Reader's Favorite Organizing Archives - Blue i Style

Under Bathroom Sink Organization Ideas

blueistyle — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 18:38:00 +0000

The challenge is the same in every cabinet under every sink … so much stuff, so little space! Figuring out how to organize under the bathroom sink is made exponentially more challenging my those darn pipes and hoses that cut through the middle of the space. But I’m finally claiming victory and sharing some under bathroom sink organization ideas and smart space saving tips to help you do the same!

In the past, I had made a half-hearted attempt at organizing the bathroom cabinet under my sink, by adding a couple of baskets, but containers don’t do a lot of good unless you take the time to purge, sort, and create a system you can keep up with. I did none of these things! I just put anything and everything in the baskets, and then let more and more stuff pile up. And I honestly had no idea what has hiding at the bottom or behind the baskets.

But this chaos was taking a toll on my morning routine, so I finally moved this project to the top of my priority list. You may have already seen a sneak peek at this project over on Instagram, where I partnered with The Container Store to share some under bathroom sink organization ideas, but I know a project like this can feel overwhelming, so I wanted to walk you through my step by step process.

HOW TO ORGANIZE UNDER BATHROOM SINK

Following my own advice from my 10 step guide to getting organized and staying organized {download your free copy of my eBook here}, I started with a blank slate. I cleared everything out and spent some time purging and recycling.

Under sink spaces are particularly challenging because of those pipes and hoses cutting through the middle of the space, so it’s especially important to take detailed measurements before shopping for under bathroom sink organizers – including the height, width, and depth of the cabinet, as well as the space below and in front of the pipes. I also love using the space on the back of my cabinet doors, so I measured the door as well.

There are a lot of pre-fab “under sink organizer” products out there, but every sink is configured differently, so there’s really not a one size fits all solution. Starting with detailed measurements will help you choose organizing containers that will fit your space, and rule out those that won’t {saving you extra trips and returns}.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something I recommend, you’ll pay the same price, but I may receive a small commission.

Based on my measurements, I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted to organize under my bathroom sink, but it still took a little bit of tweaking to get it right. I started with two divided lazy susans – one with a 11.5 inch diameter, and one with a 9 inch diameter – and one rectangular pantry bin {don’t let the names of containers fool you – use them wherever you want!}.

The containers fit, but I still didn’t feel like I was making the best use of my space, so I rearrange them and tried again. This time I placed both divided lazy susans to one side and tucked a deep drawer bin under the pipe on the left side.

Once I was happy with the layout of the under sink organizers, I was ready to add my favorite element – another clear storage bin attached to the inside of one of the cabinet doors. I placed three adhesive picture hanging strips on the back of the bin…

…then I attached the bin to the cabinet door, making sure it was positioned to allow the door to open and close smoothly.

I had already finished purging, but before I could start filling up all of my new under sink organizer containers, I needed to group like items together. I sorted my items into the following categories:

Daily Use
Lotion
Hair
Scent
Main-Pedi
Travel
Face
Medicine

I wanted to keep the items I use every day – like my blow dry spray, detangler, hair spray, lotion, and favorite scent – in easy reach. I placed these items in the bin attached to the door so that I can grab them and put them away quickly each morning.

Then I started filling the up the lazy susans with one category of items in each section. Some categories got two sections if one wasn’t enough. The larger lazy susan has 5 sections, and the smaller has three.

Once the lazy susans were filled, I created some labels from adhesive vinyl using my Cricut. These labels not only make it look a little prettier, they also make it easier for me to quickly find what I’m looking for, and make putting things away pretty much fool proof, which is my favorite kind of organizing system!

By simply spinning the lazy susans, I can easily access the items in each section. This totally solves my old problem of not knowing what’s hiding in the back of the cabinet! See them in all their spinning glory in this video on my Instagram feed.

If you’ve been visiting my blog for a while, then you know that I love to use every bit of available space when organizing, which is why I didn’t want to let the back corner of the cabinet go to waste. A rectangular bin filled with medicine fits perfectly behind the smaller turn table. It’s hidden back there, which I don’t mind because fortunately it’s not anything I need to use daily, but it’s easy to lift out by the handle when I have a headache or my stomach is upset.

On the other side of the pipes, I used a deep drawer bin to hold my velcro rollers and foam curlers.

