My Laundry Room

It’s been a bit over a year since we moved into our new country home.  There are still some areas that need sorting through, and overall, I think everything needs a good going over now that I know how every area works.  That said, although this is not an official New Year’s resolution, I hope to take a room a week and do a thorough cleaning and any small organizational detailing.

I have always lived with the “lived in” idea as well as giving priority to my mothering responsibilities over my housekeeping responsibilities.   Here is a poem that hangs in my home that attests to this adage:

But as I’ve grown older, I tend to tolerate the “messy look” a bit less and actually have grown to appreciate a clean space.  Maybe the shift in mothering responsibilities as the children have grown has contributed to this?  Moving into a smaller living space area probably adds to this feeling.

The best space in my new house is most definitely the laundry room.  Let’s see, over the years I have experienced the following with laundry/spaces:  doing a laundry room in an apartment building (yuck!), doing a Laundromat (another yuck!), laundry in an unfinished basement (it just doesn’t feel nice, even if there is room), laundry in a closet (definitely doesn’t work effectively or efficiently with a large family), laundry in an entryway from the garage (also doesn’t work well space-wise), a laundry room with a laundry chute in the finished basement in its own room (loved the chute, not bad for comfort, but still needing to walk through children’s spaces that slept in the finished basement area and the room still wasn’t that big, though I was able to begin my first mini-sorting desire).

What makes my current laundry room the best ever?  Let me share my first picture first and tell what I love:

The very best thing I love is the window!  It brings in full sunlight and makes the whole room bright.  No flourescent lighting or dark and dim dungeons.  The next best thing is the laundry room is self-contained on the main floor in a logical location with ample space!  I was able to go out and purchase some perfectly suited laundry organizers enough to actually do the job with my large family.  I have from left to right:  blankets/sheets/type stuff, whites, towels, reds, warms, colds/durable, colds/gentle, jeans.  I have another black basket at the end for children to throw their things in who don’t know how to sort, or to hold other miscellaneous needs.  Talk about efficient and effective!  Love it, love it, love it!
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Now, to know that things don’t work out perfectly, or what will look nice, I’ll add the other picture and share some of my “go with what works” flexible strategies:

In the first picture, you will see some clothes stacked on the wire shelf above my laundry organizers.  Those are Eli’s clothes, and now Abbey’s clothes.  It used to be all of Eli’s clothes, and it was overflowing.  Now, if you look above, I cleaned out some of the plastic bins and put his shirts, pjs and underthings in three drawers.  I just left his pants on the shelf.  The reason for this is that he and two others sleep in the basement.  It is unfinished and has no bathroom.  So, when they get dressed, they do so in the bathroom next to the laundry room, thus, it makes no sense for him to take his clothes down in his room in a dresser just to have to haul it back up.  So, he would just not take his clothes down, and this continued.  So, my adage is, go with what is efficient.  I could make him be inconvenienced, but I just don’t usually work that way.  Now, Abbey is also in the basement (she let her big brother take her upstairs room with all the windows to help him in his battle with depression), and she takes most of her clothes down to her armoire because, well, she’s a girl and doesn’t like her stuff hanging around for all to see, I think, but she will periodically let some start piling up.  So, I moved that pile from on top of the dryer to this wire shelf as well now that Eli’s clothing is thinned out.

There are three more plastic bins that I use for the following:  one for the little boys’ socks, and two for their shoes.  Again, the boys’ bedrooms are upstairs and I can guarantee you that they will not go all the way upstairs to get these items before they would be willing to go outside, inside, outside, inside . . . well, you get the picture.  This way, it is all in one area, right near the side door they mainly use.  On top of the plastic bins and above them on the other wire shelf is where I put the towels to be used in the downstairs bathroom.  There is no linen closet in there, so this is right next to the bathroom, and this is where people are coming for their clothing anyway who use the bathroom, so there are the towels for convenience.  Further down that particular wire shelf will be all the usual laundry supplies of soap, bleach, dryer sheets, etc.

Back to the first picture you will notice two stacked buckets next to the laundry organizers.  The bottom one holds the large bag of dry catfood and the bags of rat food.  They had to be put in buckets because my (grown) kittens would rip into it otherwise.  The rats are in the outside garage, and this keeps the wild rats from getting into it if left out there (yeah, welcome to the country!).  The bin on top is there only during the cold weather as it holds all the mittens, gloves, hats, and scarves of all sizes, shapes, and colors to be used as needed.

And, last but not least, I had our family friend put in a new outlet in order to perfectly fit in our second fridge in this convenient space.  We couldn’t survive without one!  Well, we could, but it’s a nicety we enjoy.

So, there’s my laundry room; my best space in the house.  As I clean up/out additional spaces, I hope to share those with you in upcoming posts.