a pole, with overflow clothing, that hasn't been worn in quite some time. Dark, dingy little room. I hate it. No window, either. I'll take yours.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard that phrase before, but I guess we have 2 mud rooms - one at the front and one at the back!
ReplyDeleteI must confess that on seeing the title of this post my immediate thought was that this was a place for mud-wrestling...
yep we got a mud room as well by the entrance to the basement
ReplyDeleteMs.A, If I had your utility room I would remove stuff I didn't need there and I would paint a window on the wall or hang a picture that makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteRock Chef, Wow, two mud rooms. Your rock. Oh, you really do. No mud wrestling here, I really don't like mud.
Brian, This is the first time for me to have a mud room and I now wonder how the heck I went so long without one!
With two small children, sometimes it seems as though every room is a "mud room."
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is when the older hops out of the car and runs inside wearing cleats, as I shout, to no one,, "Take those cleats off in the garage!"
Honestly, I'm just as bad sometimes, though I clean up my own messes. I mean, when I'm doing yard work, I can't be taking off my boots every time I need to come inside. I try to minimize, of course, but some things can't be helped.
And even with the kids, well, things get dirty sometimes. what can you do? It's a house, not a museum. I had an aunt with the plastic on furniture and all over the carpets &c? Yeah, no thanks.
Cricket, we too are in and out of the house so we each took a pair of leather tennis shoes and took out the shoe laces, removed the tongue, and slip and out of the shoes when we come in and out. Works for us.
ReplyDeleteI like that comment, with 2 small children every room is a mud room: our 2 dogs make that true for us!!!!
ReplyDeleteI want a mud room! With a laundry sink! Right now the garage suffices, I guess. I'll agree with Cricket about the young kids part. Though, honestly, I think the husband and the dog are actually worse.
ReplyDeleteSince I have a kid and a dog, pretty much every room in my house is a mud room!
ReplyDeleteI had never seen a house with a mud room before I visited a friend's place. It's a great idea for anyone who spends lots of time getting muddy! I love your little hippie house!
ReplyDeleteWe had a mud room growing up in rural Pennsylvania. It really came in handy especially in the winter and did get pretty muddy with all the kids running in and out. I have never seen one in California though. Come to think of it, I've never seen an attic or basement either in California and I've looked at a lot of properties out here.
ReplyDeleteMud rooms are very Alaskan especially in Bush (aka rural) Alaskan villages. The entry way of our split level house is the place for all shoes, I don't allow shoes in the house either. xo
ReplyDeleteI wish we would have a mud room. We get our carpet so dirty!
ReplyDeleteNo mud room here! I think they are great though!
ReplyDeleteOur garage has to double as the Mud Room. At least it's roomy.
ReplyDeleteThink that is a great name for something we refer to as a porch! Sounds boring in comparison.
ReplyDeleteMaggie X
Nuts in May
When we had young kids their rooms were mud rooms most of the time.
ReplyDeleteMud rooms are useful and I guess mud too, since people pay to have it put on their faces.
Gary, Your pets give you something in exchange for the mud they bring into the house.
ReplyDeleteWhitney, If you can enter your house from inside your garage, you can use part of the garage as your mud room.
Mama Zen, And your kid and your dog are so worth it.
DJan, our tennies get muddy and then they dry and we knock them together and mud scatters across the grass. Easy way of livin'!
Stickup Artist, interesting you mention it, when I was about six we moved to a house in Norco, you know that area, right? That house had a basement. My brother and I would play down there. It was unfinished but not many houses had basements out there that's for sure.
Ina, I don't blame you. It gets so tiresome picking up globs of mud or leaves on the floor.
Kristina P, you could put a shelf at the entry to your condo for shoes.
Betty, I have learned to appreciate the mud room immensely here.
Robert, our garage is detached, but if you have an attached garage that works for you, it sure helps.
Maggie May, we call it the mud room because of the real mud situation. Ha.
lisleman, kids and their rooms. Gads. Two of my kids were so messy growing up and turned out to be over neat as adults. The other one was neat and then got OCD in college.
I like your mud room!
ReplyDeleteNice to have the window with the light coming in!
Wish I had a mud room too as Jake my Golden brings in the mud quite often!
Margie :)
We don't have a mud room (I'd love one!), we do have a front foyer and a back screen room, but both now are really just play rooms filled with the grandkids toys! We don't have a laundry room either, we just have a washer and dryer down in the cellar. All good enough I guess.
ReplyDeleteI like your mud room, and I like the shelves in front of the window with all the light spilling in.
All the best,
Eileen
I miss having a mud room. It's the perfect stop-gap before stepping into the house and would save me a lot of floor labour with the two dogs especially in the spring and winter.
ReplyDeleteMy whole apartment is a mud room sometimes. The light is lovely there. I'm so glad you found your little piece of heaven.
ReplyDeleteMargie, Not only is the light wonderful coming in through the mud room window, the cross ventilation is awesome.
ReplyDeleteEileen, Each of us takes what we have and make it work. You don't have a mud room but you have the joy of each room being used by your grandkids.
Talon, Yes indeed. The mud room has saved me every day since we moved in here.
heartinsanfrancisco, Thank you for sending the love. I do like it here as you know.
I've got to agree with Cricket. Having raised two boys.. every room is indeed a mud room... particularly when you don't have one. ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks like it doubles as a paint room too. We dont' have a mud room in our house right now but I remember having one when I was a kid. With three active boys and a girl, a mudroom was a necessity. Today, with video games and cable TV, not so much.
ReplyDeleteAh cool! Thanks for clearing that up. Well call that a Boot Room in the UK! We had one too, but we got rid of it when we had our extension built.
ReplyDeleteI love getting a glimpse of other people's homes. Thanks for sharing that!
ReplyDeleteWe have no mud room in our house. You either come in the front entryway, where my kids dump all their shoes on the floor instead of putting them in the closet, or you can come in the back patio door, which comes right into our kitchen/dining area.
Love how cozy your house sounds.
I've always wanted a mudroom. They are so useful.
ReplyDeleteHilary, I think a mud room would be a necessity with young families.
ReplyDeleteDave, Yes there are cans of paint and I am slowly doing some painting. Next paint job is the outside of the garage.
LL Cool Joe, A Boot Room, eh? I had not heard that. Thanks.
Terri, I know what you mean. Like seeing someone's kitchen renovation.
Mami, I didn't know how much I would appreciate the mud room till we moved in.
Your mudroom looks like a happy, sunny place to come in.
ReplyDeleteHow do people live withOUT a mud room? Seriously?
ReplyDeleteWe have a mud room as well. It has a pantry and a laundry closet with washer and dryer. There is also a half bath there. I like how the Swedes have their mud room--in the front of the house where all the shoes and heavy clothing is removed, followed by another heavy door to prevent the cold air from coming in.
ReplyDelete