Organization — Laundry Room

Technically it might be a reorganization since we've lived here ten months now, but if I never actually organized it in the first place and it just sort of happened, am I really reorganizing it, or just finally organizing it? Rhetorical...no need to answer.

You might remember I mentioned in my Pantry Overhaul post that when I work in one area it usually ends up affecting another area as well. This one was no exception and ended up causing changes to happen in the front coat closet.

There is a door that separates the laundry room and the walk-in closet from the rest of the house. This is the back side of it that I showed you when I did the pantry post, totally unrelated to the pantry and obviously the items that got organized as a bonus.

On the wall to the right I have a utility sink, my washer, and my dryer. I am standing with my back to a window and to my immediate left is an open doorway to a large walk-in closet. You also would have seen this in my pantry reorganization post. I was using the tops of the shelving, and you'll notice that at the very bottom of the picture that we had coats hanging on this side of the 'L.'

I've always used the other side of the closet to hang up the clothes when they come out of the dryer before they get taken upstairs. My coats and Hubby's coats hung in this closet, and the kids' coats and jackets hung in the front coat closet.

To make this makeover work, I had to move our coats out of this closet. I decided that our coats would now hang in the front coat closet and the kids could keep theirs in their closets.

I moved one of our adjustable-height tables in from the garage and kept it at the lowest setting. I hung all of the extra hangers up on the now-empty rod.

I have desperately been needing a folding surface. You know why? Because laundry baskets are a really bad idea in most cases. Until we were in the apartment here in Michigan (waiting for our house to get finished) I hadn't had a laundry basket for probably 8-10 years. My laundry areas were in the hall central to the rest of the house, and in Virginia it was in the kitchen. I had to fold and put away immediately. Now I need the large laundry baskets just to move the laundry to the second floor.

The problem was that I would throw all the towels, underwear, and socks in there and then not fold them for a long time. They would sit in my bedroom floor waiting. I needed to fold everything as soon as it came out of the dryer. I also needed to sort it downstairs rather than have piles all over my bedroom waiting to be sorted out for all the kids.

Tonight I didn't have much to fold, but I'll show you how it's going to work since I've done a few of these things before. Here I had folded all the towels except for the load that wasn't done in the dryer. In the interest of not causing life-long embarrassment to my kids, I waited to fold their underwear and socks until I took the picture.

After I have folded everything into stacks on the table, I'll put the kids' things into their own Sterilite basket. Even when I didn't have laundry baskets I used to do this at the dryer, but for some reason I haven't been here. I need to find a basket of some kind around the house that I'm not using to keep here for the lonely socks until their mates show up.

When I'm folding and I don't need the baskets over at the table yet I'll keep them stacked over on the dryer. I tidied it up so they'll fit nicely.

That clear basket holds my mesh laundry bags for delicates.

I've been mulling different ideas around in my head for a while, so I definitely think this will work for me. I'm pleased with the outcome. I know I'll be glad not to have laundry piled up in my bedroom, clean or not.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!