Keeping it All Together – Room by Room
Previously in this series, we have talked about organizing the master bedroom and storage in your kitchen. Today, I want to discuss another area that is often ignored because it is usually behind closed doors – the laundry room. Now, I am not lucky enough to have one of those huge rooms with it’s own sink and area for drying rack, etc., but I do have a larger closet-like room that is in the hallway upstairs. Here is one before picture:
You can see the messy shelves – ack! I have lived with this clutter for years. I knew where everything was, but noone else did! Now, I did buy some baskets to help me organize, but you may be able to do this with containers you already have around the house. I just didn’t have anything available. Here is the after picture:
I sorted items by function and grouped like items together – lighbulbs, cleaning, home fragrance, medicines, etc. Now, I can just grab a basket and get out what I need. I also recommend a laundry sorter if you have the space for one. I have a 3-way sorter and everyone puts in their whites, darks and reds each evening. Once a section is full, then it’s time to do a load of laundry.
I do have a shelf next to the dryer for holding linens. As you can see, it is still a bit messy (you can see the sorter better now). I try to sort the sheets by size and our pool towels go on the bottom for easy access. The basket on top of the dryer is now neater and holds often-used items like laundry detergent, dusters, etc. I have moved some of those front door decor items down to the basement as well. But if you have any ideas how to make this area a bit neater, leave me a comment! I’m kinda stumped!
One suggestion for sheets would get them out of the laundry room. Have only two sets per bed in your house. Put the bottom and top and any extra pillowcases inside of a pillow case and tuck it between the mattress and box spring of the bed it belongs to. Each bed in your house should have a set on the bed and a set under the mattress. Problem solved!
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Molly responds: This is a great idea, although I really like having the sheets in the laundry room as it’s right next to the bedrooms. It may seem that we have a lot of sheets, but there are seasonal sets (cotton for hot months and flannel for the warmer months) for all of the beds. I also forgot to mention that I store my dining room linens here as well. The hallway that holds the laundry room is between the bedrooms and the dining room, so it’s very accessible to any room in our home.
But I do believe that your idea is a great one and may solve a problem for other readers – thanks so much!
I agree with Judi on limiting the bed sheets that you have. (If you wanted to, you could pack up extras to save in the garage or attic for when sheets wear out. That way you won’t feel like, “ugh… why did I get rid of those perfectly good sheets! Now I have to buy more.”)
I use a labeled canvas storage container in each room’s closet for extra sheets. I have 3 pair for some beds, and only 2 for others. Sheets for the pull out couch go in a canvas container in the linen closet.
Our pool towels and bath towels also go in the linen closet.
Love the suggestions on the sheets. I would hang the “door hangings” by a nail higher up on the wall. They are probably seasonal, so they don’t need to take up valuable space.
About sheets: my husband uses one of the pillow cases to put the sheet set into.
I was wondering if I had enough sheets because we only have two sets each for kids beds, 3 for ours, 3 for guest bed (1 are flannel since room gets chilly), & only 1 for hide-a-bed. But I guess we’re good!
Instead of a laundry sorter, I bought two hampers, one white (for whites), and one a different color (for colored clothes). Now it’s easy to see which clothes go where, and when there’s enough for a load. I hated the laundry sorter I tried, but love this new system.
I recently tackled the laundry area also! I got medium size baskets w/ holes in white and sorted the cleaning products by category-carpet stain remover; regular cleaning sprays; pre-stain etc. IMPORTANT!!! LABEL W/ A SHARPIE SO HUBBY AND KIDS NOW HAVE NO EXCUSE TO PUT BACK IN RIGHT SPOT!!! However,it is still a challenge-hummm:( I also got a pegboard(you could paint in any color) to hang-up all tools. I wish I had a seperate room also for ironing,even folding etc.
I like all the suggestions for the sheets so far.
I would put the sets into some pretty boxes, baskets, or some sort of containers. They need to be labeled according to which room, person, or size they are, however you want to group them. They need to look more orderly and you need to be able to go straight to the container that has the size you need without having to look through them.
Maybe for the linens, almost-clear storage bins?? I doubt you’d be able to stack them on the shelves though, they look narrow. What about those space bags?
I loved the ideas for the sheets. I will have to try the pillowcase thing but why not get a storage box to slide under the bed so the sheets to that room are in the room and under the bed. Great ideas ladies I will have to try them out
[...] and I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much to those that responded to the posts on decluttering my laundry room and managing a garden during a drought. You all had some great ideas for the laundry room area in [...]
Why not go vertical? Looks like you have wall room above the shelves. Adding more shelves would probably help you a great deal – you could put your out-of-season linens up higher. Or even get some sort of container/box to put on the top shelf.
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Molly responds: I should have mentioned in my post that the attic access is above these shelves, so I cannot add any more shelves or it will block the opening.
It looks to me like you could add a shelf (maybe even two) above the existing linen shelves for things that you may not be using as much. I use square laundry basket on the bottom shelves to sort as we go. When the basket is full that’s a full load.
Hi!
I starting packing sheets,towels,table clothes,flags and etc. for each holiday/season with those seasons.
We just put in some cabnets in the laundry closet. We got some on clearance. I haven’t tried it yet but I seen someone had made a table on top of the washer and dryer(for folding clothes).
Since we don’t have room in laundry for a sorter I put laundry baskets in bathroom closets.
If you put all single folds out it may make things look neater.
One environmental option to consider is to get rid of the big old energy hog of a dryer that can use anywhere from 6-10% of your household energy and simply replace it with a laundry drying rack.