This is a guest post by Jess

Laundry rooms are usually the least chic room in the house, even though we as home keepers, spend a great deal of our time in there. I decided it was time to ‘pretty up’ my laundry room and make it functional rather than a catch all for all the bits and pieces that don’t have a home.

I tend to go for fairly neutral colours throughout my home, lots of brown, white, cream and grey. For my laundry room however, I wanted to make it really bright and cheery, a place that I really enjoy spending time in.

The first thing I did was pull every single thing out of the room, washer and dryer included. I gave it a really good clean then started sorting. While it was empty, I assessed the room. I thought about how I wanted it to function, most convenient placement for items, what I wanted to keep in the room, and how I wanted it to look.

On the top shelf in the cupboard I have 3 boxes, the first is for clothing to be donated. After the clothing item has been washed and dried, I throw it in the box. When the box is full, I put the clothing in a garbage bag and take it to an Op Shop. Having this box stops clothing that is no longer worn going back into our closets. The second box is similar to the first however it is for clothing to go into storage. This box would also be a good idea if you are collecting clothes to hand down to friends or relatives. The third box is for extra plastic and canvas shopping bags. We also keep our iron on the top shelf.

 The last box on the top shelf is my favourite, it is for storage containers {Yes, a storage container for storage containers}. I change things around quite a bit in my home so whenever I have an extra container I put it in this box. Similarly, when I am organising, instead of going shopping for new containers I look here first and usually I have something that will fit.

The next shelf down has four plastic baskets. The first has all our extra laundry supplies and stain removers. The second holds extra cleaning supplies, gloves, and ingredients I use to make my own cleaners. The next basket has my microfibre cloths and enjo gloves and the last basket holds our extension cords and power boards.

I have a bucket with vacuum attachments and extra mop pads on the next shelf, which is next to my cleaning caddy. I have all the supplies I need in my cleaning caddy which makes cleaning my house so much easier. On this shelf I also have a big box with paper towel and a spare box of tissues.

A big box with toilet paper is on the next shelf, with our empty washing baskets.

Down the bottom is where we keep our vacuum cleaner. There is also a small hamper next to the vacuum cleaner. This is for all our dirty kitchen cloths, tea towels and microfibre cloths. When the box is getting full, I throw them all in the machine together.

In the side section of the cupboard we have some hangers for clean clothes and our ironing board. There are also some hooks for our broom and mop and a garbage bin for all that dryer lint and pocket rubbish.

We have three big hampers in our laundry room, for darks, lights and linen. I made a bench to go over the top of the hampers to make best use of that space. I do all my folding on this bench before the clothes leave the laundry room, I hate playing catch up with folding if I dump it somewhere else to ‘do later’. On top of the bench I keep a basket for delicate clothes that need to be hand washed. Clothes that need soaking also go in this basket.

Above the bench, I have put up a floating shelf which holds 3 baskets. The first has clothes to be mended, the second is for odd socks or socks waiting for their mate to be washed, and the third basket is for all those odds and ends from our pockets. I usually go through these baskets once a week and mend, pair or relocate their contents.

On the other end of the bench I have some glass jars with our washing soaps. The large one holds homemade washing powder, the other has laundry soaking powder, and the bottle contains our fabric softener.

Above the sink I installed a towel rail, which I use to hang a container for hand soap and a microfibre cloth. I also use this rail to hang up wet items like swimmers before putting them into the hamper. The art above is a DIY piece; I bought a blank canvas and some print material. I stretched the material over the canvas and stapled it on the back.

My favourite part of the laundry room is the rug. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted (for the price I wanted to pay) so I decided to make it myself. I ended up spending about $20 and it is perfect. You can read all about it and find the tutorial here.

Homemade Washing Powder Recipe

For the lovely Organised Housewife readers I have my homemade laundry powder recipe. This is made using all natural ingredients that you can find at your local supermarket (you may have to search a bit, they are usually either up high or down low).

• 2 Bars Laundry Soap
• 2 cups Washing Soda
• 1 cup Borax
• 1 cup Laundry Soaking Powder

1. First, you need to grate your 2 bars of soap, you can use your hand grater or if you have a food processor that grates, it is much quicker.
2. Put the soap into a large bowl and add the other ingredients.
3. Give it a really good mix and pour it into an airtight container.
4. Use 1 tablespoon for each load (2 for a really dirty load).

I usually double the mixture, which will make about 3kg. Also if you double the mixture you will use the whole box of soap, bag of washing soda and tub of borax so you won’t have extra lying around.

This homemade washing powder will cost $7.60, using the same ingredients I used, and will do about 75 loads. Best of all, it is all natural with no harmful chemicals. If you are worried about the use of Borax, I found this article to be very informative.

I am thrilled with how my laundry room turned out. It is now a joy to do my laundry (well, maybe not quite but it has made a huge difference). I hope I have inspired you to make your laundry a happier place to be.

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About Jess – Jess lives in Canberra with 2 gorgeous daughters and husband. Jess used to blog at Forever Organised.  She is a lover of all things organised, meal plans, chocolate, craft projects, Washi Tape and writing lists. Jess can’t live with out her day planner and a cup of tea in the mornings.As a long time fan I am thrilled to be a guest on The Organised Housewife.