Spring into Organization Blogger Home Tour - House #4

Welcome to the 4th home on the Spring into Organization Blogger Home Tour.  I’m delighted to have you here!

If you’re just joining us and have missed the first three homes or to view the Home Tour Schedule, go HERE.

For those of you who haven’t visited my blog before, allow me to introduce myself; I’m DaNita, a wife, mother of four boys and a lover of organization and design.  I thoroughly enjoy taking a space and bringing it to delightful order, whether it be organizing a space, decorating a room, creating parties, gifts, organizing pieces, whatever it may be. I just enjoy that kind of thing and that’s what this blog is all about;  Sharing ways to simplify, create, organize and decorate. May you be a little inspired here!

Today, I‘m sharing a few different spaces in my home.  A couple of places that have been seen here in the past AND… I’m also sharing my (never before seen) LAUNDRY ROOM organization. You’ll have to come back next week to see the laundry room reveal with before and after photo’s.

First off I’m going to show you how I’ve organized my pantry and the linen closet:

This here is my pantry

which consists of Tupperware and Baskets...

The bins are Tupperware Rectangular Modular Mates.

and these awesome baskets are from Ikea.  I’ve used them in my laundry room too.

I use a lot of Dollar Tree baskets and bins for organizing throughout my home as well. 

I especially LOVE them in my linen closet.

I’ve talked even more about Dollar Tree organizing HERE

and I’ve also shared an entire post on organizing with boxes, bins, baskets and more storage solutions HERE (telling you where I get all of the items that I use.)

Now, let’s talk about the LAUNDRY ROOM. Yes, the laundry room!  You know that place that you can never spend enough hours in, that place that EVERYONE just loves to hang out in ;) the place that holds all the dirty socks (and other things) and you just can’t get enough of it.  Yeah, that place (wink, wink.)  The Laundry Room.

Laundry in my home feels like it’s never-ending… and it is!!  I can honestly say that it's un-common for me to have every stitch of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away into the proper rooms in my home.

To keep up with the laundry and to keep my laundry room clean and organized is important to me.  I’ve designed a space and a system that works well for my family.

Of course, living in a home with my husband and our four boys, our laundry room certainly isn’t always perfect, the dirty clothes are not always in the bins, the wash isn’t always caught up, the socks are not always matched together, pull-ups and gum HAVE gone through the washer and the dryer. (I sometimes forget to check those pockets and the pull-ups, well they were hidden inside the pajamas) but creating the space and the system that I have, has certainly helped tremendously.

My Laundry Room is on the 2nd floor of my home and  the space includes:

*  Built-in Cabinets for great storage:

An upper cabinet to hold detergents, fabric softeners, bleach, etc.

A few more upper cabinets to hold items that I don’t use often.

*An under the sink cabinet to store a garbage can, cleaning bucket and cleaning supplies with drawers for cleaning rags.

*The sink is great for soaking!  I LOVE having one in my laundry room!

*  The space also includes two built-in pull-out cabinets for dirty clothes

*  A custom built counter top for folding

* A dedicated place for dryer sheets

* and for towels that I use in the laundry room

*Jars that sit on the counter top

Which are pretty for decoration (this one is filled with potpourri) and …

some that are useful at the same time:

This jar holds Oxi-clean (I use it often to soak dirty clothes in the sink and I often throw a scoop into the washer before running the load.)  The cute little scoop is from the Dollar Tree.

*  My laundry room also has a place for hanging clothes.  This 5 hook wall rack is from Ikea and I’ve got 2 of them in the laundry room.  (Next week, I’ll show you where they both are.)

* I designed this area to hold baskets for clean clothing. My husband’s, mine and our oldest son’s clean and folded clothing go inside the baskets. They are from Ikea from a few years back.  They are the same ones that I use in my pantry, but just a touch larger.  Sadly, I don’t think they sell these ones anymore, but they do have some that are similar. They are quite a  bit smaller and have an angle to the top.

I showed you how to make these

t-shirt transfer labels here.

