I’m prefacing this post by saying I will talk about Brady’s radiation in the next few days! Promise! Its just so early in the beginning, I’d like to give it a minute before I talk about it on here. But! He’s good. He’s alive. He’s at work. Keep praying 💜 I will post again when he goes in for his treatment. How cool would it be if we had people praying during every treatment?!
Ok. To a different subject. Because life keeps moving, whether your spouse has cancer or not. #cruel
When we were hoping to build our next home, a nonnegotiable for us was a mudroom. We really, really wanted one of those. With ALL the kids and ALL the outerwear that comes with them, plus a wheelchair with muddy tires, we just needed a space to dump all of our mess when we came into the house. And we only had five kids at that point, but there was SO MUCH OUTERWEAR!
But now we’ve moved here, and the “mudroom” is limited, to say the least. This is what we originally were working with.
I literally had to move laundry hampers out of here to take this picture 😅 So it doesn’t look bad, because its basically empty. Over winter, it was LOADED DOWN with jacket, snow pants, accessories, boots, and aaaaall the snow that came in with aforementioned outerwear. Plus, helmets and skates regularly made their way in as well. This space is about 2.5 feet square. Its teeny. At least its teeny for ten people! Can you fathom having seven snowsuits in there this winter? Because. We did.
The reason it was even this clear at this point is because Brady put some screws in the garage in an effort to make a different spot for jackets. Our garage isn’t heated yet, so once the weather lifted, we felt we could move their spring outerwear out there. But. It has not been a positive experience 😅
Its horrrrrrrid in there. And it takes up SO much space! Yes, I do chase it down and have everyone go and pick their mess up. But goodness it just never ever stays that way and is always a headache.
With all of this being said, about a month ago, I found the steal of the century on Facebook marketplace, and I snagged our new system!! 😍 Loooooook!!!
These locker systems are HUGE and HEAVY, and they are going to absolutely save my butt and all kinds of space in our garage. Each set of three cubbies probably weighs more than I do. They’re BEASTS. I believe I paid $200 for this setup!
With this system currently, each of the five school kids will have their own locker for ALL of their outerwear. I don’t care how they arrange it – if off-season stuff goes up into the milk crate – if everything hangs all year round – if shoes go in the bottom crate or the bottom shelf – if its tidy or ridiculous – I don’t care. It will all be expected to live INSIDE their space. The extra locker will be shared between babies. We’ll be adding more hooks, obviously. But once that is all sorted out, Brady and I can use the small hanging area from the first picture, or the entrance closet by the front door. Baby things can also live in those places as children age and need more space. We’ll have to see how that all plays out. Its not possible to know who will be here or for how long. But! We have SPACE! I’m SO excited about this!!!
Weird bright spots in super challenging times 😅 God always provides!