The Mud Room

One of the things that sold us on this house is the mud room. I guess it's technically not a mud room, but a covered side entrance. That being said, calling it a "mud room" makes it sound like there's an extra room attached to the house, and really, it gives this space a better purpose. So there.

This is just a basic view of the mud room. It's not very big, so it's not like I can capture it through different angles.

As you can see, there are two windows and a screen door, so no matter what time of day it is, this space gets a lot of light. It'd be a perfect holding area for our seedings if it was insulated!

We're big recyclers, so to finally be able to sort our non-garbage is fabulous! In our apartment, we had a box for paper and a small garbage can for everything else, and that filled up fast. Being able to sort takes that excess junk out of the kitchen, and we can see exactly what we're using more of, which is a thrill for me, but only because I'm a big loser.

I seriously hate these ugly curtains. You can tell they were handmade by the previous owners. But, ugly as they are, they provide what little insulation there is in here. They're heavier than your average floral garbage, so they'll stay until we can find something a little less....gaudy? (And, they'll be here a while, because curtains for the mud room are at the very, very bottom of my to-do list.)
These handy little cupboards have become a life saver! They're currently housing our winter boots and our clothespins & clotheslines. Anything that's more for the outside goes in here. It's fabulous! And yes, it's carpeted. Why? I dunno. It's nice in that I can run in and out to the mailbox in my bare feet, but at the same time....who carpets a mud room?

That little blue box on the right side with the watering can on top is our mailbox. None of the houses in this area have the mail slide that I grew up with--each house has it's own mailbox. I'd be lying if I said that part of me didn't want a mailbox a la Carl & Ellie in Up! but having an indoor mailbox is nice. Sometimes it's a pain because the mail carrier doesn't always slide the mail in--occassionally we get a carrier who shoves a newspaper into the box and we have to wrestle it out like we're playing tug of war with a spunky little puppy.

As for "hopes and dreams" for this room, we really don't have any. I'd like to replace the curtains eventually with something that's insulated like these are, but that's not anywhere close to the top of the list. The only other thing we want to do is replace this screen door with something that can be locked. The current door doesn't lock from the inside or outside, so someone could easily sneak in and hide out for a while, or break in and no one would see them. However, having the side door locks replaced has helped quell that feeling, for a little while at least.

So, that's that. Hopefully I'll get my big girl pants on soon and I can update with some more changes and other things that are going on--I've been a bad housekeeper lately, so I'm not going to openly post pictures of our messes. I'll openly admit they exist, I just won't share them with the world. ;-)