Mud Room Mini Makeover

As I mentioned before, moving to a new house always has its challenges. In addition to finding new spots for our ocean of toys, I've also had to come up with a new solution for our mudroom. In our new house, the entryway from the garage is a small mudroom/laundry room. It's only about 5 feet wide and the washer and dryer take up a significant portion of the width. I needed a place to store backpacks, keys, jackets, purses, and other 'out the door' essentials without interrupting the traffic flow.

As I was wandering the aisles of Target searching for a cheap solution, I came across these awesome peg boards. Yet another successful Pottery Barn knockoff from our friends at Target, these square peg boards are a perfect solution for tight spaces. In addition to the cool peg boards, they also offer coordinating dry erase boards and cork boards to allow for tons of configuration options. But of course, the best part is the customization. Much like their garage wall predecessors, these peg boards offer tons of flexiblity. Target sells a wide variety of hooks, boxes, racks and clips to help you create a perfect spot for all your must-haves.

On our board, I've got several small silver key hooks, a few sturdier hooks for my purse, a box for things like sunglasses and sunscreen, and a 4-arm swinging hook for the kid's backpacks and jackets. At first, the hooks seemed a little loose and tended to pop out if I pulled at the wrong angle. I solved that problem by picking up a pack of ticky tack and placing a small dot of it around the peg of each hook. Now everything stays in its place and can the hooks can stand up to my kid's toughest yanks.

In addition to mud rooms like mine, they'd be a great addition to any kid's rooms, garages, craft areas and much more. We've used the system for a few months now, and it's held up beautifully. The total set up cost me around $35. Considering I haven't lost my keys or tripped over a backpack yet, I'd say it's well worth the price. Just thought I'd pass it on.