Laundry Room Decor

I loathe laundry.  That's putting it mildly!  One time a friend asked what the worst part of laundry was, and I literally listed every step... sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing, putting away.  I'm cringing just writing this.

I can't say I have come to like laundry, but I have at least come to terms with having to do it. 

The first thing that helped was finding the {Flylady}.  She has a saying that goes something like, "A load a day keeps Mt. Washmore away."  I found that was my biggest problem.  I would leave it all for the weekend and then be completely overwhelmed.  Who knows how it will be once I go back to work, but for now I am (somewhat) happy doing one load a day.  At least I can be done with it and move on.

The next thing that really helps is having a nice room in which to do the laundry.  Our house has a ginormous laundry room!  I told Ryan if we get desperate, we can turn it into his man cave, it's that big!

before

There's no excuse not to have a nice space to do laundry when you have a laundry room that looks like this.  But even if you don't, you still deserve a nice, comfortable place to go!

I always seem to start with what I have.  In my old house, I created hanging pegs from iron stands and old door pulls.

You just screw the pull into a hole in the stand and hang on the wall.  I found those items at an antique store.

Then I go to my family members to see what I can snag for free!  My mom and grandma had washboards, so I hung those on one of the walls.

My grandma also had rug beaters.  We have a little hallway that leads into the main part of the room, and these worked perfectly.

Above the cabinets, I have started a collection of old irons.  I will add to it as I find more.  I might also find some other laundry related items that will look cute up there.  You never know!

So far, I have spent nothing on decorating, because I used things I already had and asked around for things that others no longer wanted.

Then came the organization.  We had a big shelf that was previously in our garage that fit perfectly along the empty wall in the room.  I also had some baskets that fit, so I use those to hold donations and items in need of mending.  I also keep our overflow of paper goods on the shelf and in the cabinets.  The overflow comes from {couponing} and stocking up.

One big challenge was all of the hangers.  I originally hung them off of the shelf, but then it became a fight to get what was behind them.  Since I now put all of the laundry away after I fold and hang it, it's not necessary for me to have enough room for that, so I added a bar under the cabinets and above the washer and dryer.  This will also hopefully keep me from reverting to my old ways of hanging all of the clothing that needs to be ironed to get to later.  It cost me under $10 to do this.

I also found a laundry sorter at a {yard sale}.

Now I'm trying to convince Ryan that a little flat screen tv will be perfect in here!