A little while ago, I mentioned that I wanted to overhaul our laundry room. I'm not sure if overhaul is the right word. But I definitely wanted to spruce it up a little bit and declutter the mess that had been sitting up on the shelves since moving day. And it's finally done!
Let me remind you what we were starting out with. On one side we had the lid to a litter box, some spray paint, hand-wash only clothing, laundry detergent bucket, bungee cords, and cleaning supplies.
On the other side, we had our stash of paper towels (you can never have too many of those, right??), distilled water, starch, an iron, more cleaning supplies, our toolbox - and that doesn't include all of the items resting on top of our dryer.
And if you looked into the laundry room from the kitchen, you would see our various brooms, duster, and swifter mop, our ironing board, and my aprons which hardly ever get used.
The first thing I did was take everything down from the shelves and figured out what needed to be trashed, what needed to stay, and what could be moved to another room. Some old cleaning supplies were trashed, but other than that, the majority of the stuff was staying. The only things that moved were the liter box lid (which went into our storage closet on our balcony) and the ironing supplies (I'll mention their new home in a moment.
So once that was taken care of, I went on the hunt for some baskets. I personally love the look of wicker baskets when they are used as storage, but the hubby hates them. The only reason he agreed to let me have wicker in the laundry room was because he reasoned that he'd hardly ever have to look at them. Woohoo! One small victory for wicker
My only dilemma? Wicker baskets cost a lot more than I wanted to spend. My goal was to do this little makeover for as little as possible. Over Spring Break, while the hubby and I were in Orlando, I asked him to stop at a couple of thrift stores my mom and I use to frequent. The main purpose was to look for a little cabinet/dresser/buffet to act like a bar in our dining room (kinda like this one from Katie's dining room). But while we were searching, I came across three little nesting baskets that were in perfect condition. And the price for all three? $8! You can't beat that! That's like the price of one small basket at Michael's or JoAnn's on sale.
So, thanks to my little baskets, the laundry room is looking much more organized these days. Ready for some after pictures?
This is what the laundry room looks like when you're standing in the kitchen.
Please ignore all of the clutter on our fridge. There are still holiday photos up on our fridge along with wedding announcements, invitations, and thank you cards. I can't bring myself to take them down quite yet.
I didn't do a whole lot when it came to the middle portion of the laundry room. The hooks stayed where they were at. And the little white laundry basket stayed put too. The only change was to add the brown rug to the floor which came from our guest bathroom.
The side that probably changed the most was the side that originally housed our toolbox and ironing supplies. Our toolbox is still there, but for the most part, everything else is gone.
On top of our dryer, we have a little trash can for lint and used dryer sheets. I used the smallest of the three baskets to house our Oxi Clean and our dryer sheets. The hubby was a little worried that by taking them out of their box they would lose their smell/function. But so far, they've been out of the box for a couple weeks now, and we haven't seen a difference. If anything, our laundry room smells much better now. I also decided to throw a flower pot on there as well to act as a coin catcher. We had a small jar on our island for a little while, but our change collection was outgrowing its home there and needed a bigger container. I think it works well. Tucked in the corner you'll see the handle to our steam mop. There really isn't an easy way to store that thing.... so, it stayed put where it was.
Up on the shelf, we still have our spray bottles hanging out. We keep the car stuff and the Shout in the laundry room. All of our other spray cleaners are under our kitchen sink - which I should probably add to my to-organize list. The dark brown box holds all of our hand-wash only items. Since we don't have that many, that basket is the perfect size. Plus, since we already had it on hand (we used it as our "card box" at our reception), it was free! The lighter box now holds our small - but growing - home improvement stuff. And then, of course, you have the toolbox.
Side Note: We recently bought one of those massive bottles of laundry detergent. Why? Well, the smaller size wasn't available that day. We had it sitting on top of our dryer and used the little dispenser and cup to get the soap into the washer. Well, I guess the left over detergent on the little cup dripped onto the top of our dryer. So, I grab an all natural spray cleaner to wipe everything up.
Problem! It not only discolored a portion of the dryer, but some of the paint also started to chip away. Ultimately, its not that noticeable. But, just wanted to save someone else from having something like this happen to them in case it happens in a larger proportion.
Above our washer we've got our paper towels and distilled water. I moved the laundry detergent up there as well (now I just make sure to thoroughly rinse the cup before reattaching it). We keep some extra clothes hangers in the laundry room for items that need to line dry. And I can't forget to mention the little pictures to the left that I showed you here.
This side got the largest of the three baskets. It became home to all of our other cleaning supplies - steam mop & swifter accessories.
In our guest bedroom slash office. I found this over-the-door organizer made specifically for all of your ironing supplies. It even has a little spot for a water spray bottle, but I thought it was the perfect place to tuck the cord.
The best part, we barely notice it. Usually the door to that room is open, so unless you're peeking behind the door, you won't even notice that it's there. The only problem that we've run into is the fact that our ironing board likes to open up on its own. So we're working on a way to keep it from opening until we're ready to use it.
The nicest part about having the ironing stuff in the guest bedroom? It gives the hubby a place to iron his clothes. (I hate to iron. I'm the type of girl that just throws her stuff into the dryer to de-wrinkle it). Before he would have to lug everything from the laundry room into the living room to iron his clothing. Now, he doesn't have to lug it anywhere else in the house.
The fact that our laundry room is finally organized brings a smile to my face. Now if only I could get the clothes to wash, dry, and fold themselves, I'd be set! I can't wait until we have our own little house so I can really personalize our laundry room with color, art work, and better looking shelving.
Anyone else been on an organizational kick? Where do you go to score great deals on baskets and containers to tuck away all of your clutter?
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