Laundry Room Limbo

Happy 2012, everyone!  It feels great to be back!  My apologies for leaving Clearly Candace so quiet last year.  Unfortunately family needs and that other j.o.b. were too much to keep up with the blog.  The passion for my environmental career has been gone for a good while now and the position deserved a better employee than this busy mom with her hand in too many things.  So, with many thanks to my gracious hubby who provides for our family with dedication and love, I did not renew my contract for 2012.  I am very thankful for kiddo/family time, service and volunteering time, and a little more time for this! :)  Thank you for your patience and support this past year.  I am anxious to share many new "Candoozies" with you and hopefully add a some new followers along the way!

Now, let's get on to the Laundry!

In a nutshell my laundry room is tiny...teeny tiny.  A 7'x5.5' space.....yeah teeeeny.  It's also the entryway from our garage.  Because of this, we don't have a mud room/entry space for cubbies, lockers, hooks, shelves in those spacious and organized spaces you see on Pinterest.  We simply have a tiny laundry room.  Flashback to April.  We got these energy efficient babies! (Apologies for the sad iPhone 3 pic...)  As for the room, and since I didn't get a "before" pic, I tried to describe it in the photo itself: 

The Itso bins were my way of hiding as much as I could hide with a pop of color since we had shelves instead of cabinets.  The 4 larger Itso cubes in the same colors on the above shelf look like these:

The top shelf had random large items like a cake holder, a party beverage dispenser, booster seats....you know, those big kitchen items that don't have a place in a cabinet.  Don't even get me started on kitchen cabinets...

Well, amongst many frustrating laundry sessions, I happened to run across a laundry room photo like this one back in July.  It's like I got hit in the back of the head with the obvious... DUH-- I can stack my front loaders!  Then the gears began to turn late one night and here was the result.  More space + entry needs =

Yes, I created this in Word with shapes and clip art.  I showed it to the hubby and lo and behold, he didn't think it was a half bad idea! Yes!  Do you notice anything familiar in the drawing? (Hint: See my Happy Feet post!) 

After the vision, life got busy and we didn't get to stacking the machines (which requires a small kit) until November.  My dear hubby cut the two left shelves out with a reciprocating saw first.  After the stacking, I hung a hook rack, condensed items and into the 4 cube Itso cube bins, put our big laundry basket on top of the dryer, and rearranged the top shelf some.  I'm SO excited that my vision actually came true!!  Thanks to the hubby for the cutting and stacking process with help from friendly neighbors with a saw and some man lifting!

So, you may notice that I didn't do everything shown in my drawing.  The dog food/water took precedent over the shoe box.  I also decided the curtain, though concealing, might be a bit cumbersome in this small, busy space.  However, this did lead me adding a clothes rod seen above.  It's actually a spare shower rod.  I now have lots of hanging space for freshly washed/dryed clothes!

It's important to note that since this makeover, a few problems arose:
1.  That handy little rod didn't last too long with too many clothes, so I had to add these:

2. The dog was too scared to eat her food under the coats above her. Wierd.
3. My biggest problem:  Where do I fold my clothes now??!!  This never crossed my mind after the stacking decision.  I also am not a big couch-folding fan.  I like to fold/hang most things fresh out of the dryer to avoid ironing! :) Anything to avoid ironing...

Well, I came up with some solutions and here we are in late January.  I think I may have a functional laundry room!  What do you think?

I hopped on over to Ikea and got a drop-leaf wall table - perfect for folding!  It folds to the wall when not in use.  (I also installed it myself!)  I also grabbed a small divided hamper.  New additions since November include adding the weaved kid shoe bin  and hanging laundry hampers/bags on suction cup hooks.  I am finally ready to conquer the laundry! 

I hope you enjoyed this little organization Candoozy!  Perhaps it will give you some inpsiration for your laundry room. Hopefully you're not like us and you have an efficient entryway and more spacious laundry space!  If not, I feel ya, girl. :)

Thanks for reading!  Until next time.....

With Him in Mind,

PS:  Was anyone wondering where I keep the detergent?  Nope, not in a bin, but:

Just thought that was a nifty little tidbit to share. ;)