January 20, 2013

Laundry Room Reveal

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to show you my Laundry Room reveal today.  I am so pleased with the way it turned out.   Eventually I would like to paint the little room, but for now, it is D-O-N-E!


Now, as you can see, my laundry room is not very big.  But that doesn't mean it can't be the space that I want it to be.  I would love to someday have a large laundry room that I can have built in laundry sorters, drying racks, etc.  But for now, I can still have a space I love!  Let's take a tour, shall we?



First off, my washer and dryer.  I purchased these Kenmore Frontloaders a couple of years ago and have never regretted the quite large purchase.  I didn't have the funds to get all the bells and whistles but I did look at Consumer Reports and for my price range, these were the best.  Having these machines literally CHANGED MY LIFE.  I know that sounds dramatic but it is so true.  When I purchased them, I only had the three children but felt like I was ALWAYS doing laundry.  It felt like such a chore and I really despised the task.  But with these babies....laundry has some how magically become not the worst thing in the world.  The wash cycle is about the same as my old one, but the dry cycle is quite fast.  I once dried a load of whites in 12 (YES TWELVE!!!!) minutes.  Some people have complained of smells from their Front Loaders.  If you make sure to leave your washer door open to let it air out, use the clean cycle once a month, and clean out the filters once a month, you shouldn't have a problem.  I have also heard (from very picky people) that they don't get clothes as clean.  But I think in her case, she doesn't have children at home any more and her loads are quite small, so they may not work as well.  Because they don't have an agitator, the washers rely on the other clothes and gravity to help scrub and clean.  I do small loads in mine (once in a great while) and haven't noticed things not being clean, but for the most part, most of my loads are regular to large size.


Now, let's look on what is on top of the washer and dryer.  On top of my dryer I have a lazy-susan that I purchased at IKEA for about $12 I think.  I really liked this one because it is sturdy (made of wood) and big enough to handle a few big bottles.  I love that I am not having to shift bottles around to get to the one I want.  I would have LOVED to have had this on top of my washer (instead of my dryer) but I found that the bottles fell off quite often during a spin cycle.

You can also see in this photo, that on the shelf above my washer and dryer I have two bins.  One is labeled (with vinyl lettering I did on my Cricut, but you could also use sticky labels, or a hang tag) return and the other donate.  I LOVE having these bins in general (always a place to put things!) but I love having them right there because through my laundry room is the entrance to my garage.  So when I am headed out the door to the store, I can grab my return bin and return anything while I am there or I can grab my donate bin and drop things off at a nearby donation center.  I got these big plastic tubs at Target.  Another reason I love them is because of their colors.  Red always makes me happy.


On top of my washer is my laundry detergent and a big white tin I grabbed at Target last summer (it was supposed to be for drinks.)  I again used my Cricut machine and did vinyl lettering to say "Laundry."  It seriously made my day when I made the vinyl lettering for these bins.  I always love things when they are labeled AND pretty!  I use this big tin to throw any dirty laundry in during the week.  Rags, towels, dish rags, tableclothes, etc.   If you look closely you can see that I have added little pads to the bottom of the bucket.  Again...during that spin cycle this tin bucket would rattle and you would have thought the house was coming down!  It was so LOUD!!!!  So I added these pads (like the kind you put on the bottom of furniture so it doesn't scratch your floors) that I got at Home Depot to the bottom and now it is quiet during the spin cycle. Yeah!

On the shelf behind the bucket, I have a few other cleaning products I don't use very often as well as extra laundry detergent.  My husband actually works for a company that makes laundry detergent, dish soap, fabric softener, etc. so we usually have quite a bit on hand.


