A Guide To Mudroom Storage & Design Ideas

Looking for a place to store your kids’ sports equipment? Want to prevent boots from trekking dirt and snow into the house? It might be time for you to update your mudroom area or create a space that can serve as a mudroom.

For ideas on how to enhance your mudroom and optimize storage space, read on.

What Is A Mudroom?

A mudroom is a space dedicated to storing items that would otherwise make a mess in the house. It is usually a home’s second entrance.

Mudrooms often serve as a transition between the outdoors and indoors, allowing kids and other family members to drop off their belongings before entering the house. Mudrooms can vary in size and purpose but are ultimately used for storage and for keeping the rest of the house clean and free of clutter.

Sometimes they can serve multiple purposes, and even be combined with other common household areas like laundry rooms or pantries. If the space in your home is more limited, mudrooms can be combined with more unexpected household features, like a home office or a crafting space.

Benefits Of A Mudroom

Keeps Your House Clean

Not only do mudrooms keep dirt and debris out of main living areas, they can also protect homes from the elements. By protecting floors from unwanted salts and substances, your flooring will last longer and your cleaning costs will be reduced. 

Saves Energy

During cold winter or hot summer months, mudrooms can cut down heating and cooling expenses by acting as a buffer from the outside and inside temperatures.

Creates Space

Mudrooms offer extra storage space and can be used for better organization. They can also serve multiple functions, depending on the homeowner’s needs. You can utilize them as an office space, laundry room or home-schooling area.

Adds Personality

Finally, mudrooms can be creative or personalized spaces that are visually appealing and boost the home’s character, appearance and value.

Where Can A Mudroom Be Located?

Because the location of your mudroom may depend on the layout of your home, it’s important to strategically place it based on how you want it to function.

Entryway

One of the most common places to create a DIY mudroom is in your home’s entryway. If your space is limited, no problem! You can add minimal storage items to your front or back entryway to serve as an organized drop area for shoes, coats and other items.

Consider getting hooks and lockers for hanging, a mat or bin for shoes and a storage bench or shelves for other miscellaneous items.

Garage

Using your garage space as a mudroom is a great way to incorporate more storage into your home. It will also prevent dirt and grime from even entering your home’s interior!

You can build your mudroom into or near the garage space of your home by getting hooks or lockers, shoe racks, cubbies and shelves – depending on how much space you have.

Small Makeshift Mudroom

If you don’t have a full room designated for storage or organization, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a makeshift mudroom. You can turn a small closet, entryway or even a wall into a mudroom. All you need is a storage bench and hooks or baskets to serve as a grab-and-go storage area. 

If you’re still unable to picture a mudroom in any of these household locations, don’t worry. You can easily build a mudroom in less common areas of your home. For example, you can feature your makeshift mudroom in the kitchen, in stairwells and even under your staircase.

If you’re working with a smaller area, don’t feel limited by your space, but instead think of what you can do with it vertically. If you try to make everything you use serve multiple purposes, you’ll have a number of possibilities!

Mudroom Storage Ideas

We’ve briefly mentioned some of the storage solutions homeowners can incorporate into their mudrooms, but let’s go in-depth with even more examples and explanations.

Cubbies, Coat Hooks & Shelves

Storage in your mudroom can be maximized in a variety of ways. If you’re limited in space horizontally, remember that there are a number of storage solutions that can be incorporated vertically into your mudroom.

Make the most of your wall space by adding built-in cabinets, cubbies or lockers. If you don’t have enough room for larger storage solutions, consider installing coat hooks, a small shoe rack, or mounted wall shelves.

Storage Benches

Storage benches allow for additional organization and creates a spot where guests can properly sit down to take off their shoes. Regardless of how much space you have to work with in your mudroom, storage benches come in a variety of different sizes to fill any nook or cranny.

Extra Closet Space

If you have ample space to work with when designing your mudroom, you might consider building more closet space. Adding an additional closet to the mudroom in your home can further expand your storage options, especially for harder-to-store items.

Additional Mudroom Storage Ideas

If you’re looking for more mudroom storage ideas or a creative DIY project, you’re in luck. There are numerous DIY storage solutions and repurposed items from around the house that can be used for storage.

For example, you can use a kitchen cabinet for additional storage. For a smaller project, make your own key holder or mail caddy.

Mudroom Design Ideas

Now that we’ve covered the essential storage solutions for your mudroom, let’s go over some ideas for features you can incorporate into your mudroom designs.

Extra Sink

For many homeowners, an extra sink can add value to your mudroom space. This is especially true if it’s doubling as a laundry room or if it’s an area where muddy and dirty clothes might be brought in.

If you have the space to add an extra sink, think about all of the ways it would benefit you as a homeowner and simplify your daily life.

Pet Space

A mudroom can also be a designated area for your pet and pet supplies.

For example, you can use the space for your pet’s bed, food, toys, litter box and more. Not only will this keep your house more clean and less cluttered, but it will make your pet feel special too.

Information Station

Mudrooms are perfect for keeping the household in order and can be used to relay information to your family members. Use your mudroom as an information station by putting up a family calendar with everyone’s schedule included on it, posting a chore list for each family member, or hanging up a chalkboard to write down important reminders or sweet messages to each other.

More Mudroom Design Ideas

There are plenty more mudroom design features that you can consider as a homeowner. For example, you can expand your mudroom to be used as a laundry room or pantry. As a homeowner, you can decide how simple or over-the-top you want your mudroom to be, and you can also update it as little or as frequently as you want.

Does A Mudroom Add Value To Your Home?

Believe it or not, having an efficient mudroom space can significantly add to your home’s value! As mudrooms are becoming more common in newer houses, they are also being considered an essential for many home buyers.

Potential buyers love to see a visually pleasing space that can be customized and can serve multiple purposes for storage and other needs.

If you’re thinking of updating your mudroom or creating a new space for storage and organization, hopefully by now we’ve helped you think of some ideas! 

Check out more homeowner tips on the Rocket Homes^® blog.