Is dirty laundry taking over your house too??????

If your house is anything like mine, it is currently hemorrhaging cotton!! Between the dirty laundry that is climbing my walls, out of season clothes, and linens/blankets that are haphazardly piled about and crammed in every corner- you are running out of room to walk! Might I add that it is driving me a little crazy?? Apparently though- I’m not alone.  My mom sent me a message yesterday with an idea for today’s post. She put in a request for storage and organization solution ideas. I am MORE than happy to oblige!

Starting in a room that I actually like in my house that I am starting to loathe. My laundry room!

I am going to be brutally honest and candid. These are ACTUAL photos of my laundry room….as is……very scary. It is so junky and full of clothes it makes my skin crawl. *shivers* I am not only posting pics of that dreaded black hole, I am going to use some of these ideas for myself! After shots to follow in a later post.

Day 1:

 

Project Laundry Room De-funk, Day 1

 

 

Look still a little floor left!

 

Now that I’ve aired my proverbial “dirty laundry”- I’m on a mission to fix it! Not all of the images below will work for my little room with plaster walls, but hopefully Mom can get some ideas out of it too!

Some ideas:

I do have that laundry sorter and for some reason never thought to put the rack on the top of it instead of under the bags! I wouldn’t be able to hang a heavier cabinet like that on my crumbly plaster walls. If I could, I would also mount a paper towel holder underneath the cabinets for the inevitable detergent spill.

For Mom- it could possibly be hung in your hallway leading to the laundry or on the wall behind the door where you are keeping the ironing board. Just get one of those over the door hooks to hang your ironing board on the back of the door.  Inside the cabinet you can keep some of your cleaners, soaps, and some extra linens. 🙂

Most of us don’t even see the opportunity for extra storage between the machines. These little racks are very inexpensive and are only 6 to 8 inches wide.

Now this is something I can actually do in my current space. If we do stay in this house, I am going to have someone build a table for folding clothes with shelves underneath for my front loading machines.  It’s just kinda pretty too, isn’t it?

One more fun little thing I want to do before moving on to other areas. I love wall appliqués! I am not sure of this font, but I definitely want this in my LR!

Next up: Bedroom Storage

Like almost all German/European houses, built in closets in the bedrooms are rare if not unheard of. One of the very few things I do not like about living here. While the military does supply us with “wardrobes” (which are not the most spacious and only have one shelf and one rack), There are still MANY clothing items that are hard to find homes for and you can FORGET about a place to store seasonal clothing.

This may not look like much, but picture it painted white with lined wicker baskets that hold your extra blankets and bed linens in the bedroom. Not too shabby eh?

Pick up some of these bed risers to make space under your bed for some pretty little wicker baskets(below) that coordinate with the ones in your ladder shelf.  You may have just partially solved the seasonal clothing and heavier blanket issues

Baskets are available from Ikea. Retails for $39. Dimensions are about 35X37 inches.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30039586

Now that pesky little LACK OF CLOSET situation…

Need I say more?? Curtain hiding the clothes and shelving, and storage for books and pretty things. The dead space above a door or even a window could be used for a built-in shelving unit that a bar is attached to the back of. If you extended it out far enough or added more shelving on the opposite end, you could even add shelves for more clothes and even shoes.

Hope this was at least a little helpful. I am planning to add some after photos on my laundry room as well as whatever I come up with for our bedroom!