The Laundry Closet

I'm not sure if I should be relieved or disappointed that I planned a wedding and had babies before Pinterest entered my life.  Knowing how much I relied on message boards and blogs for ideas and support for both, I know pinning would have entered into those experiences had I recognized the possibility.

I have, however, bought a new home that begs for DIY remodeling and creative organization in the age of Pinterest.

"Pinspired" by Ana White's design and others like it, for example, we turned our hall linen closet that already had some shelving into a laundry organizer.  Our big laundry baskets from the old house didn't fit in the shallow closet shelves, but I found that Ikea carries smaller ones, the $4.99 BLASKAs.  They are actually the perfect size for a load as we tend to load baskets with as much as possible.  That was $40 well spent.

We store our sheets on the top shelf, and the clothes steamer, iron, and ironing board to the side.  We keep our towels and all other items that might otherwise go in a linen closet under our bathroom sinks.

As one might predict, I labeled the baskets.

I waited a couple of months to see what our loads tend to really be, and we now have a basket for Mike, Carrie, Sheets, Michael and Sophie, Dry Cleaning, Delicates, White Towels, and Colored Towels. Clearly we do laundry primarily by person rather than colors, but that works fine for us. The kids have easy access to the closet as well and know where to put their dirty clothes.

Mike also has a basket in our spare bedroom closet for clothes he wears to the gym.  Distance from that one made sense.  ;)

Of course, if you wish to do this but don't already have shelves in a closet, this project would require a little more time and money.  I would probably look into putting one or two $15 HYLLIS shelving units in a closet.  These baskets would stick out about four inches off the front, but that could still work, I think.

Our system keeps the laundry routine moving smoothly--if a basket is full, throw it in--and with little accumulation around the house, it's exactly what I hoped for!

I linked up to Love of Family and Home.  Go check out some more inspiring projects!