If you enter my home during any of the wet/snowy/muddy months in Wyoming, you will be instantly greeted by this:
“What is that?” you may ask?
THAT, my friends, is what it looks like when I.GIVE.UP.
Combine multiple trips to the barnyard each day, with a toddler who LOVES her mud boots, and three crazy, muddy dogs, and you get perpetual dried (or wet) mud puddles on my mudroom floor.
And yes, I rarely mop and/or sweep my mudroom.
And yes, most of our guests must walk past dried mud puddles to enter the rest of our home.
And yes, I have better things to do than mop my floors everytime I come into my house.
I figure it’s a mudroom, so let it be muddy, right?
But I recently found this little idea at Dollar Store Mom that changed my mind:
Cute, functional, and no more mud puddles? Yes, please!
Start off with one of these boot trays.
You can usually find them by the welcome mats. (I kind of wanted just a square one… But all I could find was this funky shaped one instead. Oh well.)
Another idea is to use an old cookie sheet (check thrift stores and garage sales!). If you are working on replacing your cheapo baking sheets with nicer alternatives (stoneware or stainless steel), don’t toss your old ones! Repurpose them as boot trays.
Gather an assortment of rocks and stones– I chose ones on the smaller side. I found these out in my barnyard and driveway, hopefully you’ll have a place to gather some as well. If not, I did see bags of smooth stones at the dollar store the other day that would work in a pinch. It feels kind of silly to buy rocks, though.
Fill up your tray and you are good to go!
The mud puddles will now filter down to the bottom of the tray, keeping everything looking tidier for longer.
When you start to get a buildup of mud, simply take the tray and rocks outside and hose it all off.
I love cute solutions to household messes, don’t you?
(A note: If you have small kiddos in the house, this probably isn’t a project you’ll want to do just yet, as the rocks can pose a choking hazard. Just something to keep in mind.)
Other posts in the Homemaking on the Homestead series:
- DIY Chicken Wire Frame
- Homemaking for the 5 Senses: Smell
- Homemaking for the 5 Senses: Hearing
- Homemaking for the 5 Senses: Sight
This post was shared at: Frugal Friday, Living Well Blog Hop, Better Mom Linkup, Made at Home Mondays, Anti-Procrastination Tuesdays, Handmade Tuesdays, Domestically Divine, Teach Me Tuesdays, Frugally Sustainable, Women Living Well, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, We ARE That Family, Simple Living Wednesday, Raising Homemakers, Your Green Resource, Raising Mighty Arrows, Hearts 4 Home, Homemaker’s Challenge, Simple Lives Thursday
Readers: For some unknown reason, I am having issues with the comment form showing up on this post. Thank you for your patience! The comments are fixed! Whew! Thank you to the brilliant Erin a Homestead Host for taking care of that for me. I am SO happy that I switched hosting services. 🙂
I love the addition of stones to the mat! It looks so much more natural and less rubbery 😉
I agree! I like the natural look of the stones, too.
I need to make one of these for my husband’s work boots! 🙂
I’ve got the mat and the big boots, just not the stones. This is a really great idea, but thanks for the reminder about kids…my 2 1/2 year old might want to play with them too much for this to work right now. 🙂 It’s stored away for later.
Love this idea! Just have to wait since the one year old will try to eat the rocks and the three year old may throw them.
We live in the country with lots of kids coming and going. I love this idea and am putting it on my list of projects to do. I can’t find the rocks until the snow melts, but this idea will still help in the spring!
Oh yes, I hear ya! We are having a warm winter this year, but during a normal one, I wouldn’t be able to find any rocks either! 🙂
Thanks sooo much for sharing this!!! It is a perfect solution!
This is such an unique idea, Jill!! Thanks for sharing w/ Healthy 2Day Wednesday! Hope to see you back next week!
I have a mud room now that will not get cleaned until it is dry outside. Cute idea tho.
Yeah, I won’t be cleaning mine much either until muddy season is OVER! 😉
Love this idea! I’m 5’9 and I have big feet 🙂 Thanks for this idea! 🙂
This is a wonderful idea ! I am the one who will need to buy the rocks as we don’t have natural ones on the ground here.
I was teaching about David and Goliath in SS and went out to find some stones( we had just moved here from Washington State) and to my amazement couldn’t find any at all! In Olympia, I never had that problem,lol.
So looks like I will be buying some bagged rocks for this project!
Thanks for sharing.
Oh how funny! Well, at least there is the option to buy some for those who are rock-less. 😉