As promised, here’s more info about organizing your comings and goings. It’s a long post, so go get a snack for maximum enjoyment.
If your home is anything like mine … you looked at the ideas from the other day and thought “Yeah, that’s great Aby, but my house is in the real world. We enter and leave through the laundry room! I don’t have space for another paper clip in that room … let alone some great bin storage system like you’re talking about.” I feel your pain. My house is in the real world too, complete with a laundry room right smack dab in the midst of where we come and go every day. I’d like the name of the architect that came up with the brilliant idea of having the laundry room also serve as the mud room. Actually, this was probably a good idea until the cost accountants came along and told the builders how much money they’d save if they just squeezed out every extra square inch from the space except what’s absolutely needed between the wall and the dryer door so that if you’re a size zero you can still turn around! Ah… but I digress.
Here’s my story … along with nuggets you can use to transform your area for coming and going … or revamp your laundry room for the fun of it all!
About two years ago, I gave my laundry room an organizational overhaul. Before the overhaul, things didn’t have convenient, designated places. Aside from accommodating dirty clothes and laundry gear like detergent, bleach, dryer sheets and the all important washer and dryer, my laundry room tried to wear many other hats as well. The washer, just inside the main access to my home, had become the landing spot for mail, purses, coats, keys and cell phones – the place to drop everything as soon as we walked through the door at the end of a long day. (Sound familiar?)
As if that wasn’t enough, we thought it’d be fun to give this tiny space a few more roles and responsibilities. It was the primary storage area for all sorts of miscellany from cleaning supplies like brooms, dust pans and the vacuum, to out of season coats, light bulbs and even the bread machine. Plus, the room housed a trash can and recycle bin just inside the door, “greeting” my upon every arrival back home after a busy day.
Wanna see a picture? Maybe I should have called this post “organizer airs her dirty laundry.” 😉
OK … the laundry shown *IS* clean. But just for grins, here’s another before pic.
When I decided it was time to reclaim the space, I crafted a plan. The first step was to take a good hard look at what *should* be kept in the room. If your laundry room is your comings and goings area, too, I encourage you to really take this step to heart. Which items really deserve a place in your valuable space? Talk about prime real estate. This is ultra prime!
The next step was to take action.
The large cleaning tools like mops and the vacuum cleaner were moved into a storage area in the basement. A hook was added in the garage right off the laundry room for the broom and dust pan, allowing quick and easy access without taking up precious space in the laundry room. Extra cleaning supplies also took up residence in the basement. Out of season coats found a new home in the main coat closet, near the front entrance of my house.
Once the space was pared down to the essentials, it was time to designate spots for everything that remained. Simple modifications to the room created a place for everything and an easy means for getting things into and out of their assigned spots.
The washer and dryer were pushed closer to one wall, creating enough space for a laundry sorter to be rolled into the room on laundry day. Keeping the sorter on the side of the washer frees up access to the washer and dryer, making laundry day much more efficient and enjoyable.
The coat closet door and a second door were removed, improving traffic flow and access to the closet area. In other words, we could actually use the closet square footage since we could see it and get into it!
The old shelving and closet rod were removed, making way for a cubicle tower unit. Everyone in my family was assigned two storage cubbies to corral purses, school papers, cell phones, keys, gloves, and briefcases … eliminating the frantic rush through the house in search of the car keys each morning. (Yep … used to be guilty of that, too!)
Coat hooks were installed at child-height, carving out a home for coats, umbrellas and backpacks.
My hubby installed new shelving adjacent to the cubicle tower. The shelves are used for mail, bills, coupons, and reading materials. The trash can and recycle bin sit in a corner just below the new shelving, making simple work of purging unwanted junk mail.
A bucket filled with basic cleaning supplies was assigned a home on the top shelf in the laundry room.
And of course, labels, labels, labels are used to help everyone know where things belong – making easy work of putting everything back in its place.
I love it! Thanks again for some inspiration! I’m working slowly but surely to having spaces that are FUNctional like this! It’s a work in progress, but it’s getting there!
Great stuff if you have a laundry/mud room. But what if you have a small split level ranch and NO where to put nice little shelves and buckets? except the kitchen counter?
Someday I aspire to have a laundry room not in the basement but for now I have no idea what to do with all the stuff. 🙁
I love it! Those are great ideas. As usual, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I envy you your “small” laundry room. Mine is just large enough to put the washer and dryer in and a shelf above them. Laundry Closet would be a better description. There are some very narrow (5″ deep) shelves on the wall opposite of the washer and dryer. They need an overhaul! The shelf above the washer and dryer was reorganized during the 12 week challange.
Speaking of challanges, I think I need to set a goal of re-organizing the narrow shelves in the laundry room. I have a 12 hour corp this weekend and a 24 hour crop the next weekend and two crops the weekend after that. My weekend time is scarse and I need all the scrapbooking time I can get to finish my Christmas gifts, so I am going to say four weeks from today, October 16, 2006. I will get the 4 shelves cleaned and reorganized. I will also revisit the shelf above the washer and dryer to make sure it remains organized. I am going to spend a little more time checking out the “after” photos of your Laundry Room and see what ideas I can make use of in my Laundry Closet. I’ll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks for the inspiration!
Incredible ideas here. I am in desperate need of organizing our coat closet and made a small attempt at it when we first moved in. Now I do not even recognize it. Discipline is required when organizing and it’s something I’ve been lacking lately.
You’ve given me some initiative to go home and clean up our coat closet! Thanks, Aby!!
Wow! What an amazing difference. It’s like a different space, with breathing room. I look at the after picture and feel relaxed. The before picture…not so relaxing! 😉 Thanks for airing your dirty laundry!
Once again you have inspired me! I have a narrow cabinet in my bathroom that I just cleaned out! Laundry room this weekend. Next weekend my 6yo DD and my DH are going on their Y-princess campout and I think I will annihilate her closet! Any kid closet re-do posts in your future????
You know I think I put these things off because I think they are take a whole day to do. Most of the time it just takes an hour or two!
Thanks again for the inspiration!
Cool!
Great inspiration as always!!!
Do you have any tips for the dreaded hall closets? You know, those long/deep closets that seem to just be a magnet for clutter?!? I struggle with keeping it neat, organized, and still able to walk to the back to reach things. Little by little, the boxes and winter coats, etc. seem to take over!
As winter rolls around, and the winter supplies come out of storage, any advice for organizing the hats, scarfs, boots and gloves in a small coat closet? I have used hanging shoe organizers in the past, but I am looking for some fresh ideas.
Hi Aby,
Love your stuff…the shelving in your closet…are those the cubicals from Target? And if so, where did you find the baskets to fit in them? I bought a cubeical unit at Target for my son’s toys, but settled for the lime green (rather flimsy) totes that they sell with the cubical units. They are bright and colorful but would love something a little more subtle since it’s in our family room. Thanks for sharing all of your great ideas!
Where did you find/buy the shelving unit that is in your laundry room closet? Thanks!