Keep Calm and Do the Laundry!

Sour laundry, lint, random socks, spilled detergent. I have to say that a messy laundry room is by far my biggest pet peeve. After all, the sole purpose of that room is to make things clean! Even still, this is one of the easiest rooms to let slide when you get busy.  It is usually tucked away behind a door and easily forgotten.  But with just a little effort you can make your laundry room tidier and more organized even with minimal space and money.

Here are a few of my favorite tips for a clean laundry room that can make you feel a little happier to go into.

1. Put up some shelving and separate the contents of your laundry room into containers.  This will keep things from getting mixed together and also make it easy to find what you need to complete any task.   I personally keep 5 baskets in my laundry closet which I will tell you more about later on in the post.  I purchased the baskets and labels from the Dollar Tree,  so it cost me $6 to designate a space for everything in my laundry closet.  
2. Try to make it a habit every time you start a load to wipe off the top and front of your appliances. I like to keep a cleaning product in a designated basket and put a quick spray on my sock, wash cloth or whatever else I am washing that wouldn't be damaged by such a product and just give the appliances a quick wipe down. Then I just throw it in the washing machine along with the rest of my load
3. When you empty your dryer, empty your lint trap. I keep a basket on a shelf over the dryer that I can drop the lint into and empty out once a month or so. Before I toss that aside though I make a quick swipe across the top of the dryer with the ball of lint in my hand, to pick up any little specs of lint that might have shaken loose. Nothing picks up lint like lint!
4. I also keep a piggy bank in the laundry room. Any money I find becomes mine! I fill it up then turn it into the Coinstar machine and buy myself some Ice Cream or Wine  (or both) for doing such a great job keeping my laundry room clean! Any other articles you encounter should be taken off to their designated place.
5. My advice is to not store dirty laundry in the laundry room. Bring it in load by load and take it out the same way. At most, I would keep one basket to separate “lights” you encounter as you load the machine, to be washed later when you have a full load. I personally separate them before I bring them to be washed, but I have a very small laundry room so the “lights" basket isn't even an option for me. 
6. If you do not already have a designated sewing space, this is a great place to store your sewing supplies. I keep a sewing basket that contains my sewing supplies and iron.  Also if I lose a button in the wash, and do not have time to mend it right away, I can place it with my sewing supplies basket so I know right where to find it when I do have time. 
7.  If you can, leave the washer door open between loads so it has ample time to air out. This will keep it fresh and free of any mildew. I have long ago sworn off front loading washers because the inside of them are so hard to maintain since leaving them open is usually not feasible due to space and safety concerns.  If you do have a front loading washer, try to keep something nearby to dry off the inside and outside of the plastic rim to keep that from mildewing.  

The laundry room is rarely visible to anyone but your immediate family members but that is no excuse to let it get cluttered.  Take an hour or less and clean out your space, put everything in a designated space and eliminate that feeling of guilt you feel every time you enter your laundry room.  Get back to feeling good about the fact you are getting things done around the house!  It doesn't need to look like something out of a magazine, it just needs to be functional and clean to make you feel instantly better.


Meredith