I have my washer and dryer on pedestals. When I got them, I was not married to the wonderfully handy (not to mention handsome!) man I am married to now so I wanted them to not only provide storage, but also put them not so close to the ground.  This was also before the days of Pinterest.  If I were to do it again, I would NOT buy the pedestals, and probably do a laundry basket storage/sorting thing like this instead.  But, since I have them, I use them.  The drawer on the right stores full-size rag towels.  The drawer on the left is divided into two sections.  The left section stores microfiber clothes for dusting and moping.  The section on the right has hand towel and wash cloth size rags.


Now let's flip around to the opposite wall.  On this side of the room I had my handy husband hang a drying rack I got at Ikea for $20.  I love that it is down when I don't need it.  It can also go on an angle which comes in hand when I am drying pants or rugs or something.  It can also go out straight so I can lie something flat on top or hang my laundry hanging dryer (also from Ikea for $5) to dry delicates or even beach towels in the summer.  One thing to note is that I had my husband hang the rack just high enough that I can still stand under it when it is open.  That works for me because I am fairly short.  And because it is a tight space, I still need to be able to get into my washer.

You can also see I have some cute little frames on the wall.  They were actually black frames I had on hand and I just spray painted them white.  I found this cute printable on Pinterest and put it in one frame and then in Photoshop I create my Laundry schedule in similar fonts and colors.  (I also found this printable recently on Pinterest and may have to change the colors and hang it as well.) 

I do, what I think is, an insane amount of laundry for our family of 7.  Probably 15 loads a week.  There is NO WAY I can do that in a day.  It is just too overwhelming.  So I have broken it down into 6 days (no laundry on Sunday) so that I am doing a little each day.  Then, if I get behind, it still isn't overwhelming to make it up on another day.  Also, I do all the laundry do the school year, but my kids do their own during the summer.  So, this schedule works for that too!

Monday - Clothes (mainly mine and my husbands)
Tuesday - Girls (I have a 10, 8, and 4 year old.  The older girls do theirs and the little ones during the summer.)
Wednesday - Boy (I have a 13 and 5 year old. The oldest does it during the summer.)
Thursday - Sheets.  Everyone rips theirs off in the morning and has a clean set ready to put on when they get home from school.  During the summer they put on new sheets right away because we have extra sets.
Friday - Clothes (mine and my husbands again)
Saturday - Towels. Everyone brings theirs up.  I usually do the laundry that is in the tin bucket on this day as well.



On that same wall, I stack my empty laundry baskets on the floor and have my trash can.  Most of my laundry baskets are red too. Happy!!!


Next is my closet.  As you can see, on the door we hang our iron and ironing board.  This is great except for the fact that we have 8 ft. doors and so I actually have to get a stool to get the iron down.  But...I rarely iron, so I can handle doing that every once in a great while.



The closet is fairly small but because I rarely clean with chemicals I don't have a lot of cleaning supplies.  What supplies I do have are on the shelves and the bottles, along with cleaning products I have made, hang on the rod.


I like to hang pretty much anything I can to keep things off the floor.  So, I have Command Hooks all over this closet.

The green bag on the left is a little bag with elastic on the bottom and holds empty plastic grocery sacks.  The big TJ-Maxx bag holds all of my reusable shopping bags.  I also have my Norwex dusting cloth as some other dusters I got at Ikea (that don't work very well, but the kids like using them.)  I also hang my floor duster and swiffer.


So, the only things I have on the floor are my Spot-Bot, my Floor Steamer, my Dyson Vacuum, my long duster in the corner, and a yardstick.


And last but not least, behind the door is my key rack.  During the summer I mainly use my front entryway.  Mr. Handy has his workshop in the garage and it is usually too dirty and full of his projects for me to park in there.  But during the winter, his business slows down, and he cleans things up so I can park in the garage.  So I keep my keys and my cute Mayli Jade Cell Phone Clutch on the key rack so I can grab things and go.

Well, that is it for my laundry room.  Hopefully I've inspired you!  Now send me some pictures by email or post on our facebook and show me what you have been up to!

For more ideas on decorating and organizing your laundry room, check my Pinterest pages!


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