Mudroom, shmudroom

A mud room or mudroom is a room which is built into some houses to act as a barrier between outdoors and indoors. Especially in regions with wet, muddy winters, a mud room can be a useful addition as it helps to keep the house clean.

This definition was provided by Wisegeek.com

I must confess I am a product of regional norms/terms/traditions. In the Southwest where I originated, mudrooms are pretty unheard of. I heard the term on a rare occassion, but in all my regional ignorance, I thought that it must be a room made out of mud. I guess I was associating it with adobe houses and huts that you find in the desert. Adobe is a sort of mud/clay formed into bricks and baked in the sun to form a hard durable material with which to build some sort of structure. The regional "norm" of the desert is to have adobe brick fences to separate your property from your neighbours.

The process of making these adobe bricks, which incidentally are quite beautiful as a finished product, is steeped in Mexican tradition and if you travel anywhere in the northern areas of Mexico you can see adobe brick fields spreading out over the land to the horizon. As a young girl in school I remember taking a field trip down south of the border (we lived about 20 minutes from the Mexico/US border) to see these bricks being made.

So that is the only thing I had to reference when I heard the term "mudroom". LOL

I know better now and I want one.

Now in the Southwest I can understand why you would not have a mudroom. First of all winter time does not really exist in the Arizona desert. Its more just summer, but a little cooler. Secondly the very term "mudroom" is contraindicated to the desert. You need water to make mud. Now the common way is to have it fall from the sky, mix with the earth and form mud. Rain in the desert? HAHA what is rain?? therefore mud is not easy to find, well at least not so much that you would need a whole room to deal with it.

On the other side of the country here in Florida, I don't think they are very common either. Not sure why, I mean if it is mud/rain that is the determining factor as to having a mudroom or not - I think Florida qualifies with ease. Though, now I am wondering if there is an equivalent here. Maybe it is just known by another name. Like "dirty dog room" or "Dog-fell-in-the-lake room" Or Grass-that-sticks-like-glue-to-everything-and-not-easy-to-remove room", "dog-feet-shoes-covered-in-stickerburrs room" or could be "Trap-mosquitos-before-they-get-into-the-rest-of-the-house room"

Right now the dew is so heavy on the grass in the morning that we are developing new traditions based soley in that. For instance: before the dogs go out for the first morning pee, we set out a big tub of clean water on the patio. We wash each little paw before it is allowed to enter the house again. So I think when I get a new house I want a room like a mud room. I am going to name it "pawwashing" room. I bet the archetect will love that one.