* The room also has a closet of baskets for our other three boys, for their clean and folded clothing.

These baskets are also from Ikea.  They do sell these ones right now.

Labeled with these printable labels that I sell.

I simply printed, laminated and attached them to the baskets.  I sell a bunch of different labels in my shop (and other items too.)  Pop on over to My Shop. You may find something that interests you.

*  I also have a basket for socks that are missing their mates. (Yes, it’s a big basket.  I’ve has this one for years and I love it.)  I believe it came from Home Goods.  Keep in mind that I fold clothes straight from the dryer, so there usually isn't too many socks in here.  I go through this basket every couple of months and match the socks. Ones that don't have mates after that long, go into the trash. 

* and a place for the iron and ironing board.

I really don’t iron much, so I’ve attached the holder to the back of the door into my laundry room.  It’s kind of like, outta sight, outta mind for me. What I do use every.single.day is this Downy wrinkle releaser…

and I store it in my bathroom cabinets.  It is the BEST stuff ever!  If you dis-like ironing at all, you need to try this.  It can be found at Target or Walmart and it’s so simple to use. You just spray and shake your clothes and it takes the wrinkles out.

*  Also included in my laundry room are a couple of sewing supply cabinets (I’ll show you those next week) and a built in desk area for my sewing machine.

* And this Ikea Chandelier that my hubby surprised me with for Christmas.  I love it and have also used it in my clients daughter’spink, black and white zebra bedroom.

This is the system that I have to keep up with laundry for 6:

  • I do laundry every day, starting a batch right off in the morning.

  • I wash, dry and fold about 2 loads of laundry a day (give or take a load)

  • My rule is to fold the clothes straight from the dryer. I don’t put them in a basket to fold later (unless I absolutely HAVE to.)

  • The clean, folded clothes get placed into the proper basket in the laundry room.

  • Clean clothes that I hang are put directly onto hangers from the dryer. Those are hung onto hooks in the laundry room.

  • The clothes that I don't dry, simply get placed on hangers and onto the hooks, straight from the washer.

  • When the baskets are full (about once a week) my husband and I put our own clothes away into our room/closet and our boys bring their entire basket into their rooms and put their clothes away into their drawers/closets, returning their baskets back to the laundry room.

This system has worked well for me and my family. It’s easy to keep up and I rarely have an overwhelming amount of laundry to catch up on.

In the past I’ve also shared these laundry rooms with little tricks and tips as well (simply click the photo or the link below to be directed to the post:)

Ikea's Expedit in the Laundry Room

Feature

Each of us are different, each of our lives are different, different situations, spaces, etc. My way in laundering may not necessarily work for you.  Creating a space and a system that works for your family is important.  Some may choose to set aside one or two days a week to do the laundry, and that’s okay. Some only fold clothes while watching TV, and that’s okay. Some don’t have the space to keep the clean folded clothes in the laundry room, and that’s okay too.  Just find a way that works for you and make it a goal to keep up with it.

A quick tip:

You may not mind doing laundry if you bring the room to delightful order.  You may just want to spend a little more time in there and keep it clean and organized if you create a space that you love. So what do you say? Are you ready to Spring into Organizing that laundry room, or how about that pantry or linen closet?  Go for it! and remember to link up those organizing posts on Friday, March 30th during our multi-blog link party.  You can link up to any of our blogs as it will be a simultaneous party. Can’t wait to see your posts!  We’ll be pinning our favorites to Pinterest as well.

Thanks so much for visiting! Truly, it’s been a delight having you! I hope that you’ve found a little inspiration from my post.

Come back next week to see: My Sewing Cupboards Organized AND my complete Laundry Room Reveal with before and after photos!

Next home on the tour will be live tomorrow.

It is House #5 - 

Leslie with Goodbye House, Hello Home GO HERE to view the entire schedule for the week.

May you be a little inspired!

Until next time,

DaNita

Previous
Previous

Delightful Review: March 2012 and Giveaway Winners

Next
Next

Organizing My Mom’s Sewing Room