2 Weeks: Laundry Room

Okay, we're starting out this journey with the "workhorse" of your home, the laundry room.  It may be a room, it may be a closet, it may be a corner of your garage, but most everyone's got one, and it's probably the dirtiest room of your home.

If your laundry room is like mine, it's the dumping ground for all kinds of stuff.  The floor usually has dirty clothes on it, there's brooms stacked up in the corner, a vacuum in the walkway, and about 300 different kinds of cleaner in the cabinets.  It's my least favorite place to hang out, the place we feed our cat, and the place that we store the odds and ends we don't really know what to do with.

Well, we need to do something about that.  So lets roll our sleeves up and get started.

Supplies:

Laundry Soap
Bucket
Rags
Hot Water
Liquid Castile Soap (just a quick squeeze)

I started by getting my laundry done.  I don't have a place to keep a laundry sorter, but if you do, I highly recommend that you use one.  It's a great way to get those piles off the laundry room floor, because everything is sorted into separate baskets when you bring it in the laundry room.  I can't have one, so I have to continue with the piles, but if you're like me and you have to deal with piles, try to get your laundry done quickly and efficiently so you don't end up with the Mount Everest of Laundry in the middle of your space.

One really great tip for doing that is to follow a laundry schedule.  Some people feel like this works well.  Modify the schedule to fit your lifestyle and your families needs.  One may look like this:

Monday - 2 loads whites
Tuesday - 2 loads darks
Wednesday - 1 load towels
Thursday - 1 load whites, 1 load darks
Friday - 1 load sheets

Weekend - Take some time off!

This is not my actual schedule, as mine includes diapers and about 2-3 more loads, but it would be more typical of the average household in America.

Now that you can actually enter the room without climbing over a pile (okay, just me) let's get started purging all those extra cleaning products and rags that have built up over time.  Just because it's full and you bought it doesn't mean you need to keep it.  We're all guilty of falling for the attractive "make it easy to clean" ads on TV from time to time, so just embrace the purchase mistake and say goodbye to that bottle of whatever it is that didn't really work.  As for rags, if you have about 14 of differing sizes, you'll never run out.  You really don't need 22,000 rags.  I promise.

Okay, cabinets cleaned out.  Put all the stuff you're keeping out of the way, then use a bucket full of hot water and a rag to wipe down those shelves.  Why not?  You've already got all that stuff out of your space.  Clean it all up before you put everything back.

Speaking of putting things back, make sure that the things you use regularly are within easy reach.  Put stuff you don't really need so often up higher.  Put like things together.  I have a couple scrub brushes, I have them all in the same area on the same shelf.

If you're like me and you make your own laundry soap and keep the supplies in sealed jars, you may want to think about investing $15 in a label maker.  I did a couple weeks ago and I can't stop labeling things.  You'll find that you'll use it in so many other places if for no other reason than to stop your husband from saying things like "I don't know which one you're talking about."  Huh, can you read dear?

Okay, where are we?  Picked up, purged, washed, put away, labeled, good!  But we're not done yet.  Chances are there's a corner of your room that has old mops propped up, a couple brooms you hate, maybe one you don't and about a thousand "make it easy" mops and sweepers collecting dust.  Again, I say unto you, purge!!!!  Keep only your favorite broom for in the house.  If you use a mop, keep your favorite one of those too.  I use a dust bunny catcher sometimes that I really like so I'm keeping that.  The few things you do need to keep can be propped up, or even better, get a scrap piece of plywood, pound some nails into it, hang it on the wall, and hang your mops and brooms on that.  Use that wall space, that's what it's there for!  I will be doing this as soon as construction is complete in my laundry room area.

When all your supplies are tidied and put away, sweep your floors and mop if you actually have a mopable floor (I have plywood, not good to mop plywood). 

Let's talk mopping for a moment.  Honestly, I've never met a mop that actually works...and doesn't gross me out after a few uses.  So, I always use a bucket and a rag to mop floors, and yes, I know I have 1400 square feet of hardwood flooring.  Yep, I still get down on my hands and knees and scrub it with a rag.  I use about a squeeze or maybe 2 of my favorite scented liquid castile soap.  I love eucalyptus, almond, or lavender, just depending on my mood.  Add hot water to the small amount of soap, and mop away.  You'll love the shine on your floors, and the scent of clean.  If you're worried about disinfecting a floor, try adding a few drops of tea tree oil, or buy the tea tree castile soap.  Tea tree is a natural pesticide, and germicide, so you can rest assured that your floors are germ free when you're done.

When your floor is dry, dust off the top of your appliances and wipe off any sticky stuff (I usually wipe everything down with my mop solution), stash all the change you keep setting on top of the dryer, put away the trinkets your kids keep leaving for you, and stand back and look at how beautiful your laundry room looks.

This is my laundry room.

I still have stuff in here that I really don't want to store here, but since we're still under construction, I often don't have a choice until construction is complete.  Even with my green walls and unfinished floor, I'm loving the way this looks.  Now the trick is to keep it this way by putting things back where you want them, keeping up on laundry, and sweeping regularly.  If you sweep your laundry room floor once a week, then you can get away with not mopping for quite a bit longer.  I haven't mopped my floor since we moved in (hahahaha)!

Now that your "workhorse" room is cleaned up and ready to go, we can move onto bigger, and better things.  Check back in tomorrow for the project of the day.  Do you feel like you've accomplished something today?  I sure do.

Good Luck!


Kristin