Laundry Room Ideas

If you have at all followed some of my last posts, you will know that the downstairs of my house threw up - twice!  The first time was the toilet and we had to tear out all the laminate floors and will soon be tearing up the carpet in the playroom to replace since it seems as if the water damage got under the carpet as well.  The second time the downstairs had a case of the flu was with the sink.  Luckily the laminate was still torn up so no damage to the new floors, but this time the water got under the tiles that are under the washer and dryer, so.... out went the washer and dryer and tiles.

The new laminate is down (although I know we're playing with fire here, thinking we should have gone with vinyl flooring that looks like hardwood for possible future floods).  The new baseboards are up too, the door that has never closed is fixed, and since we had to remove the washer and dryer we decided that this was a good time to get them on pedestals, so those are in place with the washer and dryer on them.  Now it is time to make that space usable.  I've been spending some time researching ideas for how to make the laundry area look nice and function well.  Here are some ideas I've come across that I like...

I'm always finding random things in my pockets - yes MY pockets, not Nick's - so I thought this idea for a way to collect those things was neat:


I definitely need to find space to hang clothes after they've been ironed or for those clothes that have just come out of the dryer, but need a little extra drying time.  I like this idea for putting up hooks to hang the clothes:


I always have the ironing board open, but lets be honest, I don't iron that much!  I'm hanging it on the wall from now on:


I need tubs... for clothes that are waiting to be handwashed, for handwashing clothes, for dirty towels, for clothes that have been stained and need soaking, and for Nick's dirty/smelly workout clothes.  I thought these were nice and will bring some pretty color to the drab job of laundry:


We need something to cover up the holes in the wall behind the utility sink from when we had to pull the sink out to put down new floors.  I'm thinking I like a slatted wall that will hide the holes and be functional:


I've already decided I'm buying this shelving unit to hold some of the laundry containers that won't fit on top of the washer and dryer now that they are on pedestals.  Also, Nick plays basketball in the evenings after the girls are asleep and he likes to go for runs while they are napping.  He needs a place to keep his workout/basketball clothes and towels for cleaning up when he gets home.  I thought the drawers would be a perfect place to keep those things:


The last thing I want is a pretty rug to put in front of the washer and dryer.  I got caught up messing around with Polyvore and created this "lookbook" of potential patterns:



I need to do all of this on a budget so I might have to scale my ideas down a bit, but its always good to start with a plan!!

The Hallway Closet Project

For those of you Friends lovers out there, you'll understand the following reference... I have a Monica Gellar closet!  I know what is in there and where everything is, but pretty much no one else can find a thing!!  Usually this is no problem, but with the 2 months of colds and illnesses we experienced and midnight trips to the closet to find medications, I realized that I needed to do something so that I'm not the only one who knows where things are.  When you open the doors, here is what you will see...

So I exaggerated a little, it's not quite as bad as Monica Gellar's closet, but there is a lot going on in there.  I decided to tackle it one step at a time.

1. Organize those Meds

The medicine shelf is a disaster and as 2 year old B continues to grow, it is also within reach of small hands.  I decided to clean out the meds and move them up a shelf to keep them out of reach of curious toddlers.  First Nick and I went through all the bottles and tossed* what has expired and what we don't need or use.  Then I made groups of like meds.  Here they are in their groups just waiting for a storage tub to be placed in:

*When I say tossed, I mean dispose of the meds in an environmentally safe way.  We threw away the vitamins, but recycled the vitamin bottles.  All the other expired and unneeded meds (prescriptions, pain relievers, allergy relief, etc.) we kept in their bottles and containers and took them to a pharmacy where the pharmacy will dispose of them safely.  If you are curious about how the pharmacy disposes the meds safely and which pharmacies take expired medications, check out this website: http://www.takebackyourmeds.org.

I also had Nick make a baby dosage table with weight and amount of Tylenol, Benadryl for allergy, and Benadryl for severe allergy needed to add to the Kids & Baby Meds tub for a just in case I am having an emergency and can't think straight moment.

2.  Clean up the Towels

We have so many towels and we hardly use them.  It was time to decide what towels to keep and what to get rid of.  Take a look at the next picture to see how we narrowed our piles of towels to just the ones we need and use: 

If you need a comparison, take a look at the before picture at the top of this post!

If this looks like very few towels it is because the towels we are currently using are in the bathroom and these are just extras... and some of the extra towels were being used to mop up yet another basement flood at the time of this photo.  We also keep the girls' towels in one of their closets.

3. Everything Else

Just like with the meds, I took out each item on the bottom 3 shelves and the top shelf and either placed them in a like pile, threw them away, or put them in the Goodwill pile.

Next I found a place on the shelves for the items and put them back in the closet.  Seeing where the items will go and how much of each thing I have will help me figure out what type of storage container I need to get:

4. Everything Needs a Home

Ah yes, the fun part... storage!  I have to say that I'm pretty sure one of the reasons I decided to organize the hallway closet was to have an excuse to buy storage containers.  Here is a list of what got a home and where I bought the tubs and baskets:

• medications - The Dollar Store 
• light bulbs - Hobby Lobby
• cleaning supplies - Hobby Lobby
• linens - Target
• odds and ends - Target
• thermal devices (yes, we have a whole basket full of things to keep our muscles and ourselves warm!) - Target

I also bought shelf dividers to keep the items that don't go in tubs or baskets separated, but when I started to put them on the shelves, they scraped the shelf liner (see #5 below) and I ended up with holes in that shelf liner that I had already wrestled to put on, so I ended up only using them for the top shelf:

5. Line the Sheves

I've never lined shelves before, but one of my favorite daily blogs, iheartorganizing, always emphasizes how the added touch of shelf lining can just brighten up an area and make you feel good when you see it, so I decided to give it a try.  I had a love/hate relationship with that shelf liner and it was partly due to the uneven shelves that are in that closet, but in the end I think it added a nice finishing touch.

