Now that winter has set in for most of the northern hemisphere, I've started to think about all of the gunk and grime coming into my house from the slushy, wet, sometimes-snowy, great outdoors. If you're noticing an increase in gunk from the outside on the inside, here are some tips to keep your floors more tidy:

• Create a boot/wet shoe station just inside your most-used entrance to your home. Set out a boot tray for incoming sloshy shoes, and a shoe rack full of house-appropriate shoes.
• Create a coat, hat, and glove station where damp and snow-covered clothes can hang and dry. Get a few more boot trays, or a longer well of plastic to set under the coats to catch dripping water.
• As long as you're good at remembering to turn it off when you go to bed or leave your home, I recommend setting up a small space heater in this area to speed up the drying process.
• Be sure to have doormats on the exterior of your door and possibly another one inside to catch clumps of snow and slush.
• A collapsible bench that can be repurposed in the garden during warmer months is great to have to sit upon while changing shoes.
• A small towel or a roll of paper towels and an environmentally friendly spray cleaner to conveniently wipe up puddles that make it past the door.

Do have additions for this list? Let us know about them in the comments!