Planning My Laundry Room Makeover

Do you ever look at galleries like this one on the HGTV website and wonder if the people who create a laundry room makeover like those actually wash clothes? Yeah, me too. I enjoy admiring those dream rooms, but they don't resemble much the space that I call a laundry room. Who has room for shiplap and cute decorative plaques in a space that measures only 6' by 8' and  that serves a half dozen functions?

Laundry Room makeover before

My laundry room connects our garage (the door in the photo above) to the hallway right outside the kitchen. So almost half the space in it functions as a hallway, which doesn't leave a lot to work with. Only a little over a foot is usable on one side of the room. The washer/dryer and our air handler dominate the other side of the room. I set up a few basic storage and organization options when we moved in fifteen years ago. Over the years I've added and adjusted a bit as our needs changed. But after too many attempts to squeeze just one more thing into it, the laundry room has become chaos. It's time to rethink this whole organization system with a laundry room makeover!

Let's take a closer look...(Unfortunately I started to clear off the shelves before I remembered to take pictures. Ooops!)

Laundry Room Makeover Before 3

The reason I started clearing before taking photos was that the top shelf really needed a purge badly. Most of that shelf contained baskets crammed with various computer & media cables and extension cords. I asked my husband for help sorting them since I couldn't identify half of them. When we were done, we'd purged a ton of junk. The remainder now fit organized in new (smaller) storage containers that are labeled so we can find what we need easily.

All of the shelves in the room (and most of the house's closets) are basic 12" Closetmaid wire shelves. They are very functional and affordable, but it wastes a lot of depth over the washer and dryer. Without a basement, every inch of storage counts. I want to be able to use as much of that depth as I can without getting in the way of doing laundry. I plan to replace these two 12" shelves with Closetmaid's 16" wire shelving during the laundry room makeover to provide more depth for storage space.

My iron sitting on the dryer creates one of the room's more ridiculous messes. For the longest time, I stored my iron and ironing board on a wall rack that hung on the wall next to the white cabinet. But then I bought a new iron that was shaped slightly differently. It didn't fit into the slot in the wall rack! The iron migrated to the dryer until I found a new solution. It sat. And it sat. To fix this, I need to finally get a new ironing board wall storage rack that fit the new iron. All because I bought a new iron!

Laundry Room Makeover Before

The other side of the laundry room serves as a makeshift pantry, since I don't have one in my kitchen. But stacked up boxes make the shelves look messy. Also, some frequently used things like cereal are stacked out of easy reach. Lightbulbs occupy half of a shelf because their big storage boxes have to be turned sideways to fit on the 12" shelves. I plan to solve this by moving things around on the shelves, storing some bulk items in plastic boxes, and moving the lightbulbs to a location they fit better.

Wasted space on this side of the room too, above where we store the Green Machine, bothers me. I love maximizing vertical space in storage, especially in areas where I need storage badly! Part of my laundry room makeover plan includes extending the top shelf across that empty space to give more storage space for the pantry area.

:aundry Room Makeover Before

I'd like to deal with a few other things in my laundry room makeover, too. The laundry room houses the cat's necessities. Her litter box sits on the floor opposite the washer, and on the other side of the white cabinet from it, her food & water bowls sit under the ironing board holder. The cat food really doesn't cause a problem, but I need to brainstorm ways to cover or conceal the litter box since kitty doesn't seem to like regular covered boxes.

And last up...I must deal with the wonky carpet! Its non-slip back lost most of its rubber from washing, and the rug moves around a lot now. It has probably become a hazard, so I need to buy a new one!

These general ideas together make up the basis for my laundry room makeover plans. (Eventually I plan to paint the laundry room, but I don't think it is happening on this go around.) I know that my laundry room makeover plan will develop and change as I get into the project and start organizing things! Be sure to check back to see the finished room soon!

Planning For A Laundry Room Makeover