Soap & Suds

I've been really stressed with work lately and the hubby's new lack of a job. Yeah, a lot has happened in the past few days. As soon as the dust settles, I'll fill you in with all the details.

Anyways, to help get rid of some stress, I've decided to work on our little laundry room. I always find having a little project to do helps to take my mind off of things. The problem? With the uncertainty of when the hubby will be paid again, I've got to do this little project with little to no money.

This is what our laundry room looked like when we first moved in:

As you can see, we had the perfect little spot to fit a washer and dryer. Too bad we didn't have one yet. We had shoved some stuff up onto the shelves with the intention of organizing it later. Our toolbox and extra paper towels also found a home in our little laundry room. And we placed a wire shelving unit in there to house our cookbooks and some of our cleaning supplies.

Then we were gifted a washer/dryer set from my uncle, and made a little trip to St. Petersburg to go pick them up.

Nothing fancy. But they do their job. And they were free! So who can complain?

Then we decided to take the door to the laundry room off of its hinges (it was getting in the way of our pantry door) and replace it with a long brown curtain.

So that pretty much catches you up on what we had done previously to the laundry room. Since then, it's pretty much sat untouched.

A couple of months ago, right around Christmas, we added some major function to our laundry room with some a very cheap and minor fix.

The hubby wears a lot of dress shirts. And I hate to iron. My solution? To hang them up as soon as they come out of the dryer so that they don't have the chance to wrinkle. The problem? I had no where to hang them up once they were on the hangers.

I've seen lots of pictures of laundry hanging solutions on Pinterest, but considering we are renters, we can't exactly drill holes into the walls. So whatever solution we came up with had to be something that could be taken down easily when we move.

Then it came to me! I sat there looking at my Christmas stockings and realized that I could use Command Hooks to do the job.

We stuck one hook on either side of the door frame. The curtain completely hides them from the kitchen. The only time you see them is when the curtain is open. Plus, since they are white, like our trim, they aren't that noticeable.

 So far they have been working like a charm!

I can usually get about 5 or so metal hangers on each hook before I have to take the clothes back to the bedroom closet. If we use plastic hangers, we can get 3 or 4 on there. And so far, the weight of the clothes hasn't affected the hooks at all.

Last weekend, I did a few quick updates to the laundry room as well to make it look a little more "pretty," as the hubby likes to say.

I added a rug to the laundry room. It's actually the rug we use to have in our master bathroom before we updated to the blue/gray color scheme. We had moved it to our guest bathroom for a little while, but our cats thought that it was their new "potty spot." So after we washed it multiple times and realized that it just wasn't going to work out in our guest bath, I figured I'd try it in our laundry room. And so far, we've not had any kitty accidents yet. But I love the fact that I'm not standing on cold tile while trying to fold and hang laundry.

I also added a couple of pictures to the washer side of the laundry room.

The frames are simple plastic frames that I've had since high school. They've been sitting in a box for a while now. 

I found this image on pinterest. It decodes all of those little symbols that are on the tags of your clothes. From how hot the water should be to the type of drying cycle you should use. When the hubby had gotten all of his new uniforms, we were having a tough time deciphering all of those symbols. What better art work to put in the laundry room! The only downfall is that all of the temperatures are in Celsius, but it's enough to get us by.

To fill out the rest of the frame, I used two pieces of cardstock that I had on hand. No glue. No tape. Just laid the image on the glass, then laid the two pieces of cardstock on top of it, then popped the glass back into the frame. Easy!

In the yellow frame was a picture that I purchased a year or two ago. I wish I could remember the online store that I purchased this from... All I remember is that they were featured on YHL, and they were getting rid of their old inventory to bring in their new line of products, so I got it at a really good discount. I don't know why, but I fell in love with the piece instantly. I find it silly, but cute. It always brings a smile to my face.

All of that brings us to what the laundry room currently looks like - a total mess!

As you can see, the shelving above our washer and dryer hasn't changed much since we first moved in. Heck, I think there is a lot more junk up there now.

On the dryer's side, we've got our new iron, supplies for my steam mop, paper towels, and the toolbox on one side. The laundry soap sits right on top of the dryer. And there's our little trash can for our lint & dryer sheets. Not to mention the un-mentionables sitting on top of the dryer waiting to be hand washed... Oh, and let's not forget all of the leftover dishes from our wedding that we don' t know where to put.

The shelf above the washer is a lost cause. More hand-wash only clothing is tossed up there. We've got the lid to one of litter boxes. Some spray paint, light bulbs, and bungee cords to round it all out.

The wall is probably the only thing that looks semi-organized. We used push pins and more command hooks to hang up our dusters, brooms, and Swiffer mop. But the things that are hung up on push pins fall all of the time.

So what is the plan?

Well, first of all, I'd like to bring down everything off the shelves, toss out what we don't need anymore, and figure out a new organizing system to house the rest of it. Then, I'd liked to figure out a way to move all of the stuff off the top of our dryer and find it a new home - I'd like to be able to use the top of the dryer as my folding station. Lastly, I'd like to rearranged the stuff hanging on the wall by taking out the push pins and replacing them with more command hooks. And, I'd like to find a better storage system for our ironing board and iron.

I'm looking forward to having a little project to work on. I know it's going to be tough not to spend a lot of money on the project. I haven't really set a budget, but the lower the costs, the better. Besides, it's not like we're going to be living in this place forever, so why bother with a major overhaul with bookoo bucks?

Anyone else out there recently redo a laundry room? Any advice on how to do it on the cheap? Maybe some quick and easy DIY projects? Would love to hear your stories!