The Laundry Room Organized

                 

Our laundry room is how we get from the garage to the house. Therefore, it's become a dumping ground. We throw everything on top of the washer, dryer, and deep freezer. I was constantly losing things that were falling behind the appliances. Searching through piles of clothes, towels, jackets and bags to find a pair of matching socks. So something had to be done and quickly. I'm all about saving money so I made some simple storage with existing supplies to help organize this space.

               

These bins I picked up at my local Target. The first basket is to throw the kids clothes in when we make messes downstairs (their laundry baskets are on the second floor in their rooms.)

The second basket is for towels. I change out my kitchen towels every other day (more often if a little uses it as a napkin.) Since I use micro fiber towels for cleaning and wiping up spills I now I have a place to put them as I use them. 

The third basket is for all my delicate/hand wash items. Since I spend a lot of my time at the volleyball gym or working out every day it's rare I wear these clothes but when I do I tend to make the mistake of throwing them in the wash with all the other clothes. But now I have a designated place to put them.

Luckily when we bought our house they already had some nice upper cabinets and shelves installed which have been helpful and hiding all of our cleaning supplies.

One of the most helpful things in my laundry room is Martha Stewart's stain chart that I put in a frame from Micheal's. 

For the tops of the upper cabinets I hated having wasted space and every mom with a kid in diapers has several diaper boxes lying around. I use this tutorial to cover several boxes with fabric to store items such as contact solution, tissues, and toothpaste. (I chose not to do the inside liners since my boxes are up out of sight.)

It also gives the space a little bit of color since I haven't been able to choose a paint color for the room.

I found two small canvases that I was no longer using and used the same fabric from the storage boxes for this wall that was blank. 

Its a narrow space but its nice to have a designated laundry room that is organized and doesn't cause stress every time I come into the house from running errands.

What's your favorite organization item for your laundry room?

Cute DIY Tags

So have you heard about hometalk yet? It's AMAZING! If you like Pinterest (I'm a junkie) and you REALLY like home or garden then you will want to take a look at this site. (warning this site can and will cause a new online DIY addiction) And while you're there make sure you follow Upside of Chaos on hometalk.

My first post was on my hometalk page was for my Wooden Chalkboard Labels.  I was contacted by hometalk to find other chalkboard labels and tags. I loved each of these ideas that I found on their site. 

I really can't get enough of tags. While I'm working on finishing my fall home purge I've been thinking of how I can use each of these chalkboard tags with everything I've organized! Which ones are your favorite?

Fall Home Purge Part 2

So on my last post I shared with you all that I was in the process of doing a Fall Home Purge. Here's an update on what I've been up to. 

I can tell you that I've been working on my dresser and master closet and getting a lot done there but it's not done yet for me to share. So here's everything I've done since my last post in addition to working on purging all my old or unused clothes.

My first stop was our coat closet. As you can see it's a bit of a mess. It's over loaded with shoes that haven't been put where they're supposed to be as well as being overrun with jackets.

So I searched through and removed all jackets we are no longer using as well as our shoes. Then since it's cold outside I placed all my flip flops (4 pairs), sandals (2 pairs), and all my flats in the bin on the shelf. Then the bin on the bottom shelf I placed all the kids shoes in it. They typically just throw their shoes in the closet and they don't fit on the rack well so I'm hoping this will be a better option. 

Next up was under the bathroom cabinets. Up first the half bath on the main floor that the guests use. 

First I made sure my first aid kit is properly stocked and made notes of what to pick up. Then I found an extra shoe bin to place all of the leftover child safety supplies instead of keeping it in the gift bag they came in...4 years ago. I also went through and purge any extra stuff that hadn't been used in over a year including candles, air fresheners, expired children's tylenol, etc.

For my master bathroom I was going to start on my husbands side but it is exactly how I organized it over a year ago. So I moved onto mine. It's a little crazy.

I started by pulling everything out and tossing all lotions, body sprays, makeup, etc that were expired or have gone unused for over a year. (I really had a lot to get rid of)  Everything was reorganized curling iron and straight iron and extra bathroom supplies in the metal basket. All my nail polish in the large multi color make up bag...(I have an addiction to nail polish). All my makeup in the purple bag (I own next to none). All of my hair sprays and creams are behind the nail polish bag.

The kids bathroom cabinets are empty except for extra towels and washcloths so there was nothing to do there.

