This week we are focusing on the laundry room. Is your laundry room a catch all place? Would you like to get your cleaners organized? Spend the next few days cleaning out your laundry room, dust bunnies and all, following my tips below.
THE LAUNDRY ROOM
This week we are headed into the laundry room. For some of you this may be an easy challenge, but for others it will be difficult to complete… with the mountains of laundry that are in your way. This week, I challenge you to clean your laundry room from top to bottom, finish all of the laundry, and organize it for functionality.
THE PROCESS
*Below is an example of how you can get your laundry room to work for you. Make sure to do what works best for your family and space.
1. Take a picture of your space before you start.
2. Empty out the ENTIRE laundry room. Everything but the washer and dryer must go. Throw away empty detergent bottles, trash, donate unwanted or un-needed items and put things away.
3. Clean – Pull out the washer/dryer and vacuum behind it. Mop the floors. Wipe down the outside of the washer and dryer. If you have time, clean out the washer. (There are many websites that give directions on how to do this). Wipe down all shelving, etc…
4. Once its all clean, you are ready for the fun part! Its time to organize! Make sure to “containerize” your categories… Some examples of categories may be:
Laundry soaps
Stain remover tools
Cleaning cloths
Pet items
Cleaners (see below)
Fabric softeners
*Place each category into separate bins.
5. Create a cleaning caddy by using a basket, bin or caddy. Place all necessary cleaners in this. I keep mine on top of the washer and dryer. I do not place anything else on here… It can get messy fast! I try to keep it clean and dusted.
6. Finally, you can decorate your laundry room to make it more inviting (like laundry is supposed to be inviting)… so you will “want” to do laundry. It’s all in our heads, right?
7. Now get busy and start washing your piles of laundry! You will want it all finished so you can take a pretty picture to share with us.
Wash, Dry, Fold, Repeat!
MY LAUNDRY ROOM
Our laundry room is small & there are no windows in it. So I tried using pops of color to brighten it up a bit. Its on the second floor of our home, near the master suite. Mostly, this room functions: to store our cleaners (for the 2nd floor), all of the cat stuff, and do laundry!
I refer to my cleaning & repair books often. They are easily accessible here in the laundry room.
MY METHOD CADDY
I have a cleaning lady who comes to my house every Tuesday. Blogging takes up a LOT of my time and I dont want to have to worry about cleaning AND blogging. My home is almost 4,000 sq ft and takes a lot of energy to clean. I do light clean on a daily basis and she deep cleans once per week. (I am thankful to be able to afford such a luxury). I also have a cleaning caddy on my first floor. I will share my first floor “cleaning” closet with you soon.
MY SHAKLEE CADDY
This is my Shaklee caddy. It contains my Shaklee products, which I prefer to use since they are non toxic. I switch back and forth from Shaklee to Method often. I like both companies very well.
I try not to keep piles of laundry in my laundry room. We keep hamper baskets in the bathrooms and when they are full, which is usually within the week, I wash them. My laundry day is on Wednesdays. Sometimes I have to wash a load before then, but I try to stick with that schedule.
I purchased this rug in the kitchen section of Target.
I added a personal touch to my laundry room by hanging a family picture inside of a vintage frame.
I purchased the basket at target, the sign at Home Goods and the books at Amazon.
Cleaning Plain and Simple (here)
Dare to Repair (here)
I collect vintage aprons… I LOVE seeing them hang in here. I think it gives the laundry room character.
I keep my vacuum and mop behind the door (well hidden from the hallway).
I purchased this shelving system at target. The baskets are from the dollar store. I keep our things organized in them. I have a basket for:
Pet towels
Cleaning Cloths
Fabric softener
Cat litter items
Stain removers
Rags
I use Method & Shaklee laundry detergent. I switch out between the two on a weekly basis. It keeps our clothes smelling good!
I keep a grocery bag organizer in the laundry room. We use disposable bags in all of our bathrooms. You can purchase these organizers (here). I ordered 3 of them… one for the garage to clean out the car, one for pantry, and one for the laundry room. They are easy to hang with sticky backs.
