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From road salt to melting snow and mud, the winter months tend to bring a lot of grime into your house. Stop the dirt at the door! Prevent dirt from spreading and keep your home clean this winter with these tips!
Avoid getting dirt on your floors by keeping a river stone mat by your door. The gaps from the river stones allow mud, debris, and melting snow to drip from your boots and onto the tray below. To make your own DIY river stone mat, you’ll need a tray and a couple of bags of river stones. Dump the rocks in the tray, and place the tray beside the door for family and guests to put their shoes in before entering the house. Check out these detailed instructions from I Heart Organizing.
Let everyone have easy access to house slippers after removing their boots or shoes. Place the slippers inside a basket or cubby along the entryway to make them easy to put on after taking off their outdoor shoes. Having slippers on hand helps keep your family’s feet warm and keeps the entryway clean!
Having your winter wear all over your entryway floor is not only an eyesore, but also retains the moisture in your coats, jackets, and gloves. Organize your coat closet to make space for the winter gear you wear every day. Place enough hangers for coats and jackets, and install hooks and curtain rods for hanging gloves and hats. Learn how to organize your coat closet from Two Twenty One.
Hang Up Your Outerwear
When it comes to organizing the mudroom or entryway for winter, my biggest objective is corralling all the gear so that each family member can find it each morning. Living in Michigan, our kids are required to wear a hat, gloves, boots, and snow boots from Thanksgiving break until March, so you can imagine that it is no small task keeping track of eight gloves, eight boots, four hats, and four pairs of snow pants each day.
I know I already said it, but hooks, hooks, and more hooks. This is especially useful for homes with no coat closet, and having a place for guests’ coats. Place hooks on a wall in your entryway for hanging bags, gloves, scarves, and other winter gear. If you want to brighten up the space, replace the wallpaper or paint it a bright color, like this mudroom from The Shabby Nest.
Provide extra storage space, like cubbies or baskets, for putting additional equipment or outerwear in, like this wooden shoe storage bench from Kristy at Mystic Remake. You can also assign a basket to each child, and label them with your kids’ names, so they’ll know where to put their school things in.
If you don’t have enough storage space, you can always build up. I use crates in our house as extra shelving for shoes and boots—a cute and affordable option. This crate shelving requires a bit of DIY, but you can find old crates at thrift stores, or ask your local restaurant if they can give you some. For the in-depth how-to on making a vintage crate boot rack, check out this DIY from Infarrantly Creative!
Limit the Entrances & Exits
Use only one entrance and exit to keep the dirt in one place. It limits the grime from getting all over the house, and gives you only one area that you need to clean thoroughly. Keep the other doors closed and inform the family of which door to use for winter.
Vacuum Weekly
Road salt can be harmful to pets and can damage your hardwood floors, often scratching the surface and being absorbed by the wood. By vacuuming weekly, you can avoid dulling your floor’s finish throughout winter.
Clean Carpets Regularly
Rugs can take in dust quickly, and also capture most winter stains even when you are being careful. Clean your carpets regularly to avoid breathing in all the dust that gets stuck in the fabric. You can deep clean your rugs using cleaning agents specifically for carpets, or hire professionals to do it for you.
Keep your home clean all throughout winter with these quick and easy tips! How do you keep a clean house during winter? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Jennifer Lutz writes about all things home-related for the the Christmas Tree Market blog.
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