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Your mud room is too crowded! Hats and gloves keep falling on the floor, and you almost tripped over a pair of boots on your way into the house. The mud room is supposed to make coming home more comfortable and give you a place to take a breath before leaving the house, but your current mud room isn't doing that. We found some Mud Room Storage Ideas to tame your mud room and make it a relaxing space.


1) IKEA

IKEA hacks are some of the best things out there when it comes to creating a cheap and easy organization system, and you can customize them to make them look like higher-quality furniture, too. We loved how April from House by Hoff customized her closet to change it from a cluttered and ugly mess to a tasteful mudroom bench and storage area using IKEA furniture. The final product looks custom and well-thought-out, and we'd be proud to have it in our home.

2) Tasteful Benches

If you're struggling with storage, it might be because you have a small entryway, so you might have thought that a bench would take too much room. You might also be thinking that a storage bench would be ugly and not fit your style, but we found a storage bench from Amazon that gives you plenty of storage room but looks like an old-fashioned wood seat. The classy look and the side cubby for holding magazines, newspapers, or mail will create a pleasurable atmosphere while getting shoes and boots off the ground.

3) DIY Built-In Cubbies With Bench

Cubbies are good storage ideas, but what's the best way to design and build them? Should you have floor-to-ceiling cubbies? Do you want benches? We suggest built-in cubbies like the ones Nick Stoia makes in this Stoia Wood Design video because they make the best use of your space, and you can blend them into any home design. Think about what color will look best and whether you want painted wood, wallpaper, or something else for the backs of the cubbies.

4) Simple Wire Rack

If you're just looking to get stuff up off the floor and stop tripping over everything, you don't really need fancy designs and day-long DIY projects to create the best mud room for you. Sometimes, a simple wire rack like this one from Amazon is perfect. It's adjustable with three shelves, so you can store shoes or boots below and then put hats and more on the top shelves. We recommend getting baskets to put on the middle shelf so that you can store gloves and hats without worrying that they'll fall off.

5) Cabinets

Usually, people think of cabinets as a kitchen accessory, but they're not exclusive to that room. One of the most common mud room problems is things falling out onto the floor, so why not get something like this cabinet with doors to keep things from falling once you've stored them. This one from Amazon even has a drawer so you can store smaller items like gloves or winter hats that don't stack well. The adjustable shelves give you a lot of options for storing tall items like boots, too.

6) Baskets

Baskets are probably one of the most useful items for your mud room, but only if you use them right. If you have some now, you might have found that they take up a lot of space and get overfilled, but there's a right and wrong way to use them. Try putting square or rectangular baskets on built-in shelves like the designer of this Involvery mud room did. This will keep you from overfilling the basket and keep the basket off the floor so that nobody trips over it.

7) Cushioned Bench

Benches are an ideal way to create a practical mud room, and they're great places to stick things you're not using, but what if you want more than that? Instead of settling for a usable bench, you can get a storage bench like this one from Amazon that's easy to open so that you can store all your gloves, hats, and more in it. You also don't want to settle for something that's hard and uncomfortable, so we chose one that has thin cushions to create the perfect blend of comfort and usability.

8) DIY L-Shaped Mudroom Cubbies

Mud room cubbies are, of course, one of the most popular projects for people who are willing to do a little DIY carpentry to improve their space. When we saw this unique mud room cubby design from Clipper City House, we couldn't resist showing it to you since it's perfect for creating a comfortable mud room for a big family. If you have an empty wall that you feel like you should be making use of, an L-shaped cubby design like this will turn that into extra seating and storage space, while the cubbies give plenty of room for storage.

9) Bench With Shoe Organizer

Shoes are probably one of the hardest things to store if you don't want to trip over them since you don't want to mess up your higher shelves with muddy boots, and if you don't want an ugly-looking space, you might be tempted to hide some shoes away. This bench from Amazon has a neat storage design with shoe cubbies underneath, but the barn door means that you can cover up a couple pairs. This way, your guests won't see your house slippers or muddy shoes, but you'll have easy access to your everyday sneakers or work shoes.

10) DIY Closet Bench With Storage Underneath

If you have a mudroom closet, it's probably filled to the brim with every coat you own, but that's not necessarily the best use of that space. We'd suggest picking out the stuff you use often instead of leaving your winter coats in there during the height of summer. Then, you can transform your closet into a usable space using this video by Jennifer Stavropoulos. By building a bench in your closet, you'll be reducing storage and instead creating accessible storage, which is more important in a mud room. Leave the clutter in the basement or in a box somewhere!

11) Shelf With Hooks

In most mud rooms, the most important thing you'll need is a place to store hats, shoes, and jackets. You can get all those things in one quick-access organizer so that you can grab your shoes, hat, and jacket all in one place. We liked this organizer from Amazon since it has shelves for hats and gloves and hooks for jackets and coats. Then, you can place your boots underneath to have everything in one place.

