Little changes

Isn't it funny how EVERYTHING changes after you are a mother? The way we live in and enjoy our home has drastically changed thanks to Hudson. I've spent a lot of time making lists of things I would want in my ideal home....a home that I'm sure doesn't even exist. This week I decided to toss that list away and instead focus on little changes that can help us enjoy our home more as it is. I discovered that a lot of free and inexpensive things could really make a big difference! In this post I challenged myself to organize a different room or area in our house each month:
January: Kitchen and pantry February: Laundry room and mud room March: Master bathroom and hallway closet April: Master closet May: Upstairs and downstairs closets June: Guest room
July: Guest bathroom August: 2nd guest room September: Family room October: Hudson's room
In January I did great and organized our kitchen and pantry.....but I slacked big time in February thanks to having a million different things going on. So last night I tackled the "mud room" which isn't even a room...it's more of a nook. Ideally, we would like to move our laundry room in to the basement....and turn the existing laundry room into a mud room and pantry.

Here is the nook before with our laundry room to the right...except picture that bench covered with our cat's food bowls, Hudson's coat, and a cat scratcher. I moved those things out of the way before I realized I might want to take pictures #bloggerfail. Our cats, Henry and Sophie, were eating on top of the bench so that Wrigley and Hudson couldn't reach their food....but unfortunately both boys can totally reach their food now. And it's no fun. So I relocated the cat food to the basement....which means we can actually use this bench for storage again!

And look at all the junk I found inside.

Who knew I had tons of paper towels, napkins, 5 boxes of large freezer bags, 2 cling wraps, and 4 aluminum foils??? Guess I don't need to go shopping for the next year!
Not pictured: LOTS of booze. Margaritas at our house this weekend!

I moved all of our winter boots in to the bench. They are too big to fit in our shoe organizer and have just been hanging out by the back door.....and driving me crazy.

And we all know what happens when boots are left within reach.

So now our boots have a home! The next step, hopefully this weekend, is to add a shelf and three baskets to the top for more storage. I plan to put our seasonal items (right now hats and gloves) in the baskets. That will free up some space in our coat closet. Yay!

Hopefully I can organize our laundry room this weekend too! We need a shorter connecter so that we can move the washer back further against the wall...anyone done this before?
P.S. the Lucky Link up pairs are posted on Erinn's blog today! Check it out here.