After looking at lots of shelf liner online, I ended up getting this adhesive shelf line/contact paper at Target.

6. Label It

I'm not a big labeler, but I knew that if this closet didn't get labeled, then nothing would get put back in its place and I'd be writing another blog post in a few months about my re-organization of the hallway closet.  It turns out, though, that I had a blast labeling.  I labeled in 2 ways:

The first way was to use mini clothes pins to attach labels to the medication, thermal devices, and odds & ends tubs.  To make the clothes pins pretty, I had originally planned to use washi tape, but then I came across the new patterned duct tapes and I really liked some of the patterns, so I went with duct tape to cover the clothes pins.  

Then I wrote the labels on business card paper that we've had forever, glued those cards onto pretty scrapbooking paper and tada...

The other way I labeled was to label the items that sit directly on the shelves.  I decided to buy chalkboard labels and a chalkboard pen to make the labels with.  They turned out pretty cute and Nick actually thanked me for labeling everything so that he now knows where to put things back and what is what (he could never figure out which towels were rags and which ones were the nicer towels).

It took me the whole month of March, but it is ALL done! 

BEFORE

AFTER

As I added that last picture, I noticed the tube of toothpaste that a certain 2 year old must have added to the closet as I was doing the finishing touches - that little sneaker!

It feels so good to have that space organized.  I keep opening up the closet and admiring the calmness of it!

Office Update

Waaay back in November, I wrote a post about how I wanted to organized an area in our downstairs.  It functions as a kind of everything space and it was a disaster!  If you want to read that post, click here.

Well, it's finished - almost!  There are a few little details to be taken care of - like labeling and filing, but the majority of the work has been done.  All I have to say is thank goodness for the playroom because just about every evening for the past few weeks Nick and I have taken the girls downstairs and they have been keeping busy playing (for the most part!) while we have been organizing away.

We got the IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit and I love it!  It has just enough room to fit everything, but is small enough to force me to purge, and purge we did!  We donated, recycled, and threw away at least half of what was on the large and small bookshelves and the contents of our files.  I also moved some things around and got rid of a few pieces of furniture.

Are you ready to see what it looks like?  Here you go...

before:

after:

You'll notice there is no desk and that is because we decided that we really don't need one.  We both have desks at work, and TRY to keep our work at work.  My laptop and Nick's ipad go with us everywhere around the house so we didn't feel like we needed a place to keep them. If we need table space, we either use the dining room table or the kitchen counter.

Want another look?  Check it out...

before:

after:

I turned the back corner into a sort of bar area and since that is kind of Nick's domain, I added his replica high school helmet to give the corner a Nick feel.

Here's one more before and after...

before:

after:

Did you notice how the Keurig was on the wine fridge before?  I moved the utility cart to where the wine fridge is and made a coffee area. We keep the Keurig downstairs because we don't use it that often and it takes up too much space on the kitchen counter, but at least now there is room to make a cup of coffee when it does get used and to top it all off, there is room on the utility cart for when I need a little desk space.

Well, what do you think?  I'm loving it!  In a future post I'll explain how I organized all of the stuff we didn't purge so that I can find and file things easier, but here's a sneak peek at how I have decided to organize all the pens, notepads, paperclips, etc.

P.S. I just have to add this disgusting picture because look what I found making a home in the corner behind one of the shelves...

Yuck!!

My Purse

When I first had 2 year old B,  I don't think I ever left the house without her... and therefore never left the house without the big diaper bag.  There came a point in time, though, that I started venturing out without the little baby in tow and found myself throwing this light and pretty thing that I hadn't seen in months over my shoulder.  It's called a purse!!  Then at some point I discovered I didn't need the diaper bag and could just throw a few diapers and a wipes case into my purse when out and about with the little one.  But that was short lived because not too long after I put the diaper bag away, baby M arrived.

Here I am again, at the in between point of switching between diaper bag and purse on a regular basis.  I have 4 things that I always take with me when out of the house: my wallet, my cell phone, the car keys, and Chapstick (because I'm addicted).  When 2 year old B was a baby, I was always throwing these things in the diaper bag, losing them, digging around to find them, and then throwing them into my purse... and then repeat when I needed to use the diaper bag.  Then I discovered a brand of mainly baby accessories called petunia pickle bottom and fell in love!!  They have the prettiest prints for any baby and travel organizational needs.  They are way out of my price range, but, on one of those daily deals websites, I was able to purchase a Powder Room Case similar to this one:

It solved my purse/diaper bag switching issue perfectly.  I put my "always take with me" items in the case...

... and then I just move the case from diaper bag to purse as needed.  See:

This little system doesn't have to be used solely for diaper bag to purse switches, it can even be used for purse to purse change ups too... as long as you have a large enough purse!  The next purchase I would love to get from petunia pickle bottom is the Wanderlust Wallet.

I can't justify spending $62 on a wallet though, but I'm keeping my eyes out for a deal!!

In case you are wondering, I do own just one other petunia pickle bottom item.  I needed an Ergo carrier when baby M arrived so I went with a petunia pickle bottom one.  It was actually only a little bit more than the regular Ergo carrier, but so much prettier!  Here is the one I have:

How do you make the switch from diaper bag to purse?  Or purse to purse?  Is it a free for all where everything just gets thrown in, or do you have a way to keep it all organized?  I'd love to hear!!