Organizing the Laundry Room

I’m on a little bit of a spring cleaning kick & next on my list was to organize my laundry room. Okay, let me first say, this is not a laundry room. It’s some shelves above my washer & dryer that’s in what should be the master bath for the house. Second, I need to let y’all know that this is not one of those magazine makeover type things. Nope. Just me trying to work with what I have & make it a little more functional!

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The Before

As I mentioned above, my laundry room is really just a laundry area in my “master” bathroom. There’s lots of lovely faux wood paneling that makes it very dark.

There used to be just the shorter shelf you see on top. Since there was already a bracket system, I added two more shelves for extra storage. The Christmas tins you see on top were bought on clearance & just worked for storage. I had no time to paint them!

The first thing I did was clean off the shelves. I decided to turn the bottom one over, because detergent leaked on it & it was bubbled up. The bottom had a label on it still that did not come off all the way. I wet the leftover with a damp rag & scraped it off with my pizza stone scraper. Dual purpose tool!

So, these shelves were a little bowed, especially the one that I turned over. I grabbed my weights to help flatten it out. That’s what weights are for, right? ; D

Remember that picture, because it’s almost flat!

While that was working itself out, I started sorting all the stuff I took off the shelves. Ug!

My rules for sorting:

• Make a donate/giveaway pile
• Throw out empty & unused things
• Divide things into like piles – laundry, bathroom cleaners, etc.

Once I had my piles, then I knew exactly what storage I needed!

Making Things Pretty

I took the Christmas tins, shorter shelf, & an old Easter basket outside for a spruce up with spray paint. The basket had a handle which I cut off with heavy duty scissors. I used:

• Rustoleum Chalky Finish Spray Paint for the shelf – It was the last of it & I didn’t get full coverage! It’s enough to blend in with the other shelves though! ; )
• Rustoleum 2X Coverage in Spa Blue – for the basket & tins.

While I waited for paint to dry and shelves to straighten, I took a snack break. This is my new favorite snack combo! No, I’m not being paid to say that! There have been some great rebates in Ibotta for these & I like to try new things. The jerky is delicious & the Kevita is like having a good for me soda!

Okay, back to the painting! I used some gunky chalk paint to dry brush over the bins & basket to break up all the spa blue. I also added it to some framed prints that used to be in my other bathroom.

Looking much better!

Remember the picture with the weights? Well, after I took them off & walked away to finish the painting they went right back to crooked! Grrrr!

I think it would work if I had left the weights longer, but I don’t have time for that! So, I loaded it back up & it looks much better!

I added some cup hooks under the bottom shelf for hangers & I cleaned the paneling with Pledge Multi-Surface. It looks a little brighter!

The basket was perfect for my cleaning rags & dusters, which also freed up space in my linen cabinet.

The labels I used are just stick on chalkboard labels. Now I know what’s in all the bins!

I also know I don’t need to buy hand soap for about a year! Here’s a side by side comparison & I definitely think the walls look brighter:

What do y’all think?

Pint it for later!