Laundry Room Clean-Up

For a place that does most of our cleaning, we sure don't keep our Laundry Room very tidy! For close to a year and a half, our laundry room has become, a sort of, catch-all. The room was a factor in buying our house. It's on the main floor and it has lots of storage space; 2 shelves and a counter space with drawers and cupboards.

But for the entire time we've lived in our home, I haven't enjoyed my laundry room. It has plenty of storage space but it is one of the smaller rooms in our home. And so, when laundry day comes I dread going into the cramped and cluttered space.

I've always loved watching tips on organization. I jumped quickly onto the "Marie Kondo & Home Edit" train. I was fascinated at new ways to fold laundry, color code my closet and getting rid of clutter around the house. But when I would look at my own spaces, that needed some TLC, I became overwhelmed.

I would always "go for it," but in the end, we had too much stuff! When looking to Pinterest, I adored the tidy and cleanly living rooms, lightly painted walls, distressed furniture and cozy accents. Truth be told, I envied these rooms, but I also loved that my home looks lived-in and doesn't look like a museum.

I needed to figure out a balance and to keep in mind that someday children will be living in our home. I needed to figure out a system that works well for a single married couple and for a family with small children.

One of my goals for our life is to cut out the disorder. And while I understand and appreciate the Minimalism lifestyle, I personally cannot commit to that. I did some research and found that making more space on the floors can help immensely with a space feeling more tidy. This, to me, meant no more things like blanket baskets and even laundry hampers. Another tip is to limit how many items you decorate your surfaces with. Limit it to 3-4 items on one surface.

*NOTE: I plan to show more areas and spaces that display these tips/tricks at a later date*

Back to the laundry room.

Below are the embarrassing BEFORE pictures. Giant metal trash can, hanging cleaning bottles, big bulky back stock of wipes and toilet paper, vases on the dangerous high shelf, reusable grocery bags, bags of beverage cans and not pictured is what was in the drawers and cupboards. It mostly hosted a bunch of non-laundry related items that were tossed in there to get out of the way and to be sorted and dealt with at a "later date."

First thing I did was some online shopping. Target and Amazon have cute stuff that is fairly inexpensive. A tip for rooms, like your laundry room, that are frequented weekly or even daily, is to add cute decorative pieces. I never thought to decorate my laundry room before but it is a game changer! I like being in there now because of it's aesthetic and of course how accessible and tidy it is.

Now that I've got my shopping done and am anxiously awaiting their delivery, I need to do the worst part of any room project: Removal and Purging.

What I did was take everything off the shelves and hooks and cabinets and created "themed piles." A pile for disinfectants, a pile for floor cleaning supplies/cleaners etc. Then I cleaned out the cabinet, countertop and drawers with a wipe.

You'll see in this time-lapsed video the types of junk we kept stored underneath our counter. I threw away a decent chunk of things like this Alien popcorn bucket we got from our honeymoon at Disney World, we clearly never use it and never will. Then there were random papers and even some silicone rings and bracelets (insert face palm emoji here).

The reusable grocery bags were relocated to the hall closet with our other items that "travel" (umbrellas, jackets, winter accessories, beach bags...)

As my new storage and decorative items arrived, I began finding homes for all the appropriate laundry room items. We buy toilet paper and tissues in bulk, so I needed multiple baskets for those items. The other baskets are filled with back stock of disinfectants, hand soaps, and vacuum and steam mop attachments. We don't use these items on a regular basis so they are all stored on the top shelf. I had two extra plant hangers stored under the cabinet, I used one to hold our Swiffer Dusters and to the other I added a fake piece of greenery. I removed our laundry sorter, as it was taking up valuable floor space. Instead I hung the hampers on the wall (where the ironing board and grocery bags used to live). I also removed a shelving unit we had installed in our kitchen, that never gets used, and installed it on the wall for additional storage.

The second shelf is home to the more regularly used items and mainly the laundry accessories. I bought some jars for my bleach alternative and liquid softener and some canisters for my reusable dryer sheets, clothespins and detergent. I also removed the big ugly trash can (again, eating up floor space) and instead placed a large flower pot on my shelf. It's perfect for a room that mostly holds dryer lint as it's waste. In the basket I put my floor cleaner and attachments for the dry Swiffer and Swiffer mop. I, originally, wanted to put a hanging attachment on the back of the door for the iron and ironing board. Our ironing board ended up being too long, luckily the hanger came with screws and anchors and so I had Chris help me attach it to our wall. Under the counter I placed additional cleaning sprays, flower vases and a back stock of dishwashing pellets and sponges etc. And in the drawers I placed cleaning rags in one side and spare hand towels in the other.

The last challenge I had was our Wi-Fi extender (Orbi). It wasn't taking up too much space, but it just didn't fit well with the rest of my laundry room vibe. I asked Chris if it had to be in the laundry room. He told me we could not move it and so I got creative. I got another basket and placed Orbi inside. Then I took some decorative lavender and placed them around it. I also added a wax warmer with lavender fragrance for added fresh scent. Finally I added labels on my canisters for the finishing touches and voila!

I have so much space! I now have an entire countertop devoted to folding the laundry right as it comes out of the dryer. I know where everything is and it makes sense. I increased square footage of a room all because I thought smarter not harder. I enjoy laundry day because I made it a cute space with my extra decorative pieces and it's no longer a pain to shuffle into and do the chore most of us detest.

If you ever want to know where I am...

I'll be over here...

with a glass of wine...

relaxing...

in my laundry room.