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Home Organization 101 – Week 5 “The Laundry Room”

HOME ORGANIZATION 101 
Week 5 ~ The Laundry Room

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HOW TO SIGN UP:

If you would like to join our organizing challenge, sign up (here [5]) on the event page.  Once you are signed up, join the Home Organization 101 group page 
on Facebook (HERE [6]). On this page, you can ask questions, post pictures, and support each other during this 14 week process. 


I only have one rule for the challenge.


GRAB A BUTTON!


 If you are joining the challenge, please place the challenge button on your blog. If you don’t have a blog, please share the challenge on your Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram. 



abfolbutton



HOW THE CHALLENGE WORKS:


Home Organization 101 will continue for 14 weeks. Each Saturday, I will post a new “space” along with pictures of my finished space and share the process of how you can organize yours. You can take as long as you need, and once you are finished organizing your space, come back here to this post and link up your blog (with pictures) to share with all of us. If you do not have a blog, you can take pictures and share them on our Facebook group page (here [6]).   Questions, ask away… Our facebook page is the best place to ask them.  Have fun!  Now lets get organized.


THE LAUNDRY ROOM

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This week we are headed into the laundry room. For some of you this may be an easy challenge, but for others it will be difficult to complete… with the mountains of laundry that are in your way.  This week, I challenge you to clean your laundry room from top to bottom, finish all of the laundry, and organize it for functionality.



THE PROCESS


*Below is an example of how you can get your laundry room to work for you.  Make sure to do what works best for your family and space.  


1. Take a picture of your space before you start.  

2. Empty out the ENTIRE laundry room.  Everything but the washer and dryer must go.  Throw away empty detergent bottles, trash, donate unwanted or un-needed items and put things away.

3.  Clean – Pull out the washer/dryer and vacuum behind it.  Mop the floors.  Wipe down the outside of the washer and dryer.  If you have time, clean out the washer. (There are many websites that give directions on how to do this). Wipe down all shelving, etc…

4. Once its all clean, you are ready for the fun part!  Its time to organize!  Make sure to “containerize” your categories… Some examples of categories may be:  

Laundry soaps
 Stain remover tools
Cleaning cloths 
Pet items
Cleaners  (see below)
Fabric softeners

 *Place each category into separate bins.

5.  Create a cleaning caddy by using a basket, bin or caddy.  Place all necessary cleaners in this.  I keep mine on top of the washer and dryer.  I do not place anything else on here… It can get messy fast!  I try to keep it clean and dusted.

6. Finally, you can decorate your laundry room to make it more inviting (like laundry is supposed to be inviting)… so you will “want” to do laundry.  It’s all in our heads, right?

7. Now get busy and start washing your piles of laundry!  You will want it all finished so you can take a pretty picture to share with us.


 Wash, Dry, Fold, Repeat!



MY LAUNDRY ROOM


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Our laundry room is small & there are no windows in it. So I tried using pops of color to brighten it up a bit.  Its on the second floor of our home, near the master suite.  Mostly, this room functions:  to store our cleaners (for the 2nd floor), all of the cat stuff, and do laundry!



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I refer to my cleaning & repair books often.  They are easily accessible here in the laundry room.



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MY METHOD CADDY

  Truth be told, I have a cleaning lady who comes to my house every Thursday.  Blogging takes up a LOT of my time and I dont want to have to worry about cleaning AND blogging. My home is almost 4,000 sq ft and takes a lot of energy to clean. I do light clean on a daily basis and she deep cleans once per week.  (I am thankful to be able to afford such a luxury). She likes to use Method cleaners to clean my home.  I also have cleaners on my first floor.  I will share my first floor “cleaning” closet with you soon.  



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MY SHAKLEE CADDY

This is my Shaklee caddy. It contains my Shaklee products [14], which I prefer to use since they are non toxic.  I switch back and forth from Shaklee to Method often.  I like both companies very well.  Do you only use one brand or do you like to use many different brands of cleaners?



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I try not to keep piles of laundry in my laundry room.  We keep hamper baskets in the bathrooms and when they are full, which is usually within the week, I wash them.  My laundry day is on Wednesdays. Sometimes I have to wash a load before then, but I try to stick with that schedule.


I purchased this rug in the kitchen section of Target.



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I added a personal touch to my laundry room by hanging a family picture inside of a vintage frame.



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I purchased the basket at target, the sign at Home Goods and the books at Amazon.

Cleaning Plain and Simple (here [19])
Dare to Repair (here [20])



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I collect vintage aprons… I LOVE seeing them hang in here.  I think it gives the laundry room character.




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I keep my vacuum and mop behind the door (well hidden from the hallway).



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I purchased this shelving system at target.  The baskets are from the dollar store.  I keep our things organized in them.  I have a basket for:

Pet towels
Cleaning Cloths
Fabric softener
Cat litter items
Stain removers
Rags


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I use Method & Shaklee laundry detergent. I switch out between the two on a weekly basis. It keeps our clothes smelling good!




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I keep a grocery bag organizer in the laundry room.  We use disposable bags in all of our bathrooms. You can purchase these organizers (here [28]).  I ordered 3 of them… one for the garage to clean out the car, one for pantry, and one for the laundry room.  They are easy to hang with sticky backs.


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The cat food goes into a tin that I purchased from Home Goods.




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Keeping it real!! 

 We have a cat… and cat litter. 🙂 We use the pellet litter system by (Tidy Cats Breeze [31]). It keeps the mess WAY down and its super easy to clean.  All I have to do is just scoop the p** daily and change out the liner (in the drawer) once a week. The cat pee drains down into the liner. Its really a great system. I only have to change out the pellets every 6 weeks. This system averages out costing me about $3.00/week… and the best part of it – it doesn’t smell bad if you follow the directions!  My cleaning lady loves it too! There is no mess.




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My bins are Martha Stewart from Home Depot.  I sell similar bins in my Amazon Store (here [34]).  They are not labeled because they are empty right now.  Im still trying to decide what I want to put inside of them. Any suggestions?



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PRODUCTS FOUND IN MY LAUNDRY ROOM







If you are wondering where to get some of the things I use in my laundry room or my home, My Amazon Store [37] has many of them.  *The revenue that I receive from this store helps allow me to work from home to host this challenge and blog with you. Thank you!!  I am adding new products to my store each week, as I organize each room in my house.  To see my full store, click (here [37]).





SPONSOR






Meet our week #5 sponsor, FRIDGE COASTER [38].  Click on the picture to find out more about their great products!!  I use them in my own kitchen (here [39]). 


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Don’t you hate scrubbing your refrigerator bins and surfaces?  So do we! And now you don’t have to.  We’re the husband and wife duo behind Fridge Coaster.  Fridge Coasters are super absorbent “liners” that come in different sizes to fit all high traffic areas of your refrigerator. Place under produce in the crispers to keep your veggies fresh longer, or under milk and salad dressing in the doors to absorb drips that would normally dry to the bottom of your bin, ewww. Fridge Coasters provide time saving function and fashion to the inside of your refrigerator.  In addition, we’re really proud to say that our sustainable product is made 100% in the USA of 30% (or more) post consumer product.  We then use a UV-dried printing process which means the ink never bleeds beyond its original printed shape even when fully submerged in water!  How awesome is that?  Long story short, Fridge Coasters will save you a ton of time and put a smile on your face every time you open the fridge!



LINK PARTY


If you would like to share your laundry room organization, link up your blog below. If you do not have a blog, you can share your pictures on our facebook group page (here [6]).




LAUNDRY ROOM pictures only please.

Toni [40]