The bin of curlers slides right out, almost like a drawer, making it easy for me to grab what I need. Or I can lift the whole thing out and sit in on the counter.

Oh yeah, what do you think of the daily affirmation that I added to the cabinet door?! It make me laugh every morning when I open the door, which is a great way to start the day.

Finally, here’s a view of how it all came together. Such a big improvement from that messy before photo!

Shop My Favorite Under Bathroom Sink Organizers

Opening this cabinet now makes me so much happier! I no longer have bottles falling out at me when I open the door, I no longer have to dig through old, expired products to find what I’m looking for, and I no longer buy new products, only to find out I already had two extras buried in the back of the cabinet.

Happy organizing!

The post Under Bathroom Sink Organization Ideas appeared first on Blue i Style.

15 Ways to Maximize Storage With Over the Door Organizers

blueistyle — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 17:25:00 +0000

I’ve heard a lot of people advise that you don’t need more storage, you just need less stuff… and while we could all benefit from a good purging session, let’s be honest, sometimes you really do need more storage! Not everyone has the luxury of a spacious pantry, coat closet, or laundry room, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need food, hats and scarves, and clean clothes.

My biggest piece of advice for organizing when you’re short on space is to take advantage of every available nook and cranny, and one of the most commonly overlooked storage spaces is on the back of your closet doors. Don’t let that 21 square feet of prime real estate go to waste!

Here are 15 ways I use back of door organizers to create extra storage space around my own home…

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. If you purchase something I recommend, you’ll pay the same price, but I may receive a small commission.

COAT CLOSET

Coat closets are notorious for being over-crowded. And it’s no wonder… trying to fit coats, hats, scarves, gloves, and boots for an entire family into one closet is challenging! Try hanging a shoe bag on the inside of the door. The pockets are perfect for winter hats, rolled up scarves, and gloves. In addition to creating more storage space, an over the door shoe bag makes it easy to quickly see everything and find what you need when you’re in a hurry to get out the door.

I’ve also got a post with my favorite, damage-free way to hang a shoe bag on a door without using the over the door hooks, which is perfect if your doors are extra tall, like mine.

SHOP COAT CLOSET DOOR SOLUTIONS

CLOTHES CLOSET

Next up, let’s talk clothes closets. Both of my boys have fairly small closets, so using the space on the back of their closet doors is an ideal solution, especially for those items that aren’t made for hanging and don’t work well in drawers.

My older son loves sunglasses and dressing like a dapper little gentleman, so he has quite a few accessories, like bow ties and suspenders. He also wants to save all the birthday cards and postcards he receives, so I created some simple DIY back of door organizers for his closet that I attached with removable 3M Command Strips.

The top organizer has hooks for his belts, ties, and suspenders, as well as clips for hanging cards. The lower organizer has denim pockets for holding smaller accessories, like sunglasses, watches, and bow ties. I designed these accessories organizers with denim and leather to match the menswear theme of his bedroom.

My younger son’s closet is even smaller, and we needed a place for all of his hats and shoes. A standard shoe bag wouldn’t accommodate hats, so I found this over closet door organizer with spacious pockets. His closet has very narrow, double doors that pull open, and this organizer is narrower than most, making it a perfect fit. I added one to the back of each door, and used some of the extra pockets for the items we need for weekly events, like soccer practice and swim lessons. One of the pockets is large enough to accommodate his soccer jersey, shorts, socks, shin guards, and cleats.

SHOP CLOSET DOOR SOLUTIONS

You may have noticed one more bonus feature of the back of door organizer that I used for Cooper’s hats and shoes… the bottom is a hamper dirty clothes hamper that lifts off when I’m ready to carry it to the washer. Now we don’t have a hamper taking up floor space in the room – win/win!

SHOP DOOR HAMPER SOLUTIONS

BATHROOM

When it comes to toiletries, I prefer to always have extras on hand so that I never run out of something important at an inopportune time {although, let’s be honest, there’s no good time to run out of toothpaste or deodorant!}. But keeping all those around takes up a lot of space. I tried to keep it all under the bathroom sink wasn’t working for us, so I decided to add a some adjustable metal baskets to the back of a door in the bathroom. I attached the metal rail directly to our door {using hollow-core door screws and anchors}, but there are hooks I could have used at the top and bottom of the door to make this set-up removable.

