I'm back from Ireland and it was a beautiful, miraculously sunny vacation. I returned with my jury duty responsibilities lingering in the following week. I'm glad jury duty is over and I'm ready to fulfill the wishes of my blog readers....see how the "Professional Organizer Lives" or should I say "Behind Closed Doors of a P.O.". I wish I could link in some dramatic music or a drum roll...or not, it's not that exciting!
I'll start with the laundry room. Laundry rooms always seem to be the catch all for whatever no one wants to deal with, especially if it's located on the main floor and as an exit to the garage. Fortunately, my laundry room is upstairs, so it dodges many forms of clutter.
It's always nice to have some place to hang your wet clothes or items you can hang dry. I like this shelf because it is off the floor. It's placed high so it doesn't impede standing in the laundry room.
I purchased this bucket at Target years ago. It was cute and I dreamed of filling it with ice and soda at an outdoor picnic. But it ended up being used as a cute basket to put the every day little laundry items in i.e., dish towels, hand towels, dog towels, etc... This was a necessity when my laundry room was on the ground floor, entrance from the garage and a hallway to the bonus room. It's nice to "hide" the laundry when you need to.
I keep all of my bathroom and general cleaning items under the laundry room sink. I put the cleaning items in a caddy so it's easy for my kids to grab and go clean the bathrooms. I also have a bin to hold the larger "rag" towels used for the dog and big clean ups.
I saw these cute clear paint can containers at Ben Franklin's the other day. I like them because they're clear, lightweight and handy to pick up and go. I purchased some letter stickers and labeled the containers. The containers come in gallon size and quart size. They'd be great for a gift bag too. (Home Depot sells them in aluminum, to put extra paint in or you can be creative!)
If you are able to install cabinets or shelves in your laundry room it helps to add extra storage over your washer and dryer. I have additional supplies in these cupboards. (Love the Restoration Hardware Vacuum BB's. It makes your vacuuming experience yummy!)
I use the laundry room cabinets to store extra paper goods, small cleaning rags, my poor old fish bowl that may be used in the future. (I know, some of you are shocked to think I saved something for the "future". I lost my 5 year old blue beta "Steve" a few months ago and I'd like to buy another little guy to greet me at my work desk, so I have plans for the bowl.)
The cabinet with all the fun, goopy stuff in it like the laundry soap. I usually have the laundry soap and softener turned with the spout down, however, I'm using them in my weight training program, lifting them out to the laundry soap dispenser. Ha! I've containerized items that my children and my husband are always asking about, "Batteries", "Candles", that's in case we have a power outage, and other items that we use frequently. I've stored extra dish towels and bath rugs up on the top shelf. Use the top shelves for infrequent storage. (Side note: Bin labeled "felt" is the small felt pads for furniture legs, etc.... thanks, Julie, crafty friend, who I'm sure has a huge bin of felt) ***************************************************************************
Good time to bring up labeling.........
When you label an item, it's best to use the first word that comes to your mind, or the name that it's known by those who use that item. As in the "felt" label. When I mention "felt" in my house, me not being a real crafty person, my kids and husband know it's the felt with the sticky bottom to place on the furniture that sits on the wood floors. Labels are what they are, labels, to tell you what is in the container for easy locating. So make it easy on yourself, don't worry about using fancy verbage like Martha Steward does.
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You may be wondering where all the dirty laundry is. Each of our bedrooms have laundry baskets and that helps avoid the "laundry pile up". The children have an assigned day to sort their laundry and bring it to the laundry room for their laundress to take care of. (that laundress would be me!)