12) Wall Organizers

While most people think of mud rooms as places to store outer clothing, they're also the entrance to your home and the place where you bring all your mail, groceries, furniture, and more in through. If you've ever struggled to open a door with arms full of grocery bags or tried to take your shoes off while holding mail, you'll probably recognize the value of having storage for things like mail and groceries, but tables take up a lot of room. You may want to use wall storage like Danielle and Michael of Clark and Aldine did, instead.

13) Tall and Short Cubbies

If all your shoes are ankle-height, you probably have plenty of room to store your shoes, depending on how many you have. You also have access to any number of shoe racks that are designed for your shoes and can readily create a wall of shoes to house your full collection. Unfortunately, it can be harder to find shoe racks for tall boots, and if you get a rack for taller footwear, you'll end up wasting a lot of space by putting your sneakers in there. Try getting something with a mix of tall and short shoe cubbies like this.

14) Storage Bench Chest With Hooks

Benches are typical mud room features since they take up very little room and allow you to sit your groceries or mail on the bench next to you while you take off your shoes. Storage benches are also excellent places to store your winter gear in summer and your light jackets in winter. Since bench storage isn't as readily accessible as other types of storage, it's ideal for things you don't need to get too often. We fell in love with this bench chest with attached hooks since it makes it easier to move clothes between the bench and hooks.

15) DIY Hidden Door Shoe Shelf

What would you need a hidden door for in a mud room? It does seem unusual, but we think it’d be an amazing idea if you have space on the other side of the wall. You can use these instructions from onFIREouttakes to build a secret door shelf, but add a few dividers to make it into a shoe shelf or turn it into a coat hook niche. Then, create a small storage closet behind the hidden door to hide away your old outerwear from past seasons. This keeps your mud room looking clean while making everything accessible.

16) Hall Tree

Hall trees are a popular choice for people who don't want to have to build things or figure out a complicated furniture arrangement. A hall tree like this one from Amazon has all the storage types you need, including hooks, a bench, and upper and lower shelves so that you don't have to mix and match furniture pieces. We picked this one because it looks pretty and rustic with a dark stain and slanted ladder-like design.

17) DIY Open Bottom Mudroom Bench

A lot of mud room benches have cubbies for shoes, which seems like a wonderful idea since most people are using those benches to take off their shoes. There is one problem that you might be having, though; do you really want to put dirty shoes on shelves? They're a lot harder to clean than the floor, which you're probably sweeping often anyway, and in some cases, it's nicer to leave shoes on the floor where they belong. We liked the idea of building a bench with an open bottom to store shoes directly on the floor.

18) Coat Racks

If you're looking for a beautiful and unique design for your mud room hook, you've probably searched through a large selection of individual hooks. The problem with individual hooks is that while they tend to have more unusual and ornate designs, they're also harder to hang than a single coat rack with multiple hooks. If the hassle of individual hooks is making you consider a coat rack, we suggest this one from Amazon. It has a unique design that you couldn't achieve with single pieces, so you'll have that lovely look you're going for with less struggle.

19) DIY Mini Closet Built-In

If your mud room doesn't have a closet, then that's probably why you're in need of storage. Closets are an amazing storage option because you can hide things out of sight, and you can put a lot of things in them while staying organized. You started without closets, but that doesn't mean you can't have them. Try building smaller closets based on the things you plan to put in them. You can use these directions to make built-ins, but tweak them based on how much closet, bench, and cubby space you need.

20) Antique Trunk

If you have a lot of antiques around the house, or even if you have a beach or vintage theme, you might be having trouble filling your mud room with appropriate furniture. We found this lovely antique-style trunk that would be perfect for storing hats or seasonal outerwear. It’d fit an antique, vintage, or beach theme, and the flat top would make it a great place to set groceries or mail temporarily as you come in the door.

21) Covered Cubbies

In some ways, cubbies are a convenient option since you don't need to open anything to access them, but this creates a lack of privacy, and exposed gloves and hats don't look as nice to guests when they come into your home. If you want a nicer look for your mud room, we’d recommend getting pieces like this with attractive finished and covered cubbies so that guests can't see what's inside. This piece would be excellent for a vintage room in particular.

22) Baskets in Cubbies

Cubbies are convenient a lot of the time, but the problem is that they're flat storage, so if you have gloves and small articles, they're going to fall out all the time. That's probably one of the things you're frustrated with now, so you'll need something that will hold those small, loose items. Instead of switching completely to drawers, we loved the idea of putting little baskets in some of the cubbies like Jacki from Crazy Life with Littles did. This is practical, but it's also pretty.

23) Low and High Cubbies

One of the special features of a mud room is that you need storage at all different heights. It's easiest to put footwear near the ground, hats above your head, and coats and jackets within comfortable arm's reach. To make the space as comfortable as possible, we suggest making sure you have cubbies both on the floor and above your head. You can get pieces like this set from Amazon or design something with separate cubbies above and below and hooks on the wall.


What are your frustrations with your current storage situation? Everybody has different needs, and we can't wait to hear about yours. Let us know if we helped you out in the comments below!


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