Clutter Crushing ~ The Laundry Room

With eight children, you can imagine that laundry is a big deal around our house. I have been planning a Clutter Crushing makeover for a while now and am so excited to call this room complete.

Let's start with a BEFORE picture...

     As with the other rooms in the house, the laundry room had obviously gotten out of hand.  Now to be fair, part of the reason for the multitude of bags on the floor was that our dryer was not working properly and our laundry pile had been backing up.  But other than that, there were several issues of organization and function that needed to be worked through.

1.  I desperately needed a system of washing, drying, and folding that could easily be maintained even by my oldest children who trade out the chore of helping with the laundry.

2. I needed organization to rid the clutter!  The laundry room had become a catch-all for many items that didn't have a place, but certainly didn't belong in the laundry room.

3.  I wanted the space to be pretty and inviting.  After all, maybe that would motivate me to want to be in there more often.... I said **maybe**!

    Thanks to some awesome friends, we got our dryer up and working again and got caught up with our laundry.  In the meantime, I painted and Chad hung up extra shelving. A few fun bins and we had accomplished our task!

     These are the pics I took as soon as we loaded the bins onto the shelf, but before the laundry room was back in full-swing mode of operation.  You can see that the extra shelving has added a ton of storage space.  Previously, that was all just wasted space.

     I love the fun blue and green, but am even more excited about the function of the new laundry system thanks to all of those wonderful bins.  Each of the five larger bins are used as soon as the laundry is dry.  I can pull an item out of the dryer and immediately fold it and place it in the correct bin.  There is one for each bedroom in the house (master, boys' room, girls' room, nursery) and one to be taken to the linen closet. 

     Each bin has a small mesh bag for undies and other small items that are hard to fold.  Once a day the kids are responsible for getting their bins from the laundry room, taking them to their rooms and putting their clothes away, then bringing the empty bins back.  So far this system is working beautifully!

     Previously, we only had one dirty clothes hamper and that was clearly not enough!  Also, I wanted a system of dividing the clothes into lights, darks, and towels to make it easier for my laundry helpers to throw the appropriate clothing in the wash.  So we purchased three new hampers.  (You can see the third in picture above.)

Finally, we are using these bins as our "sock baskets".  I'm not sure that all families can fully understand the craziness of matching socks for 10 people.  I try to simplify this task by only purchasing white socks for the kids.  The goal is for each child to leave the house wearing a pair of socks that sort of match and sort of fit.  I don't have the time or the brain power to figure out which socks belong to each child.  Instead, I now have two sock baskets that hold our "matched socks" and one that holds "unmatched socks".  If they need a pair, they just grab them from the laundry room.

Once the organization and function was complete, I wanted to turn my focus toward a little decorating.  I searched Pinterest and Etsy for inspiration.  I found several fun canvas photos that I liked, but didn't have the funds to spend $20-40 a piece for them.  So, I just made my own.

 

     I was pleasantly surprised at the easiness of this project!  I found some free clipart online (the laundry pins and the baskets) and used my digital scrapbooking program to create these four 8x10 prints.  I sent them to a one-hour printing shop since our printer is out of ink which cost me a little less than $10.  I had four unused 11x14 canvases that I had purchased several months ago (2 for $6) and painted them brown.  I glued the prints to the center and applied a coat of mod-podge over each canvas.

     SO thrilled with the results!  These prints were exactly what I wanted and I got them for a fraction of the cost by making them myself!

     We've been using our new laundry room for a little over a week now and it's still staying clean, organized, and functional!

Check out my other Clutter Crushing makeovers:
The Medicine Cabinet
Under the Bathroom Sink
The Pantry
The Linen Closet
The Shoe Closet 

*Update*

Several people have been asking if I could share the images I created for my laundry room decor. I am posting them below. Feel free to right click and save the images to your computer. Please use them for personal use only. You may not sell my images. I hope this is helpful to you.

