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Shannon here!
Moving into our new house has been an adjustment. One of the biggest things is my laundry room. It's about the same size as the laundry room at our previous house, but our old one had a sink in it that I'd store my donation items in. (Don't judge!). So in our new home, I just threw the donations in a basket in the laundry room. As you can see in the picture above though, it was chaotic (and possibly dangerous, haha!).
When I saw this 3 Bag Wheeled Laundry Sorter for under $38 on Amazon or this Better Homes & Garden 3 Bag Wheeled Laundry Sorter from Walmart (in store only) I thought, “That is perfect!”. I needed three baskets (two for the different places I donate at, and one for the laundry that just gets thrown on the floor because I don't have a space for it elsewhere in the laundry room).
I am beyond pleased with the end results!
Now I can just grab the donations when I'm ready to do a drop off, and I don't have to sort them! This is going to save me time – and goodness it looks sooo good! (Such a fun transformation for under $35).
Would love to know your thoughts!
Better Homes & Garden 3 Bag Wheeled Laundry Sorter – Under $35 at Walmart ~ that's less than most of the options on Amazon!
Here is Laurie's laundry room makeover from years ago:
This laundry room makeover is one of my all-time favorite organizing posts, and believe it or not, this laundry re-organization that I posted almost one year ago today STILL looks this good. (The only issue I've had is with clothes to be ironed . . . if someone wants to hire me a laundress I'd really, really appreciate it!) If you have a tiny laundry room like I do, don't lose heart . . . you can get yours organized too. 😉
(originally posted January 2012)
I'm going to just go right ahead and share our dirty laundry (quite literally!) here today. 🙂 I've spent the last five years detesting our laundry room, because it felt like there just wasn't any hope for a cute-“Pinterested” laundry room. It's tiny, and hidden away from just about everything as it's upstairs, so we've had no motivation to do anything with it. (My husband looked at my laundry room board on Pinterest, and said “you know, those aren't laundry rooms, those are living rooms!”)
But, I finally decided mine could be so much better than what it was (right?) Here's what I've looked at for way too long (and I just went right ahead and took the pic in spite of the mass chaos . . . yikes!)
And here's what it looks like after about five hours of work this week and $125. (It could have been done for way less moo-lah, but I decided to splurge a little on the baskets at Target. . . .)
I found the paint at Lowe's for $5 in their mis-matched paint bin (always watch those bins!), and purchased the baskets for $20 each at Target (which was way too much, but they were so perfect!) The verse was at Hobby Lobby in their vinyl lettering section, and I used a 40% off coupon, which made it $14. All my bargain Tide, Resolve, and Publix Bleach are now safely stored up above in the baskets, and you don't see them . . . WOOHOO! (The wreath was actually hanging in a different spot in our home and I'm not sure that I love it, but I'm hoping to find a spring colored wreath in the after-Easter clearance sales.)
I even took a few minutes to cut my fabric softener sheets in half (half works just as well as one, and is a great way to pinch an extra penny!)
I've actually kept it this clean since Tuesday (wooohoo!), and am amazed at the difference that having an organized area to work in makes. I even purchased tons of plastic hangers, which are just complete luxury. (I know that sounds nuts, but I've never purchased a hanger in my life! I finally got tired though of fighting wire hangers, so I decided that at this point in my life they were worth the splurge.)
Obviously the biggest change in the laundry room was getting the laundry done, and more importantly, put away. I hadn't really ironed in over six months, so all those clothes had just about taken over. Last Sunday I took my laptop to the laundry room, put on a free Amazon Prime movie, and worked for a solid 2 1/2 hours just ironing (eek!) Here's the conclusion that I came to: I can procrastinate as much as I want, but the ironing takes as long to do today as it does if I wait and do it in two weeks, or even six months. So, I'm determining to keep on top of this, because I never want to see that mess again!
Do you have any other suggestions on how to organize a tiny laundry room? I'd love to hear them, so feel free to leave a comment HERE to share!
Looking for more ways to get organized? See previous 25 Days to a More Organized You:
- 25 Days to a More Organized You Day 7: How to Make The Most Of Your Freezer Space {Day Two}
- 25 Days to a More Organized You Day 8: Menu Planning
- 25 Days to a More Organized You Day 9: Create a Command Center
- 25 Days to a More OrganizedYou Day 10: What Do You Need In Your Kitchen?
- 25 Days to a More Organized You Day 11: The Spice Cabinet
- 25 Days to a More Organized You Day 12: The Medicine Cabinet
Looks great but, I want to know how tall you are to be able to reach the baskets on the rack above the washer & dryer?
I love your website, as I am an old penny-pincher myself!!! Lol
So glad you enjoy it!! Us penny pinchers have to stay together! 🙂
What’s a laundry room? LOL! My washer and dryer are in our garage, amidst my husband’s stinky weight machines 🙁 I can dream, right?! I love your makeover! The verse is great!
This looks so good. One of the things I do that has helped is that I steam instead of ironing clothing. After reading reviews I bought a professional Jiffy steamer. I steam once per week. It takes about 1/5 the time of ironing. I set up a vertical hanger in my family room with one hour tv show that I would watch anyway and whip through the clothes. They look great and our things are always ready to wear.
Great tip Amy – thank you for sharing!
Our laundry room is a tiny nook between the kitchen and the garage. I put up a curtain between the kitchen and laundry. One wall is pantry with a cat box in that corner. Two cabinets with a rod between above the machines. Bland wallpaper but impossible to paint without removing everything. Sooo… not sure how much cuteness can be injected. Maybe a tall thin cute sign… but not much more. I’m in Florida, so standing there to hang clothes while the dryer is spitting out stifling heat is about all the time I want to spend in there anyway. I rarely iron, and would have no room in there, so we actually keep the board in a nook in our large master bath. I do enjoy your blog. Thanks for the happy attitude and good ideas!
