The Outdated Milk Door You May Have In Your Old Home (And What To Do With It Today)

Homes of a certain age boast a peculiar feature, the milk door. This feature harkens back to the days when modern refrigeration didn't exist and milk rotted unless it was delivered daily to local customers via the most nostalgic and analog delivery system imaginable: the milkman. Regular milk delivery was common practice in the U.S. from the late 18th century to sometime in the 1960s. When supermarkets made the milkman obsolete and modern refrigerators meant that milk was no longer in danger of going bad, the milk door fell out of use. However, the old-fashioned door remains in many homes that were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leaving homeowners wondering just what to do with this throwback from a bygone era. As it turns out, there's quite a lot you can do with one.

The most obvious choice for this feature is to continue using it as a facilitator of food and beverage deliveries once again. Food trends being what they are, the timing is right for this. Food and beverage delivery saw an uptick of 113% in 2020 thanks to pandemic-related movement restrictions, according to Rensselaer 200. While demand for those deliveries fell post-pandemic, about half of the people who got deliveries during the pandemic still get them. Because these food delivery chutes have a sealable door on each side of the house, food, beverages, prescription, and even package deliveries via the milk door remain a viable option. It's like having a camping cooler built into the side of your house. Alternatively, you can turn the milk door into a display case, a storage cabinet, or even a mini wine cellar. 

In the summertime, when the weather goes from hot to blistering, the last thing you want is for your family members to have to run in and out of the house. Not only does this invite flies to come in and take up residence, but it also encourages hot outdoor air to invade your air-conditioned interior. The milk door can come to the rescue here. For thirsty kids playing outside, the chute offers the perfect means for getting a tall glass of lemonade or a cool can of soda just in time to beat back the summer heat. And if a few of the munchkins' favorite pool toys happen to be behind the door, along with the cold drinks, that's all the better. No trip inside the house is required. And no dip in the pool without the trusty beach ball.

In grown-ups' land, ice cold lemonade is replaced by sangria and brewskies to drink and sliced meat and hot dog buns for the grill. Since many of the doors go straight into the kitchen, the distance from the fridge to the grill is dramatically decreased. When food is near the burning stage on the grill, it's a time saver that can also save lunch. If your milk chute is insulated, it can also become a part of your outdoor grill station, offering you a place to stash cooked burgers, hot dogs, and steaks. Or do away with the meat altogether and make the chute a part of your beverage bar, which frees up some space in the fridge inside the house for other items on party night.

The milk door facilitates more than just food delivery. It can be a space where other deliverables can be exchanged, too. Consider the local artisan who makes wind chimes or clay refrigerator magnets. If someone orders an item, it can be left in the milk chute to be picked up by the buyer if the seller isn't home. Some homeowners have taken this idea to its logical end and have turned the space into the home's actual mailbox. Many of these boxes are even big enough to fit small packages from delivery services like UPS, so using it in this way isn't out of the question.

And for the home decorators who just can't help themselves, the chute can become a built-in display case with just a few small modifications to the milk door. For example, you can replace the original interior door with one that's see-through and turn the milk chute into a home for a fairy garden or a miniatures collection. It's also a space that can hold spice jars and stackable dessert platters filled with cupcakes. Or make it the place where you install a mini wine cellar in the kitchen. As it turns out, the milk chute, a feature that many homeowners are opting to seal shut nowadays really does have a second life in the hands of the creative. It just needs to be seen with eyes that can imagine it as something beyond an insulated milk carton.