Yesterday I decided it was time to tackle the dreaded laundry room. It was the one space in my home that was a total embarrassment. The room was a wreck and wasn’t functional at all. Having a hubby and four kiddos you know that I spend A LOT of time in this room. I want it to be a space that FEELS comfortable and functional while also being pleasing to look at. I’m tired of it being a space I dread going in, and I’m serious about changing it.
I started with taking out all the crap and junk that was filling the room…. all kinds of “no man’s” laundry…random fabric and sewing things…decorative items that I wasn’t using anywhere in the house. When I was done this is what the hallway looked like:
This horrible photo was taken with my iPhone… sorry for the quality (or lack thereof)…
Here is is this morning after clearing SOME of it out:
This is the hallway that leads to the back deck and the laundry room. You can see the door on the right. My hanging rack gets taken over by every random thing that passes this way. I know this isn’t the laundry room, but I want and need this space to flow well together. I just noticed after I took these pictures that I still had that Christmas plaque up… It’s down now :) How in the world would I notice that in the midst of all this mess??
Once everything was out of the room I spent hours giving the room a total cleaning. It was a mess…. I pulled out the machines and cleaned the floors. My vacuum sucked up so much lint and yuckiness it’s a wonder that anything EVER got clean from this space. It was BAD. Now it’s all clean, and this is where the questions come in.
This is the view from the door. This laundry room is really large and has lots of potential. One area that HAS to change is this mini clothes rod that hangs to the left of the dryer. The height is horrible, and it’s not large enough to really hang laundry for 6 people. It’s a bad place to store hangers. They’re always getting knocked of as clothes are taken out of the dryer. I need another option for this.
These shelves are nice, but it’s hard to know WHAT to put on them. I want this room to be cleaning central and really don’t want other things stored in here. There’s NO way I’m putting ANYTHING in here to clutter these shelves back up after I spent all that time taking it all down. I want simple and functional. WHAT should be on all these shelves?
Here’s another view of the shelves on this wall and that tiny rod. What do I do with that rod? BTW, the shelves coming down is NOT an option.
Then we have this little pain in the butt cabinet. It takes up this entire wall, but the shelves aren’t deep enough to store anything. WHAT could I do with this thing? There’s no way an ironing board could hang here, because of the never ending shelves….
See?? Little short narrow shelves still filled with crap. I really need suggestions for this space.
The hot water heater is concealed behind these shutter doors to the right of the washer.
There is a large space to the right when you come in the room. Some of the space is behind the door but is still usable.
Close ups of the shelves…
I use all liquid detergents and fabric softeners, so these items will all need to be out. I’m thinking some kind of baskets, although those plastic caddies would be easier to use.
The shelves run all the way to the corners. I would like to store all my accessories for both my sharks on the shelves as well as the other household cleaners. Besides those things I don’t know what else to store up here….
I’m choosing a new paint color and am going to add some new accessories like an indoor outdoor rug, a new ironing board cover, as well as all the storage containers after I choose them.
Andrew is going to build some type of shelving to go in between the washer and dryer in this space. I would like to have a couple of laundry baskets for lights and darks…. I am also having him make a “counter” that will go across the new piece and the dryer all the way to the wall for folding and such.
Help me peeps!
What do I do with that tiny clothes rod? I NEED more space to hang clothes as they come out of the dryer and a better place to store hangers. What do I do about that?
What should I do with that teeny tiny hold nothing cabinet?? Any ideas of a way to use it?
What about that wall where the ironing board is now? I’d like to be able to keep the ironing board set up, because we use it a lot. Should I add a pull down ironing board? How could I use this space to hang clothing??
What do I do with all that space on the shelves?? I don’t want to junk it up in ANY way, but I don’t want them empty either… I’m in a laundry room crisis and am looking forward to any suggestions you girls may have. I’m at a stand still now and need major help. I know you peeps will come through for me…
Love and hugs,
4 comments:
Wow! What a huge job. Well at least it's super neat & tidy until you decide what to do with this lovely space. Can't wait to see your after pics.
What if you remove the shelves in that cabinet and put hooks in there to hang the hangers on when not in use. Also, you could get those storage holders {some are narrow and they sometimes are sold as holding file folders} and use them to hold the hangers and put them on your shelves. Otherwise that cabinet looks like it might be a good place to stock your toilet paper.
I know you said you're not removing the shelves but can you cut back the shelf that the rod is currently on so that portion is gone and put the rod on the shelf above? How about those glass dispensers for your liquid detergent and fabric softener? You know the ones with the spout that you always see in the Summer for lemonade or iced tea.
Over where you have the ironing board, I would install a rod against the short rod. We have a large garage shelf that we put in our laundry room. It holds 8 laundry baskets, which is where I put the dirty laundry. I would remove the cabinet and use the shelves for storage of any kind. Use the cute fabric baskets to hide things in. Then I'd put a table in that corner for folding and sorting laundry. I'd buy an over the door ironing board for when you need to iron.
You don't really have useful storage here, that's your problem. The shelves are simply in the way. The tiny cabinet can't hold anything of significance, it looks like it belongs in a bathroom.
You say you are serious about changing the space, but then you say you are not open to removing the shelves. I think the shelves make the room feel tiny. I think open wire shelving, at a proper height, in the proper area, would do wonders. Maybe you could visit Home Depot or something similar, to get some ideas. You are trying to design a useful space using your existing storage options, and you really need to start from square one. A laundry room really only needs a shelf or two, an area to hang up laundry, and an area to fold. In my laundry room, I have one shelf and a retractable clothesline. When I don't need to hang up clothes, it stays out of the way. As for the rest of your questions about what to store in the tiny cabinet, or on the shelves? I vote for nothing. Nothing needs to be in that cabinet, just ditch it, it's a clutter catcher! If you don't need all that storage, get rid of it, the room will feel bigger. Hope it helps!
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