2012: The Year I Got Organized

I'm beginning to scare myself.

I'm not an organized person by nature but I am not a slob either. I was never the type of child who had piles of dirty clothes and pizza crusts in my room. I made my bed and kept my room pretty clean but there was alot of visual clutter- dolls, papers, articles, my computer and, of course, school supplies.

My husband, however, was messy. He once cleaned his college apartment for me as a birthday present and it was a huge deal. Let's put it this way- I wasn't quite joking when I said I was afraid to use the bathroom because I might get some funky disease. Yeah, not good.

Now, as a parent, my house isn't clutter free. We have kid toys everywhere, Lego on the dining room table and a craft area with no place to really store said crafts.

(For a long time, this room was a catch all area, then it housed the train table and now it has our old kitchen table, my sewing desk and the dry sink. I would put up pictures but one day it will be a formal dining room and everything will look different. I try to keep it neat, as it is the first room you see when you come in, but, alas, it normally looks like this.)

With a clutter bug for a husband, four small kids who never put anything away or back or... anyway, you get the idea. A neat freak would lose their mind and someone who wants to be neater but isn't naturally 100 per cent so, would lose the battle.

Anyway, onto the laundry room.

I don't have any "before" pictures, sadly. Let's just say that this is a small room, with juuuust enough room for me to stand behind a laundry basket and pull out the wash. Then I would have to haul the basket out of the tiny room, though a maze in my kitchen to the living to fold it... where it would sit for all eternity.

We need space. I searched on Pinterest, several websites and got ideas from my friend Beth who is super-uber organized. I nixed the idea of waiting for cabniets to come in from a friend who does kitchen remodels (too long and too much of a pain to put up) and chose wire shelves instead.

Now, I have this:

The laundry room is off the half bath. You do need to shut the door to the laundry room when you use the bathroom or people on the sidewalk can see you! See how nice and SHINEY it is?!

Right above the washer and dryer. All this used to be on top of the machines and one box was on the floor. (My folding drying rack is between the machines.) Now I can fold laundry right on top of the washer and dryer! I can lay out sweaters to dry! Yay!

Opposite the machines. Now my vaccum cleaner has a space! It no longer has to live in the living room! It is out of sight! (Until I convince my husband that I need a Dyson. Then I might put it in the middle of the living room for people to admire.)

That hanging thing is from Amazon. My friend has one and I saw it in her laundry room. She found it on solutions.com but they no longer had it. For 20 dollars, I got it and had Adam hang it up. Now I can take his work clothes from the dryer and hang them up right away, without trying to balance them on door knobs, stacking them in the living room or having them get wrinkled. (THE HORRORS!) It also folds flat against the wall when not in use but, honestly, it doesn't take up much space at all when it is open.

The same wall as the vac. My mop! I have used a bucket and mop, Swiffer and Swiffer Wet Jet. This handy dandy Libman that I found at Target is the bestest one I have used. Like the Swiffer Wet Jet, you have a solution that sprays our of the mop head. However, there are NO BATTERIES to die just as you need to mop up a mess. You can fill that jug on the side with your own cleaning solution so you can use your homemade, organic,or chemical filled solution. I use water, vinegar, orange oil and tea tree oil. This allows me to use the same mop for the hardwood floors and the tile in the bathrooms! Plus, the rags are washable and reuseable- no waste! You can buy extra rags just for the mop but a microfiber towl or old wash cloth work just as well.

He also hung my broom and dust pan. Now, he says, I don't have an excuse to sweep up the mess and not put it in the dust pan. Hummm... no excuses to not sweep, no excuses to not hance wrinkle free clothes... sounds like this might be the "No Excuses Laundry Room!"

I'm not finished in there yet. I'd love to paint but probably won't because of all the hardware hanging up. I'm going to find to make new curtains for the window and maybe hang up some pictures. I'd love to measure the kids against the wall and mark how tall they grow year to year. I also want some nice baskets or totes to store items I don't use every day (clothes pins, oils, extra laundry supplies) and I plan to put a drawer or basket up there to hold small outside toys, like bubbles and sidewalk chalk.

This morning when Adam brought down coat hangers for me to use, I said, "Wait! Let ME go into the laundry room!" and I happily pranced into my new, useable space to hang them up. He followed, amused and asked if this is my new Mommy Room. How does he know about my plans to listen to the iPad, drink a glasses of wine and fold laundry in peace and quiet every evening?