The cat food goes into a tin that I purchased from Home Goods.
Keeping it real!!
We have two cats. 🙂 We use the pellet litter system by (Tidy Cats Breeze). It keeps the mess WAY down and its super easy to clean. All I have to do is just scoop the p** daily and change out the liner (in the drawer) once a week. The cat pee drains down into the liner. Its really a great system. I only have to change out the pellets every 6 weeks. This system averages out costing me about $3.00/week… and the best part of it – it doesn’t smell bad if you follow the directions! My cleaning lady loves it too! There is no mess.
My bins are Martha Stewart from Home Depot. I sell similar bins in my Amazon Store (here).
Happy Organizing!
Tags: home organization 101 season 3, laundry room, organization, organize
Blog, Home Organization 101 Season 3, June 2013, Laundry Room, Organize Posted in
12 comments
12 comments on “Home Organization 101 : Week 5 “The Laundry Room” (Season 3)”
Looks great, Toni. I especially like the splash of color in there. What a blessing to have a cleaning person!
I’m in for the challenge. Just moved to a new house and am ready to get organized. Thanks for the challenge. On your mark, get set, I’m off to the laundry room!
This week I accept your laundry room challenge. I also have an interior laundry room and envy those who have a window. Therefore, I hung a pretty 2 x 3 window mural purchased from a wallpaper store. Instead of open shelves for my products, I have the basic white upper kitchen cabinet over the washer and dryer. It makes for a neat appearance. You are wise to have help in order to pursue other productive tasks.
Love looking at your pictures and reading your thorough instructions! Makes me envious that you have such a beautiful laundry room!
However, living in earthquake country as I do, having all those cleaning bottles up high on shelves, or for that matter on the top of the washing machine itself, makes me nervous. Can you add reminders to your readers to fasten the shelves to the wall, and maybe to be sure to put heavy bottles and cans on lower shelves?!
Is the litter that you use dust free? I had such a big problem with that so I switched to all natural corn cob litter and its much better but I’m always looking to improve. You see, my laundry room is huge and the litter box is the only thing keeping me from making it my mom cave.
Yes. You can purchase the system Toni uses <HERE>
I’m wondering if anyone ever decants liquid laundry detergent and fabric softener into smaller containers? I love the look of smaller bottles/containers, but we buy our laundry “stuff” at Costco because the price can’t be beat and they make environmentally friendly high efficiency detergent. Would love some ideas!
I use drink dispensers ($10 each at walmart) for liquid detergents in our laundry room because the costco size bottles don’t fit in our laundry cupboard. The spout gets a little clumped up so about once a month I use a qtip to un-gunk it.
Great ideas for the laundry room!
LOVE the laundry room. Having that would be a dream come true. I unfortunately have a laundry closet, but I feel challenged to give it color and better storage solutions.
Your laundry room organization and your whole website is an answer to my prayers. I have been trying to streamline and organize my home after 20 years and three children later, it has become outdated and out of control. I have made some strides but I am paralyzed with organization products that look nice. I can clean out a room or closet like no other, but can’t seem to grasp the next step of what organization units to buy and make it look like a nice room. I did it with one closet which was easy because I bought 12 of the same beige/brown bins online and stuck all the categories in them and it looks beautiful…..but my laundry room is my most stressful area. We cannot afford to hire a professional organizer so I have been surfing and surfing online and I am going to try to do it myself using this article of yours.
Can I ask – what dimensions are your laundry room example used in this article?. Mine is very narrow which makes it even more difficult. Its 15ft long and only 44 inches wide from wall to washer/sink edge. A nightmare of a configuration. There is nowhere to widen it or add on to it either based on its placement in the house.
Thank you, Sandy
Love your blog I am in the process of organisiing and beautifying :)) . Where did you get the white canister on the top of your shelving tower? I have been looking all over for a enameled canister with the words laundry on them . They only seem to be available in the uk or Australia . Thanks!