Laundry Room Problem - Solved!

Let me start this post by saying - Don't get me wrong. I love my laundry room. Love it. It is one of the reasons I wanted this house three years ago. It is very big and spacious, right off the kitchen, with a bright cheery window, a nice tile floor, and the best part... the cabinet custom-built specifically to hold laundry baskets. Six baskets, to be precise, and the nice big countertop that goes over the cabinet is wonderful. As soon as I saw this organizer's dream cabinet, I knew that the laundry room was one of the best rooms in this house, hands down.


However, this laundry room comes with a special set of problems. With the addition of Katie Anne and her laundry, these problems have only multiplied.

Problem #1: No place to hang clothes after they come out of the dryer, which means they hang in doorways while waiting to be put away.
Problem #2: What comes along with no place to hang clothes? No place for hangers. Hanging them on the edge of the baskets KILLS me.

Problem #3: No storage. All my laundry stuff sits on top of the countertop... along with dog stuff, sunscreen and bug spray for quick out-the-deck-door jaunts, and other miscellaneous items. So, I can't even use the countertop for the intended purpose of folding or ironing clothes.

This week, I've reached another storage crossroads... the kitchen cabinets have reached mass capacity. My recent Pampered Chef purchases have pushed them over the edge, and we've got spillage of kitchen products onto the counter, which again KILLS me. As I tried in vain to reorganize the kitchen cabinets last week, I realized that my cabinets are filled with many items that are only used very rarely, like holiday plates, party chip-and-dip sets, and random appliances like an air popcorn machine. These are not things I want to get rid of because I do use them from time to time, but they definitely don't need to be at arm's reach at a moment's notice.

So, I thought in the words of Vanilla Ice, "If there was a problem - Yo, I'll solve it. Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it." In this case, the hook was ...
Shelving in the laundry room! In an ideal world, this would be closed cabinets to hide the unsavory storage of random items. However, Closetmaid shelving was about $125 for the whole she-bang, and that wouldn't buy one closed cabinet. So, Closetmaid works just fine! Also, I kind of have a fear of bugs like spiders hiding in the back of infrequently-used closed cabinets, and I don't have to worry about that with the wire shelving.

Last weekend, Saunders and I measured and bought all the goodies for the project. But, then Saunders had to go out of town for a few days for a Leadership Bartow retreat, and I not only had to face all the laundry room problems but also the problem of my dining room table being covered with Home Depot bags full of Closetmaid parts and giant wire shelving laying all over the basement floor - waaaah! So, my dad came over and helped me install the shelving - well, mostly he did it and I was a helper. Part time. The other part of the time, I was shopping with my mom. Thanks, Dad! :)

It looks super! I haven't got it set up the way I want it yet... we've had a busy weekend so far with shopping this morning, Saunders coming back in from Athens this afternoon, and then the two of us going to a wedding reception tonight. But, I have big dreams for making space in the kitchen cabinets and returning to the world of beautiful, organized, laundry room bliss! Hooray!