We Bought a Farm: What our mud room looks like with 15 people here

 "Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." A.A. Milne

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE our mudroom in our house. The room didn't even exist before. It was a porch. But it has revolutionized our home. 

A quick reminder: we bought a farm that we loved that came with a house. From the outside, it looked beautiful. But the inside truly frustrated me. 

I'd lived in many homes that didn't quite "work" for me. But I knew they were all temporary, and I did my best with what we had for the time we had it.

But this time, I knew this house was, most likely, forever. And that was so hard for me.

I mean, how in the world do you build a farm house and not put in a closet on the first floor?! We live on a farm for crying out loud. Surely this is a requirement?

But it matched many things in the house pre-flood. So many things just didn't work right. They didn't fit right. We'd say: "Why do you think they did that?" or "Why don't you think they did that?" 

And then we renovated. And top of my list: a mud room! I wanted a room that could hold all the things we needed on a farm. I never owned a pair of boots before we started farming and I definitely didn't understand the need for so many coats. But weather is a key ingredient in our life here. Some days require warm boots. Some require cool boots. Sometimes your boots get too wet to wear the following day. You might need a heavy coat. You might need a light one. You might need water proof gloves. You might not.

So these pictures above feature our mud room. We have eight lockers: one for each of us, one for our visitors/wwoofers, and one for the grandparents. The Kotynski family also has a section in the back when they are here. 

The other day we had the entire Kotynski family here, our family, and two wwoofers: Jacob and Alexa. That makes fifteen people total. Believe it or not, we all ate together too! That's a lot of folks. 

However, I thought it important to show that despite the pretty baskets and the fact that the "core" of this room is organized, there are days when the room still takes a beating. It isn't going to look like a perfect picture from a fancy magazine all the time. Sometimes I get it there. But more often, the room is being used. It is serving it's purpose. I mean what do you expect from a room that has MUD in the title?

Remember folks: get organized. Get your house in gear. But it has to be lived in. If you come and visit my house, you'll find organization. But you'll find reality. The truths of our life and what that means at that given time.

Just keepin' it real,