When we designed the house and put the kitchen here (because it’s the best southern light) we knew that we were asking for kid clutter. My genius plan to train the kids to go around the house to the mudroom (expertly executed by locking the kitchen door and giving them candy each time they dropped their stuff in the mudroom) lasted approximately 2 days. Not because they didn’t want the candy or because they couldn’t be trained but because they, like many kids, would hold it all day if you know what I mean, and getting inside IMMEDIATELY was the priority. Plus when it’s raining this entrance just makes more sense. Also, if they did drop everything in the mudroom, in the morning when we are scrambling to get them out the door, they would have to go backtrack to get their stuff, walk around the house, and blah blah. We are always scrambling so adding inefficiencies doesn’t make sense. That’s all to say that this is our defacto kids drop zone and it’s not just them – twice a week we have anywhere between 4 and 7 kids over to play. So this area has to work MUCH HARDER than other areas in the house to help my sanity.
How We Styled It For The Reveal
When we styled it for the OG photo shoot a year or so ago, I styled it to be pretty also not knowing how much use it would get. You see since the outside was under construction until last June we couldn’t even ask them to go around the house to the mudroom (and the plants helped mask the construction out the window). But yeah, that big plant quickly died (under my sister’s watch, sorry Katy to publicly out you LOL) and while I loved the other stuff there, we needed the space for backpacks and coats.
The Kid Clutter Problem SOLVED (LOL, It’s Never Solved But BETTER)
Coat Rack | Switch Plate | Wall Shelf
So here’s what we did – First, we hung those hooks into the fridge cabinet (which I was terrified to do, TBH). I bought this vertical hook set last year from Target for the front entry but since no one uses that door, I stored it and then installed it here. The lower ones are great for the kids and since there are multiple we can really load it up (and we do). The shelf is for their Gabb watches which they pop off as soon as they are home, stick them on their chargers, and the last thing they put on before they leave the house. The bench is now for their bags (no pretty tray for mail, that happens in the pantry and our vintage secretary).
Baskets | Rug
These three baskets have SAVED US. Two are for shoes and one is for our day-to-day sports stuff that we are ALWAYS scrambling to find (basketball shoes, cheer shoes, ultimate frisbee gloves, frisbees, basketball, cleats, etc). Does that mean that the kids always put things away in the right spots? NOPE. But they are so much better. And when I go to put things away I can re-org the sports stuff which sets us up for a better week (when we had just one basket it was all too mixed up).
Coat Rack | Hat | Purse | Gabb Watch | Wall Shelf | Duffle Bag (unavailable) | Planter | Baskets | Rug
Now obviously it doesn’t look like that – there are usually 4-6 coats on the rack and big bulky backpacks on the bench, but the kids had those at school and I’m a stylist so there was no way I was going to style with ugly coats and hats. Sorry!
Here is what it looked like before I did this all:
On the left is what it looked like on a random Sunday and on the right was the clean version later that day. I was NOT set up for success, y’all.
I thought that the coats blocking the window might bug me, but it doesn’t AT ALL (we clearly have a lot of light in here). The only thing that still happens is that longer coats can knock the kid’s Gabb watches off their chargers easily. But with a few cord tacos and velcro stickers, the chargers stay in place without falling off or looking messy.
The plant pot is a recent Target purchase (SO CUTE) and the new to me vintage rug actually goes in the hallway but I wanted to show it off because it’s so beautiful (thank you Sheba from Blue Parakeet!). All in all it’s a solid 60% better. I still have to remind the kids to put their shoes in the basket, and not just throw their coats on the bench but it’s just so much less of a thing. And if you are wondering if we are glad that our mudroom is where it is, we sure are – we need it for all of our pasture boots on that porch (full of mud and literal shit) and its where the kids dry off and hang their towels after getting out of the hot tub.
While the first shot is more eligible to be in a magazine and is more fun for your eye to look at, the third is far more functional for our family. CLUTTER PROBLEM (mostly) SOLVED.
*Photos by Kaitlin Green
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