Erma's Inspiration: New and Improved Laundry Closet

The laundry closet was one of the things I was most excited for when we bought our house, and now that we've lived here a while, it's become one of my greatest frustrations.

Initially I was excited because the house I grew up in and most of the homes near our house have laundry in the basement. Our laundry area is one step outside of my bedroom door! Though now I do wish I had a full room dedicated to laundry. The grass is always greener right...

The first problem occurred when we bought our washer and dryer. The installers had to remove the doors to get the machines in. We had to reinstall them a couple inches out to allow us to get to the detergent/bleach drawer. We try to combine being thrift and eco-friendly, so of course we have a HE frontloader.

For the last 2.5 years, if I wanted to use bleach or any other additive I had to open the bifold doors about 2/3 of the way in order to have enough space open the drawer. Then I had to snake my arm in to pour in the additive. It wasn't a big deal at first, but the longer we lived here the more annoyed I became, and so I searched for a solution.

Pinterest had a few great ideas like putting inexpensive normal doors there but there's just the teeny problem that the laundry closet is in a standard hallway and they'd be a roadblock (and probably a fire hazard) when open. My searching led me to Johnson's Full Access BiFold Door Hardware Kit. We installed these in September and I could not be happier! We kept the same bifold doors, now they just open all the way, which gives us easier access and more storage space :)

Unfortunately I was not terribly organized in this space either. Our guest bath has no storage, so the extra towels get stored here. Add to that that we're a family that likes to stock up when things go on sale and I refuse to store my cleaning supplies in the basement (it's scary down there). It led to a big mess. Finally while on a Home Depot run with my husband, I persuaded him to buy me another shelf to take advantage of the 4 feet of storage space we have above the only shelf in the laundry closet.

I didn't realized I was going to blog about this or I would have taken a true before picture, but here is what it looked like shortly after we installed the new shelf. That entire shelf that's half empty is usually cluttered with cleaning products, linens, an iron, a steamer, and miscellaneous other household items.

The added shelf space allowed me to get more organized.

Now there is a place for everything and everything is in its place! I even have a bin for singleton socks! . We're in the process of becoming a green family, slowing replacing chemical ridden product with more natural ones, so you'll see that here. My everyday use basket includes All Free and Clear Detergent, Bounce Unscented (for work clothes-- as much as I want to get rid of these I can't stand the static cling, Bac Out in a small spray bottle, Rock-n-Green detergent for cloth diapers and undershirts- we may completely switch over to this for everything once we use up the All, and vinegar. I picked up that blue wire basket at Target today; it's perfect for holding my wool dryer balls which reduce drying time by up to 75%

I'm sort of ashamed all those hangers are still there but they aren't recyclable, so I feel awfully bad throwing them out when they're still useful.

For an update click here.