Is no mudroom a dealbreaker?

[Anonymous]

Most people in DC live in rowhouses without mudrooms and are fine. You can have hooks on the wall and move the coats to a closet elsewhere in the house.

[Anonymous]

We sold our 1980's house that had a coat closet but no mudroom and bought another 1980's house that has a combined laundry room/mudroom right off the kitchen. As PP mentioned it is so nice to have a place to put shoes/coats/backpacks and be able to shut the door. In our old house we had a bench with cubbies and a shelf in the foyer that worked pretty well, but I hated that the front of our home always looked cluttered and full of dirt/sand/whatever the kids tracked in walking in from the garage. I wish our current mudroom was bigger but we could alway move laundry upstairs to create more space or build a small addition onto the back of the house if we wanted (would probably do that as part of a larger renovation if we decide we're staying here a really long time).

[Anonymous]

Not a dealbreaker if you love the house. You can always add closets and mudroom

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a house with a huge mudroom off the garage and multiple closets on the main level of the house. My new build house has no mudroom and only one coat closet on the main floor. I completely didn't know what I was missing until I lived without it. It's a non-negotiable for our next move.

[Anonymous]

No mudroom but we do have a portico with a chair so you can take shoes off outside and during the snow I put cardboard over the foyer rug and a drying rack from the laundry room for socks.

If I lived way out in the burbs I would want one, but I wouldn’t give up any of the other space I have currently for one.

Coat closet is an absolute must.

[Anonymous]

What is a mudroom? A room with mud!!
Who would want that

[Anonymous]

It's a breaker. It will wear out, clutter and dirty up the main entrance

[Anonymous]

I have never had one and am not too interested. I feel like it is just a place for clutter to build. We have a coat closet and hooks. I keep them relatively clear esp when guests are coming. Shoes have a spot but only the ones worn regularly. Others go in bedrooms. I think the mudroom would be a mess with much less incentive to be organized. I will add that I live in a 1960s home. I think people that like older homes just know that they are giving up certain things for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never had one and am not too interested. I feel like it is just a place for clutter to build. We have a coat closet and hooks. I keep them relatively clear esp when guests are coming. Shoes have a spot but only the ones worn regularly. Others go in bedrooms. I think the mudroom would be a mess with much less incentive to be organized. I will add that I live in a 1960s home. I think people that like older homes just know that they are giving up certain things for others.

+1

People in the 1960s had less stuff and probably weren't less happy because of it. That being said, I'd have to think hard about a house without a coat closet (or space to create one). My house growing up lacked one, and we had to squeeze by all the coats hanging on the wall just to get in the front door.

I think a lot depends on the flow of your entryway and how formal your house is. Without a "mudroom," would a bench with baskets underneath it look out of place? If you usually enter the house from a garage, can you put cubbies in there? And, muddy boots aside, is it possible to just have everyone take their stuff to their own rooms instead of shedding it inside the front door?

[Anonymous]

Definitely a deal breaker. Your house will be dirty and cluttered if you don't have one.

[Anonymous]

I am planning to turn our Butler's pantry into a dropzone (like a mudroom, but not right next to the entry door).

What do you think of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No coat closet is a deal breaker. Mud room whatever.

+1

+2

[Anonymous]

We have a 70's colonial and built a mudroom out of a closet space that was supposed to house the washer/dryer (we moved them to the basement). It's such a good storage option. Even if the mudroom is bursting at the seams, our crap seems contained and doesn't travel into the house.

We are messy people and knew we needed storage solutions when we bought a place.

[Anonymous]

We built this in our entryway and it serves the purpose quite nicely.

[Anonymous]

Those of you with mudrooms, can you enlighten me how the entry works? Do you have to have a separate entrance into the house through the mudroom? Or is it a room next to the entrance that you go to once you enter the house? Is adjacent to the garage? What about the houses with no garage and a single entrance?