Wonder-FULL Wednesday: Organization Part 1

One question that has been asked of me pertains to organization. 

About 5 or 6 years into being a mommy, I began to realize that I needed to get a handle on the clutter. 

No, it didn't come naturally.  I had to research, try, research some more, ask questions & try more.  Slowly, I have morphed our home into sort of an organized chaos.  It's not ready to be featured in one of those organizing & storage magazines that I can never seem to pass up at the checkout, but it works.

Mostly.

Today, I'll talk about one area of our home that requires some organization: the Laundry Room.

I don't know about you, but next to the kitchen, my laundry room is where I spend the bulk of my time.

When we first married, my poor hubby was always running out of clothes of the....um....fundamental sort.  My garage was my laundry room.  UGH!  I had to share it with the spiders & bugs, all sorts of important "stuff" my hubby & I felt we had to keep, and, oh yeah, THE CAR!!!  On top of all that pleasantry, it was either stifling hot, bitterly cold or damp & dirty....always dirty. 

In short: I HATED IT!

I'm not sure that it was the chore that I disliked as much as the location.  However, after dealing with that for about 12 years....we were finally able to make some dreams come true.  We had drawn out plans to include our garage as part of our house, creating three new rooms: a homeschool/play room, an office, and a laundry/craft room (I guess that's kinda like 5 rooms).  One year later, we sold it & moved. 

*sigh*  Just when I had it perfect.

Fast forward a bunch of years to now. 

I currently have a 'sufficient' laundry room.  I would prefer it to be a tad roomier, but we make due.

As with pretty much every area of my life, the way I have organized my laundry room has been adjusted numerous times.  Don't feel that you have to do something the same way forever unless it happens to work forever (which it rarely does).  Life changes require minor touch ups to your organization and sometimes even some major overhauls.

As the kiddos have gotten older, I have them sort their own clothes into these baskets (these 3 support 6 kids).
No, they don't always do it right, but the largest part of my job is done for me.  I just go through them quickly as I am loading the washer, tossing what is in the wrong place into the right one. 
These three baskets are 'Lights', 'Brights', & 'Darks.

In order to help them with sorting colors, I tied ribbons to the handles which coordinated with what I wanted in them.  These ribbons are from the 'Lights' basket.  When we first implemented this plan, we grabbed some clothes & compared them to the ribbons, deciding where they would go.

More often than not, the baskets are done right....except the boys have real issues with taking their underwear out of their pants...WHAT'S UP WITH THAT???

This basket is almost ALWAYS overflowing.
It is the "Outgrowns" basket.
Out of season clothing also gets tossed here until it can be packed away.
It never ceases to amaze me that we can go for months & add nothing to this bin, then BAM every kid
is adding to it!!!  It's crazy!!  If they could just grow at different times, it would sure be cheaper.

Directly over my dirty clothes baskets, I had a clothing rack installed.
It has a free-motion bar because I HATE those little divided hanging bars.
Really.  Who wants to take the time to divide their clothing?  Dumb.
This was laundry day, so everything is empty, but more often than not,
the baskets are all like that last one & the rack is bulging with clothes waiting to be put away.

Love the extra storage over the hanging rack.
Hate how it all shows.
Cabinets are a dream.



My most excellent hubby built me this little closet right next to the washer & dryer (which is stacked).
It is a hard-workin little closet.
I store my laundry soap, hangers, tool bag (no, the pink tools do NOT stop him from using them!), the mop, broom, a stool,  & extra paper towels (can't see those). 
The drawers house: extra covers for the Shark mop (worth putting on your Christmas list), dusting/cleaning rags, all sorts of batteries, light bulbs & dog-related stuff.
I love my closet (is that wierd?)

One other thing I forgot to take a photo of is what I actually put the kid's clothes into when they are ready to put away.  I don't like baskets.  They are bulky.  I use clear, flat under-the-bed storage boxes.  They are fairly cheap & you can stack a bunch & not take up too much room.  When the clothes are folded, I can put them in piles according to where they go...pj's, socks/underwear...etc.  Then the kid can just transfer the pile from the box to the drawer
 (yes, I said KID!).  Each kid gets their own box.

That's it, I guess.  Next week, I'll discuss another area of organization...any thoughts on which area???

 Leave me some comments!