 
  Pin It Now!

Clutter Crushing ~ The Shoe Closet

     Once upon a time there was a Mama with many children. Early in the morning they would all rise to begin their day. Inevitably, at some point, the mama and her children would need to run an errand.

     "Load up into the van!" Mama's voice would ring throughout the house.

      A chorus of replies would quickly follow from her many children...

      "I can't find my shoes!" 
      
       "Mom, where are my shoes?" 

      "Can I just wear one shoe?"
 
      An hour later they would all load into the van. Some had shoes. Some did not.

     But Mama had a solution. There was a coat closet right next to the front door and Mama instituted a punishable-by-death-if-not-followed rule: When entering the house all children must immediately remove shoes and place them in the shoe closet.

     For the most part this worked, but there was still a problem.  Did I mention that this Mama had many children?

     You maybe couldn't tell by looking at the coats hanging in the coat closet.

     But that was only because Mama's many children couldn't manage to keep their many coats hung up and they were all thrown on top of the many, many shoes that piled up at the bottom of the closet.  This meant that when Mama yelled, "It's time to load up into the van!"

     She still heard...

       "I can't find my shoes!" 
      
       "Mom, where are my shoes?" 

      "Can I just wear one shoe?"

     Surely a solution could be found.  With the help of a brave knight named Daddy, Mama searched high and low and found a shelving system meant for garage storage.  The knight and his squires quickly put it together and within the hour all was well in the kingdom again...

   

     And they all lived happily ever after!

  Pin It Now!

Clutter Crushing ~ The Linen Closet

This post has moved. I'm sorry about the inconvenience. You can find the post at the following link:

Clutter Crushing the Linen Closet

  Pin It Now!

Clutter Crushing ~ The Pantry

    First, it was the medicine cabinet. Then came the organization of under the bathroom sink. But I think we saved the best clutter crushing makeover of the weekend for last. 

     Yep, that's our pantry.  I'm sure you think this picture is staged to look purposely bad, right?  Nope.  That's really how bad it had gotten.  Take it in in all its disorganized glory.

     Now, are ready for this?!  Drumroll, please...

     Oh, yes, I did go back to the Dollar Store!  And Chad thought I was surely losing my mind while purchasing all those dollar bins.  Not now!

     Oh, it is just so lovely!

     I have to say, I really had no plan before starting.  If you are going to attempt something similar, I would suggest just going to the Dollar Store, seeing what storage solutions they have, and buy more than you think you'll need.

     These are pencil holders from the Dollar store.  Perfect for spices!

     The shelving system sitting on the floor there (with the bread) is actually a shoe rack.  It fit well and gives us more shelf space.  I purposely chose round baskets for the corner space and large baskets for the top shelf and floor.

     I certainly had a few "take a deep breath" moments during this organization process.  Seeing the entire contents of my pantry dumped on my kitchen floor was overwhelming to say the least.  But the finished product was sooooo worth the stress ...and the $35 in bins.

     I'm off to go do a happy dance in front of my pantry again!
Pin It Now!

Clutter Crushing ~ Under the Bathroom Sink

After clutter crushing the medicine cabinet it was time to move on to bigger and badder things...under the bathroom sink.  Now please remember that I clearly told you before that clutter and chaos has been slowly taking over my life.  I'm very aware that you are going to be utterly appalled that I have been living this way once you see the pics.  Have mercy on me please.

Seriously, I'm pregnant with my ninth child.

I homeschool all of them.

I'm training for my second half-marathon.

The clutter and chaos *generally* stay behind closed doors.

Okay, enough excuses.  Let's get on with the photos...

Obviously I was in need of serious help.  Dollar Store help, that is.  I went to the store ready to purchase a ton of containers in all shape and sizes.  I just sort of bought 3 of every container they had, came home, sorted, discarded, stacked and moved around.  And about 2 hours later...