This system gives us plenty of space for extra toiletries, medicine, and even our bathroom cleaning supplies. Having everything visible at a glance also makes it much easier to see when we are running low on something so I can add it to our shopping list before we run out.

SHOP BATHROOM DOOR SOLUTIONS

LAUNDRY ROOM

A laundry room was on my “must have” list when we were house shopping, and yet the house we fell in love with had a laundry closet. In my quest to make the laundry closet function like a room, I needed to add as much storage as I could. We added cabinets above the washer and dryer for all of our extra toilet paper and paper towels {lightweight makes the most sense for these cabinets because I’m short and can just reach.}

Then we turned to the back of the doors for everything else. On one of the double doors, I installed a rail with three metal baskets deep enough to hold various detergents and sprays, as well as canisters for stain sticks, lint brushes, buttons, needles and thread, and more. The bottom basket sits just high enough to clear the counter top when the door is closed. I attached the metal rail directly to our door {using hollow-core door screws and anchors}, but there are hooks I could have used at the top and bottom of the door to make this set-up removable.

On the other door, we installed a mutli-layer towel bar that we use to hang clothes to dry. I can drape sweaters over the rails, or hang my husbands dress shirts on hangers.

Below the hanging rack, I installed a glass noticeboard with a printed guide to laundry symbols behind the glass. Using a chalk marker, I can make notes on the glass that keep Scott and I on the same page when we share laundry responsibilities. I’ll often make a note to check specific shirts to confirm that stains are removed before drying them, or notes reminding us that certain shirts have to be hung to dry. If you like it, you can download and print this “Guide to Laundry Symbols” poster in your choice of colors.

SHOP LAUNDRY DOOR SOLUTIONS

STATIONERY & GIFT TAGS

A couple of years ago I transformed half of our guest room closet into an organized gift wrap station. I used bins, baskets, and drawers in the closet for the larger items, but I needed a solution for all of the small stuff. A set of adjustable metal baskets turned out to be the perfect place to organize all of my decorative tap, gift tags, greeting cards, stationary, and bows. I used clear bins within the baskets to keep everything neatly contained {and stop small items from falling through the metal baskets}. You can read all the details in this post.

I attached the metal rail directly to our door {using hollow-core door screws and anchors}, but there are hooks I could have used at the top and bottom of the door to make this set-up removable.

The back of the door is also a great place to store wrapping paper, gift bags, and other gift wrap supplies.

SHOP BACK OF DOOR GIFT WRAP ORGANIZATION SOLUTIONS

CLEANING SUPPLIES

My mom had the great idea to use a shoe bag to keep all of her cleaning supplies in easy reach on the back of the linen closet door at my parent’s vacation house. The clear pockets make it easy to see all of the contents, allowing anyone staying at the house to find what they need to do their part!

See that ribbon she used instead of the standard metal hooks? I’ve got a tutorial for this damage-free way to hang a shoe bag on a door.

SHOP OTHER CLEANING CLOSET DOOR SOLUTIONS

LINEN CLOSET

I used to avoid using my table clothes and table runners, because I hated having to iron them before each use. I thought there was no way to avoid the creases from folding them, but there is… hang them, instead! I installed two narrow towel bar on the inside of my linen closet doors, and I now hang all my table linens as well as extra blankets right on the door.

SHOP LINEN CLOSET DOOR SOLUTIONS

SPRAY PAINT

As you know, I use spray paint to makeover anything and everything! I have just about every color on hand all the time at the ready for my DIY whims. But spray paint is challenging to store. You shouldn’t keep it in the garage where it might get too cold and freeze, but you also can’t keep it in the utility room near the furnace because it’s combustible. I finally came up with a good solution by hanging a shoe bag on the inside of a closet door. It gives me plenty of space for all of my cans of spray paint, and the pockets on top are great for the stain pens that I use to touch up our wood floor and trim.

See that ribbon I used instead of the standard metal hooks? I’ve got a tutorial for this damage-free way to hang a shoe bag on a door, which is especially helpful on extra tall doors, like I have.

I get that you might not have the extensive spray paint collection that I have, but I bet you do have some other craft and DIY supplies, or even office supplies that need to be organized!

