Signs of spring are exciting after that never-ending winter we just lived through.
Well, most of them are. Mud doesn’t usually make the list.
The sticky, brown mess is everywhere this time of year, including inside the house.
The most logical solution is to leave muddy footwear outside, but we all know that doesn’t always happen.
Local decorators have some other ideas about how to make this mud season less of a mess.
Kimberly Seymour, owner of Embellir, an interior design company that serves the Capital Region, suggested keeping slippers at all of the home’s entrances.
“I also put a pair of garden clogs or low, slip-in boots by the door, for when I have to go outside to do anything and am not going a great distance,” she noted. “I have found that single thing alone has helped tremendously with keeping mud out of the house.”
Seymour also recommended waterproof boot trays, where muddy footwear can be housed. A plastic storage tub designed to fit under a bed, which has higher sides than a boot tray, works well for tall boots, she noted.
Outdoor intervention is also a good idea.
“Boot scrapers were invented for a reason. They work. People should get them,” Seymour said.
Once the outside temperature stays above freezing, she suggested leaving a shallow pan of water near the door to rinse off muddy footwear.
Keeping an extra pair of clean shoes in the car can also be helpful.
David Siders, co-owner of Experience and Creative Design in Schenectady, said not to forget about mats.
A do-it-yourself mud-scraping mat can be made from two-by-fours and dowel rods. A shoe rack can also be made using those same materials, he noted.
Siders suggested putting old car mats on the floor in an attached garage, near the entrance to the house.
“They’re easy to wash off and have great, big grooves in them,” he said.
In rural areas, where walkways are more likely to be unpaved, cardboard, laid on top of a muddy path, can be a short-term solution. Seymour also suggested lining up wooden pallets end-to-end to make a pathway above the mud.
“They’re out there all over the place. I see stacks of them for free all the time,” she said. “They’re several inches tall, they’re usually made of oak, and when you’re done, you can burn them in a firepit and no harm done,” she said.
Categories: Life and Arts