Don't get me started on the fact that the containers on the right are lopsided.  We have totally sub-par cabinetry in this house.  I'll just say this...if your builder ever claims that his drywall guy has "just started a side business doing cabinets" and he thinks it would be "a great idea" to let him do yours, tell him to go jump in a creek practice his new found cabinet making skills on someone else' house.

As for the organization, let's take a close-up look...

This is the left side of the cabinet.  I did label my containers, but most of them are labeled on the top so its hard to see from this view.  Here's the break-down...

1. Small Cologne bottles.
2. There are two shoebox sized containers.  The one on the bottom holds clippers and supplies for cutting boys' hair.  The one on the top holds all of the girls nail polish supplies.
3.  I bought 3 of these small containers and stacked them.  From top to bottom they contain cotton swabs, razors, ointments.
4.  A few over sized bottles of lotions and facial cleansers fit nicely in a round basket.
5.  A large open basket for my spray bottle, curling iron, flat iron, and big bottles of bubble bath and mouth wash.
6.  2 small open containers hold tweezers/nail clippers/manicure scissors and misc. sample size lotions.

The right side of the cabinet.

7. Make-up.
8. Hand and Face lotions.
9. Head bands and Hair supplies.
10. I got 3 tiers of these stacking containers and wished that I had gotten more.  We'll just call the top tier 'girly stuff', okay?
11. Soap.
12. Perfumes that were too big for a container slip into the large wire basket.
13. Mostly misc. baby products.

Now, if you thought I was done you'd be sorely mistaken.  Not only did I have the cabinets under the sink to deal with, but also two deep drawers...

The top drawer held a hodge podge of stuff...mostly things that needed to be thrown away.  So once I cleared it away...

1. Deodorants.
2. Hubby's razor.
3. Toothpaste and floss.
4. I had a space to clear the glass jar off my counter top that holds tooth brushes.
5. Hair bands and clips that we use practically every day.

The bottom drawer was a mess of cords and hair things.  Much of this I stored away containers in the cabinet.

...so now my drawer is looking nice and roomy.

1. Hair dryer.
2. Tall basket holds hair brush and hair products.  

I admit, I am rather pleased with this accomplishment.  Unfortunately there is no time for patting myself on the back.  I've got more clutter to tackle and the weekend is a-wasting away.
  Pin It Now!

Clutter Crushing ~ The Medicine Cabinet

**This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase while using this link.** 

Recently I pinned this and promised myself I would do it.  You see, I had a problem...a very messy problem...  

 That is the chaos of my medicine cabinet.  This cabinet is located in my kitchen (high up, to reduce the chance of a small child ever rummaging through it, you know.)  It was a sincere mess.  I honestly have organized it before, but I am one lone traveler in my home.  One lone traveler trying to fight against the clutter and disorganization and I am competing against NINE other messy travelers who collect clutter and see no value in the organized life.

THIS WEEKEND IT ALL CHANGES.

I am attacking several areas of the home that have become seriously and overwhelmingly cluttered and chaotic.  And I'll be sharing my journey and progress with you.  It starts with the medicine cabinet...

 As the pin indicated, I needed to purchase this Pull-Down Spice Rack from Rubbermaid.  But when I looked for it on Amazon it was $25.  Now, I thought this was a somewhat hefty price tag, but I was willing to make the purchase to organize my cabinet when I felt like we had $25 in the budget to do so.  However, yesterday I took a trip to Lowes Home Improvement Store to pick up a few items I needed for a weekend project and wouldn't you just know it?...right there on the shelf was my spice rack...the last one and only $16 and some change.  I snatched that baby right up.

A quick install and about 20 minutes of sorting, throwing away, and putting back in...

 Oh, the beauty of organization!

Ooh-la-la! So fancy!!

Woe to the traveler who dares to haphazardly place a vitamin bottle in my cabinet again.

Stay tuned for more clutter-fighting and room makeovers to come!

Pin It Now!