Spring Cleaning: Laundry Room

The last room we are going to organize in this series is the laundry room.  I organized and redecorated my laundry room at the end of last year, so I am not going to have any before pictures unfortunately.   

There are so many great organizational items for the laundry room these days.  I'm going to show you a few of my favorites.

The white accordion clothes hanger you can get at Bed, Bath and Beyond or the Container Store.  I love that it folds flat against the wall when I'm not using it.  I hand alot of Brian's cycling clothes I don't want to dry in the dryer.  The coat hook I use for items that need to be repaired or ironed. Tip 1: Use your wall space.



The ironing board and iron wall organizer I have had for years.  It's great, except I had to buy a new iron and my new iron is too big for the holder.  :(  I also have a space under the sink where I can store things if need be.  I added the skirt (a table cloth from Target) to add some color and hide anything I wanted to put underneath it.

This cart fits perfectly in between my washer and dryer.  I love it.  You can find it at Bed, Bath and Beyond as well.  It's on wheels so it's easy to move.  Once again you can see my love for glass containers.  I have all of my soap in see through containers so I know when I am running low. Tip 2: Put all of your detergent and other cleaning supplies in glass or plastic containers.

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One last tip and it's an important one.  Make sure you clean out your lint trap every time you
dry a load of clothes.  Once a year I pull the dryer out and clean the hose out at the back of the dryer.  If you never clean it out, you are at risk of a fire starting.  I've been thinking about getting a Lint Lizard to help me with this task.  Do any of you own one of these?  If you do, please let me know how you like it.  It's also available at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I believe a laundry room can be pretty and functional.  Let's face it, you spend alot of time washing clothes, you might as well enjoy it.

You have one more day to enter to win the Simple Human automatic soap dispenser.

Don't forget to check out Broccoli Cupcake's blog for her homemade detergents and other green solutions for the laundry room.

Laundry Room Reveal

I'm so glad I told y'all I would reveal my laundry room makeover this week because it forced me to get it done.  I love how it turned out.  Ok, so you are probably thinking, "Why would she spend money fixing up her laundry room?"  That is a great question.  We were kind of forced into it really.  We had a leak upstairs in the girls bathroom and it caused water damage into the laundry room right below it.  These are the only before pictures I have.  Sorry.  

I should back up a bit.  4 years ago when we moved into our house we painted it a teal color.  I was going to add a cute border, if there is such a thing, after we painted, thus the reason why I didn't do cut in work at the top.  Well, 4 years later, the border was never added to the walls and I hated the color.  When we had to have the drywall replaced, I decided it was a great time to change the color.

I started off by painting the walls Cumulus Cloud by Martha Stewart.  I love it.  It's the perfect shade of grey.

Then I replaced the unattractive light fixture to the one you see above from Ikea. 

It was a steal at only $29.99.  I love the feel it lends to the room.  Thank you dad for hanging it. 

The safety pins I purchased from Ballard Design.  They were 3 for $35 and I just think they are so cute.   The accordion drying rack I already had.  I bought it from The Container Store years ago.  The wall hook I also had.  It's from Ikea.

I had to find a way of hiding the ugly hose box you see in the first picture above.  I got lucky that the towel I had, which I bought on sale, online, at Pottery Barn last Christmas for $5, was wide enough to cover it.  The towel bar is from Target and was $12.99. 

The wooden stool was $14.99 Ikea.  I will probably end up painting someday.  I'm dying to try out the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I picked up a month or so ago.  The runner is from Costco and was $9.99.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but it's grey with creme pinstripes.  The basket in the corner was my huge score from Christmas last year.  It came in a set of 3 from Wisteria for $12.99.  Unfortunately, they no longer carry them.

The ironing board cover I got from Home Goods for $9.99.  The iron board rack I bought a long time ago from Bed Bath and Beyond.  Unfortunately, I got a new iron and the iron is too big to fit into the holder.  Not sure what I'm gonna do about that yet.  I hated the look of the utility sink so I bought a table cloth from Target for $16.99 and turned it into a skirt for the sink.  I simply sewed (who am I kidding, I had my dry cleaner do it for $10)Velcro on to the fabric and stuck it on.  Easy peasy.  It also gives me another place to hide extra detergent and other supplies.

I wanted to keep an open feel and not hang any cabinets on the wall, but need a little bit of storage to keep all of my supplies.  I found this laundry cart at Bed Bath and Beyond.  With a coupon I think it was under $35.  It fits perfectly between my washer and dryer.  I've talked about this on my blog before, but I love glass containers.  I'm a little obsessed with them actually.  You should see my pantry.  They are not only beautiful, but practical as well.  I know exactly how much I have in each jar so I never run out.

Well, there you have it.  I hope you enjoyed the tour of my laundry room.  I can tell you that I no longer dread doing the laundry.  In case you were wondering about the price tag for this makeover, I did the whole project for around $250 including all the accessories. 

Not everyone is going to have an extra $250 laying around to spend in their laundry room.  I have some easy and inexpensive ways you can add some beauty to your room. 

1.  Add some photos. It's much harder to complain about doing laundry when you're staring at the people that mean the most to you.   

2. Add a little color.  A gallon of paint is cheap and it's the easiest way to transform a room.  I couldn't believe how much bigger the laundry room felt once I lightened it up.   

3. Add some pretty baskets and glass containers to keep your supplies in.  Ball jars are inexpensive and you can find them anywhere.  You may even have some lying around your house.

I'd love to hear what ya think.  Drop me a comment and you could win a burlap bag like the one hanging on the hook above.  I'll be picking a winner on Monday.  Good Luck!