I imagine if you only have one entrance in your new house, it will be used like your mudroom is used right now. I'd consider your how you use your mudroom when planning for your future needs.

I have often thought a small walk-in closet off of a modest foyer would be cool with kids, reminiscent of the cloak room off the entrance of my old elementary school. You could walk in and drop shoes/coats/bags with the benefit of being out of the foyer proper and behind a closed door when you want.

I don't have much hope for my kids putting their coats on hangers. For us, it's coats and bags on hooks and shoes on the floor. It would be great to have all those hooks and shoes in their own little room.

benjesbride, a cloak room style WIC is a great idea.

housebuilder, I agree that a coat tree or a series of hooks on a wall are more useful than a standard closet in helping to keep things tidy. We have a home at a ski/golf resort with no entry closet, only a ski/golf bag storage closet outside the main door and then a ton of hooks on the wall as you walk in the door. Even when we have lots of guests with all that winter gear, people hang their coats, etc on the hooks because it's easy. It stays relatively tidy.

In contrast, I'd doubt people would take the time to open a closet door and hang their gear in a closet unless it looked like this ...

You got that right! Nobody around here would take the time to hang their coats on a hanger. Dreamin'! That closet is an excellent idea, and probably holds more coats.

We've got coated metal basket bins in our mudroom closet-- big ones for kids' coats, and medium sized ones for shoes, and little ones for hats and mittens. It keeps everything contained, and my 7 year old can reach everything he needs on his own.

I hang snowpants on a tiered skirt hanger-- it's less convenient, but they take up too much bin space. The rest of the hanging space is available for adult coats.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elfa closet drawers

thanks all. we will have a mudroom but probably only accessible through garage versus separate front entrance like current house. so for kids stuff - it can still be in mudroom which will have cubbies, storage, etc. I was more just worried about guests. now they just come in through mud room and throw stuff on hooks and muddy shoes on floor (which is easily to clean). my new home - if they walk in through formal entrance --- ahh - i am just worried it will be hard to clean.

If you mean kids friends (guests)- they will probably come in through the garage (mine do), since the garage is always open when kids are playing outside.

For party guests, that won't be hard at all- usually you go to the front to open the door, and can ask to take peoples coats, and hang them up, or have them do it. Its not big deal. A strategically placed nice coat tree will do the trick for overflow. Also, you could have a 'nice bench' where people could sit and take off their shoes (if that's what guests do in your house), and dump their coats on top of it if they are too lazy to hang them up in the closet (this happens in my mudroom bench- guests sometimes come in the back door and dump purses and coats right on the bench). Like this:

[Traditional Hall[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-hallway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_743~s_2107) by Carmel Interior Designers & Decorators Laurie Kertis, Ltd., Interior Design

This post was edited by nepool on Wed, Feb 5, 14 at 13:36