So then I moved to the kitchen. I decided to tackle my lazy susan. Stuff falls out every time we open it and finding things are difficult.

                                 

                                 

I got rid of all tupperware that did not have partner. Actually I just got rid of a bunch of lids. The actual containers were missing and have been for quite a while. I tossed any water bottles that did not have lids or were broken.

                                 

You can't see it but in the back right corner I was able to move a stack of bowls down into the lazy susan instead of keeping them on top of my refrigerator!

                                 

My final task in this post was underneath my kitchen sink. We had begun tossing items underneath instead of placing them in their places and some of those cleaners were practically gone.

I took the time to combine or toss empty bottles. Made notes of homemade cleaners to make so I can refill the bottles. Reorganized and replaced everything!

Each time I purge a section of the house I feel so much better. It's amazing how much your mood can be uplifted with throwing away or donating a bunch of stuff!

Fall Home Purge

One of the blogs I have been following for a while has been A Bowl Full of Lemons. Toni is currently doing a 31 Day Purge on her blog which I absolutely love! I can't think of a better way to get ready for the holiday season than going through and purging my home of the clutter that has accumulated.

Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons started this 31 Day Purge at the first of the month. But since October is playoff month for Volleyball State Championships (back to back State Champions by the way! My team is kind of badass.) I was unable to start on the first. So I've started this week. I'm planning on posting my progress as I go to help keep me accountable since I'm behind everyone else. At the same time I'll be doing the tasks out of order and throwing in a few of my own. 

To get things started I began with the pantry. Even though the month has been extremely busy I've neglected to put things in their proper places and it ends up looking like this....which makes my stomach turn a bit.

How did I ever find anything in this mess?

I removed everything from the pantry and tossed anything that was expired. I then sorted and grouped items together.

I refilled all my Oxo containers and made notes of what I needed to pick up at the store.

Then I grouped my canned food items and placed any excess items in this reusable grocery bag till I can find a new bin or basket to hold all these items.

Since I was feeling good about getting all that done I thought I would tackle another day on Toni's list. The next one just happened to be Magazines. 

Believe it or not I don't own a SINGLE magazine subscription. Kind of crazy right. But I'll let you in on a secret. I haven't needed one for almost a year. I use the Next Issue app! This was one of my Christmas gifts from the hubs last year.There are so many magazines in this app depending on what kind of subscription you want. 

When I find something I love and want to remember I just take a screen shot and save it in my inspiration folder on my iPad.

But since I was supposed to purge them I went back and deleted all downloaded issues on my iPhone and iPad so that I could make some storage space. 

I managed to get two tasks done pretty quickly and it's amazing what a difference getting rid of the excess stuff in your life can do for your day.

I'm planning on doing all the clothes in my dresser and closet next. I'll let you know how all that goes. It's going to be a bit crazy. I've been holding on to a lot of pre-pregnancy clothes (from 4 years ago). 

See you in a few days!

Craft Room Peg Board

So my craft room got a little crazy an I needed a quick way to clean up and organize the odds and ends while keeping them within reach. So I decided on a framed peg board. But I didn't want to pay to frame a large piece of peg board so I decided to frame it myself using moulding just like I did for my Agile/Scrum Board.

I picked up my peg board and moulding from Home Depot.

Using a compound miter saw I made my angled cuts. (Make sure you wear appropriate safety gear!)

Then I pieced everything together to make sure it would fit perfectly. (Don't mind the tent in the background we got rained out when camping.)

Since all my cuts looks great and fit nicely together I decided to go ahead and paint the moulding. I decided to use paint I already owned. And let it dry overnight.

Then I made sure everything looked good and I didn't miss any spots. 

I used some wood glue in the corners where the boards attached.

The frame was wrapped and cinched down with tow stapes to hold everything in place while the glue set.

After everything was dry I made sure everything was going to line up.

Then it was time to flip over the frame and add the glue.

We let the glue set up for a few minutes before placing it on the peg board.

Made sure our corners were nice and lined up.

Then used our corn hole boards to weigh it down for a nice tight fit.

Using the hardware that game with all my accessories we mounted it on the wall.

I got all these baskets and hooks from Home Depot.  All of the hooks were part of a starter pack and the baskets came in a three pack.

After a little playing around and rearranging the hooks and baskets this is what I've found works best of my day to day work.

Do you use vertical space to stay organized?