Low-ish effort, high reward projects | An organized laundry area

I’m chipping away at my list of recent low-ish effort, high reward projects I planned to share with you. The goal is to make our lives a little easier, and have our home run a bit more smoothly– without spending a ton of time (or money) doing so. Oh, and goodness, do I know how lucky we are to be safely at home. Today, I’m sharing the laundry area, which is in our downstairs full bath (tucked away behind your standard slatted, folding doors).

The first step was measuring the shelf and comparing to the product I had in mind and, as with the first project I shared (our mask organization/drop zone situation), waiting for those bin to arrived was the only un-breezy part of all of this. I spent roughly 10 minutes on a Sunday evening taking this laundry area from yikes to shamwow. Just kidding. But shoutout to the folks old enough to remember.

LAUNDRY ORGANIZATION

Per usual, I’m sort of mortified to share the “before” but again… this is real life, baby.

The mismatched sock bin, the swim diapers that haven’t fit a child in this home since… maybe we moved in, the essentially empty cleaning caddy next to the full cleaning caddy. It was a fright.

It’s very obvious what *wasn’t* going well. But two things here actually work great (even in the horrid before). A while back I started keeping a laundry basket on top of the dryer. The kids toss their morning laundry straight in there, rather than leaving it strewn about the home (as they did, just a few short months ago), as we tend to get them dressed downstairs.

And those fence-looking-things are magnetic and have not budged since we got them. They are magnetic and prevent socks and whatnot from jumping ship and ending up behind the washer/dryer for eternity. Working semi-well is the mismatched sock bin… except that I forgot to actually match the socks for like, six months. So… the bin worked, but I didn’t. The good news is that after finishing this project, I did match the socks, and now we have 900 new pairs to put away.

I recycled one of the cleaning caddies and consolidated their contents (not hard, as one was nearly empty), posted the random swim diapers I found on our neighborhood buy nothing group (they were claimed instantly… on a 9 degree day, no less), moved the puppy pads to the closet where we store dog stuff (will likely be donating those soon too?), tossed a random pipe thing leftover from the washer installation (fingers crossed we don’t need it), and un-crumpled the woven bin on the top right.

Anyway…. just a few minutes later:

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus.

I put our laundry pods into a cute glass jar we had on hand — I’d like to say it’s made doing laundry more delightful. But I prefer to tell you the truth, exclusively. And before you worry about someone getting injured or glass breaking… ’tis only me doing laundry. I promise to be careful. The aptly labeled “laundry” bin is another ancient Homegoods purchase. It was the perfect size to store laundry brightener, extra wool dryer balls, and washing machine cleaner.

That formerly smushed basket now holds our precious TP supply (I can’t wait until this is not a thing that I am constantly monitoring). Two of the white bins are empty (for now), one holds our hair clippers (also looking forward to not subjecting my family to diy haircuts…), and the other holds cleaning supplies that stay in the laundry area (I like to wipe down the door gasket of our front loader to keep it from getting funky). I bought coordinating clip on labels for the bins and will get around to actually labeling them once I’m set on what will go where.

Along with the new white bins, I also ordered an iron/ironing board storage shelf, which Nick hung for me. In truth, I rarely iron, so having it tucked away a bit works fine for me.

I’m tempted to buy a cute cover for the ironing board. But given that I was able to stomach looking at the “before” situation for two years, I can probably wait on that. (Get a grip, Elizabeth.)

Product List (contains affiliate links):

• White bins with handles
• Iron/ironing board storage
• Laundry basket
• Magnetic laundry fence-type things
• Laundry brightener
• Wool dryer balls
• Monthly washing machine cleaner (tablets)
• Monthly washing machine cleaner (liquid)

Looking for more low-ish effort, high impact projects? I’ve got you covered. Next up is under the bathroom sink storage… and my most embarrassing before (promise you’ll still like me after seeing it, please).

Also On Tap for Today:

• Attempting to unsubscribe from all the random mailing lists (I think organizing the laundry area was easier…)
• Making a big pot of tomato soup (cold weather food!)
• An ode to walking (and a little motivation to get out today with Birdie)

What is your least favorite chore? I love folding laundry, but loathe putting it away…