Poet e.e. cummings famously referred to spring as the time of year when the word is “mud-luscious” and “puddle-wonderful”. That’s certainly true here in the Northeast as we wait and hope the April showers bring us May’s promised flowers. Spring is also universally synonymous with “spring cleaning”, a cultural construct in which we all don rubber gloves and take up feather dusters en masse to tackle the monsters of clutter hidden in our closets and underneath our beds.

Or at least we promise ourselves we’re going to do that…

As dissident as these two concepts seem– the muddy, wet reality of spring and the clean, orderly ideal of spring cleaning–they can come together in one brilliant, life-simplifying, home improvement project: the mudroom.

Whether you live in a one hundred year old farmhouse or a shiny new-build, some custom cabinetry, a new porch, or even the erection or dismantling of a single wall can create for you a mudroom; a space to enter and exit the home, store the jackets, the dirty shoes, the piles of mail, the cache of umbrellas.

The possibilities for this often small space are endless.

Spend a few minutes browsing Pinterest or Houzz these days and you’re sure to run across one or two shiny examples of the mudroom “launch station”: labeled hooks and bins and baskets all designed to organize individual family members’ shoes, purses, briefcases, backpacks, jackets, etc. This seamless system takes all the chaos and confusion and “Mom, where’s my homework?!” out of hectic weekday mornings.

Or visit flea markets and antique fares to see the recent trend of vintage metal lockers, salvaged from old schools and factories, which perfectly store sporting equipment and school supplies. Or maybe a great bench or window seat with hidden storage is more your idea of a great meeting of form and function.

However you envision your perfect mudroom, it’s a space specifically designated to simplify your life, spare your carpets, contain your clutter, and transition you and all of your guests from the outside of your home to the inside.

Let spring cleaning fever inspire you, gather some ideas, and contact us at Schrader and Company Construction Services. We’d love to come over and help you design and build your perfect mudroom.

And we always take our muddy shoes off at the door