Where u putting hanging Clothes
I still hang them like I did before over the washer and dryer, but seeing it cleared out makes me keep on top of the kids to put them away once a day. Hope that helps! 🙂
Where u putting hanging Clothes
Second on my list to do!
My idea of ironing=put the clothes in the dryer with a wet face cloth for a bout 5 minutes+hang up immediately! 🙂
Where in AL are you?????
When you run out of projects you can come here (near Montg) and organize an organizationally challenged grandma and my disabled vet grandpa!!!
Looks great! Enjoy your posts on FB!
Hi Nan! We just moved from Madison, Alabama to Columbus Ohio (it’s been a huge move – you can read more about it here – https://passionatepennypincher.com/2014/05/packing-day/)
So glad you found PPP, and goodness, if I ever get done (ha!) I’d love to come help organize! Blessings 🙂
Where did all the hanging clothes go?
I started putting them away instead of procrastinating Sue! 🙂
That is incase it floods the tray protects the floor
Have a 14 x 15 washroom feel blessed
You must be tall. We could never use those baskets.
I’m 5’8″ Carole – that definitely helps! 🙂
What is that your washer is sitting on?
We have the accordion style doors as we have one of those laundry closets in a hallway at the back of the house in lieu of an actual walk in laundry room like our old home. One of the things I immediately missed was the ability to hang dry clothes as there was not any room to do so in our new little laundry room without them hitting the washing machine or dryer, or looking horribly cluttered. I purchased several of the over the door towel hooks and use them on the outside of the accordion doors to hang dress pants, dresses, and skirts up. It works like a charm! If we are expecting company, I simply transfer the hooks to the back of the guest room door and let the clothes finish drying out in there out of sight. 🙂
Love
Where do you put all of the dirty laundry to be sorted? I have an unfinished basement laundry room that I share with the water heater, furnace and sump pump so I woul really love to be able to have my laundry room upstairs. But I need my laundry sorter and I don’t know where it would go in that space! Amen on the ironing! We barely wear clothes that require ironing because I just don’t do it. 🙂
Hi Kelly! Because I do laundry every day here (usually a load of whites or colors – alternating), my kids bring their dirty clothes to the basket on the right side of the room (you can see it in the corner), and I just sort through it each morning when I start a load. When our house was on the market a few months ago I had to completely stay on top of laundry all the time for about 6 weeks, so just having that one bin was enough (but I know that won’t work for everyone!)
You can see more on (kind of) how we handle laundry here – just having a schedule has helped so much! Now I usually wash and dry it during the day (because I didn’t like running the dryer at night), and that’s worked for us. Hope that helps!
https://passionatepennypincher.com/2011/01/how-do-you-keep-up-with-laundry-at-your-home/
Looks awesome!! Great job getting all of that put away….are you able to use the hooks for coats anymore or were the hooks originally being used for ironing “to-do”?
They’re definitely used for ironing to-do – that’s probably my all-time most hated household chore! 🙂 Since tidying it I have tried to get to where I work on it at least once a week (after seeing how much less clutter was in there when I kept up with my ironing I was definitely motivated to keep up with it a little more!)
What is in all of the baskets on the top shelf? Looks super cute.
My stockpile of laundry detergent, extra grocery sacks for trash upstairs (not sure why, but that’s where they ended up) and mismatched socks to be worked on! 😉
I have to share my laundry room with the dogs. I would love to just have a laundry room to myself!
I understand! We took in a cat for a short while (before realizing my husband was allergic), and sharing my tiny laundry room with a litter box was not easy at all. It definitely makes those laundry rooms smaller! 🙂
I’m looking at the “before” pics and thinking that there is nothing wrong with that. Looks a lot better than my laundry room, and “iron, what’s that?” 🙂
Wish I had your ambition !
I just dream of having a beautiful huge laundry, but I’ll settle for this! And I’m about to forget the meaning of ironing too…. 😉
Your new Laundry Room looks wonderful! I can fully relate to the Ironing situation. One thing that has helped me is having a Drop-down ironing board. They have them at Lowe’s & Home Depot and with a coupon aren’t too expensive. The one I have has the iron and a good light built in & had to be wired in.
Btw:
Thank You so much for all the effort you put into your website. After the dreaded ‘extreme coupon show’ I had pretty much quit couponing- until one day I was googling for ‘frugality’ & stumbled upon PPP!
You showed me that there are still some of us who shop with integrity – who share with others when we can, take 3-4 items only and leave some on the shelf – because we know these deals cycle back around and in a few months can have quite a nice stockpile.
Thanks Again! For inspiring me to coupon again, be a better mother, better cook,have to admit I’m falling behind on the organizing- but because of you- I know that’s ok too! 🙂
Thank you so much Angie! I’m so glad PPP helps encourage you…. I’m no extreme couponer, but I do love saving some money. Your kind words really made my day, and I appreciate that so much. 🙂
I would LOVE to find a drop down ironing board ~ but I’m wondering if my room is too small? I’ll have to look the next time I’m at Lowe’s! Thanks for the tip!!!
Love the inspiration to keep things tidy in the laundry room. It looks fabulous! Now if Tide would just take the cancer-linked 1,4 dioxane out of its detergent making process (see Women’s Voices for the Earth for details) that would be so much more reassuring to our families.