Laundry Room Organization – Mini Refresh pt. 4

My laundry room is actually my bathroom, it has this large metal shelf that has accumulated a lot of random stuff. It was one of those spaces that, when we moved in, I just placed things on that kinda made since for the time being; “until I can get this organized”.

Well today is the day I finally take the time to get this shelf under control!

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Before we get started I want to remind you that this is a post to inspire you to take small areas in your home and give them a Mini Refresh of their own and not to do exactly what I do. I want to encourage you to be creative and reuse as much as you can to decorate and organize your home!

Step 1- Gather your supplies.

To begin, I’m giving this area a long look to figure out just what it is that it needs, and then taking a walk around my house to see what I can find to help me. I want to reuse and repurpose as much as I can.

I’ve noted that I need something to replace the cardboard boxes that I was using to store some things, and I wanted to add a little decor. I couldn’t find baskets second hand that were big enough for what I needed them for, so I got these four from the Dollar Tree. But everything else I gather came from around my house.

I gathered up my decor pieces and my baskets and got to work!

Step 2- Remove everything from the laundry room shelf and clean it.

Before I can have fun decorating, I need to get this space cleaned and organized.

I took all of my stuff off of the shelves, and took it to another room to be organized. I then did my best to wipe down the shelves, which proved to be a little difficult. The dust and dirt was stuck on pretty well so it took some elbow grease to clean this up.

I also made sure to wipe down all of the outside of my washer and dryer. If you haven’t cleaned out from underneath them in a while, now would be a good time to do that. You never know what you might find!

After that I started to sort through everything, and surprisingly this went rather quickly and smoothly. I started by testing out all of my loose light bulbs and gathering my batteries to relocate.

“Before I can have fun decorating, I need to get this space cleaned and organized.”

A Homemakers Workmanship

Once those were taken care of I sorted through the things that do belong in the laundry room. I then organized them with the basket I had bought:

• One of them containing bandages, peroxide, and creams.
• The next holding bottles of things, such as witch hazel, nail polish remover, coconut oil, and sunscreen.
• Number three has my hair straightener, curling irons, blow dryer and its accessories.
• The last one is keeping together some odds and ends that belong in this room but doesn’t have much of a category.

I made sure to reuse some of the baskets and fabric totes I was already using in this area:

• The white fabric basket stores the overflow of toiletries, and a few odds and ends.
• The large basket holds my towels.
• A small fabric tote holds my washcloths and hand towels.

Step 3 – Putting everything together.

This is where the fun begins!

While putting everything back, keep in mind how important it is to have easy access to those items. Things such as the overflow for cotton balls and swabs don’t need to be accessed as easily as my washcloths.

I played around with the order of my baskets on the shelves until I decided on one that I thought would suit my family best.

After that, I moved on to some decorating. Cleaning and setting up some old boards I had found, I made a nice topper for my dryer. I displayed my laundry detergent on it along with an essential oil diffuser and some decorative pieces I already had.

The boards need a little more TLC, but I like the way they look. Later my husband and I will connect them together. Another day, I will find a way to cover the metal shelves to make it look a little nicer, but that wasn’t in the budget for this project.

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I’ve been putting this off for the almost two years that my husband and I have been living here. Honestly I’m surprised how easy it was to get organized!

I thought that because it was such a big area that it would be overwhelming but it didn’t take long at all. The thing that took me the longest was the boards for on top on the dryer. They needed to be cleaned, dried and then rubbed down with some mineral oil before I could use them…and they still need some work.

I hope that you can take some inspiration from this post and take the time to get a small area in your home organized and add in a touch of yourself to it! You never know how easy it could be and how you can use your creativity to add a little pizzazz to an area.