SHOP BACK OF DOOR CRAFT & DIY SUPPLY SOLUTIONS

SEASONAL DECOR

I love to decorate for every different season, but constantly swapping out our holiday decor means that I need a place to store it the rest of the year. I have an extra hall closet that I affectionately call my “prop closet.” Shelves along the back of the closet hold holiday decor, one wall is used for wreath storage, and a shoe back hanging on the back of the closet door is perfect for storing faux flowers and pillar candles.

Now that I have a dedicated candle storage cabinet in the living room, I use this entire over the door shoe bag for flowers – but pillar candles do fit perfectly in the pockets!

PANTRY BULLETIN BOARD

I originally planned to use the back of the door in our pantry for a space saving spice rack. But then I discovered that the pantry shelves are set back just far enough that I could use the wall space on the right side of the pantry for floor to ceiling shelves for all of our spices and oils.

Of course, I still wanted to find a way to put our pantry door to good use, so I decided to hang a simple DIY bulletin board {cork board wrapped in fabric} on the back of the door. This gives us the perfect place to keep our family calendar, birthday party invitations, school flyers, and – of course – adorable baby announcements. I love keeping these items right at eye-level on the inside of the door where we see them numerous times a day without creating visual clutter in the kitchen.

If you don’t want to DIY your own pantry door bulletin board, check out these cute options:

SHOP STYLISH BULLETIN BOARDS

Or if you need extra food storage, put the pantry door to use with one of these great storage options:

SHOP BACK OF PANTRY DOOR STORAGE SOLUTIONS

CABINET DOORS

Last, but certainly not least, don’t forget about using the inside of your cabinet doors as well! Under the kitchen sink, I added a towel bar on one side and a paper towel holder on the other side.

In my boys’ bathroom, I used 3M Command Strips to attached a divided metal bin to the inside of the cabinet door to hold their toothbrushes, combs, and washcloths.

SHOP CABINET DOOR ORGANIZERS

Still want more back of door organizing ideas?! I’m working on a couple more right now that I’ll be sharing with you soon! Be sure to sign up to become an Email Insider so you don’t miss any of my organizing, decorating, or DIY tips!

The post 15 Ways to Maximize Storage With Over the Door Organizers appeared first on Blue i Style.

Water Bottle Storage

blueistyle — Fri, 19 Jan 2018 16:00:00 +0000

Do you ever flinch as you open one of your kitchen cabinets because you expect something to come tumbling out at your face? That was me with the cabinet where we store our water bottles. Once upon a time, I had organized the cabinet using baskets. That worked well when my boys were using mostly sippy cups, but as we transitioned to water bottles that are bigger around that the sippy cups, they no longer fit in the baskets very well, and we ended up with a scary situation like this…

I knew I needed to find a better solution, and one that would maximize the available space in our cabinet. I started by removing everything from the cabinet so that I could decide what should really make its way back in, and what we should donate.

This post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase something I recommend, I may receive a small commission, but you’ll pay the same price.

The shelves were pretty dirty, so I quickly wiped out the dust and crumbs, and then used a magic eraser to remove the remaining scuffs and marks.

Once I’d sorted through our water bottle collection and decided what should stay and what should go, I took inventory to see how many bottles I needed to make room for.

One of the keys to keeping any space organized is to create a system that makes it easier to put things away in the right spot than to not. For our water bottles, this meant I needed a solution where each bottle had a designated spot so that we never had to rearrange things to make them fit, and where we’d never have to worry about bottles tipping over and falling out of the cabinet.

If you saw my Instagram Story last week, then you already know that the water bottle storage solution I came up with is to use some stacking wine racks! Since we have water bottles of different size and shapes, I picked these solid plastic iDesign wine holders. Most of the wood and metal options aren’t solid and would allow shorter water bottles to fall through, but these solid plastic are perfect and they come in white or clear.

I adjusted the shelves in the cabinet to allow me to stack the wine racks three high on the bottom and middle shelves.

I ended up using a total of 9 of the stacking wine racks {they’re cheaper when you buy them in sets of 2 or 4, so I have one extra that I’ll probably end up using in the fridge}.

I’m still using a basket on the second shelf up for some miscellaneous items that we don’t use often, but didn’t want to get rid of, like a few cups with lids and straws.

But all of the water bottles that we use on a regular basis, as well as a few insulated coffee cups, fit perfectly on the stacking wine racks. I love that I can see everything when I open the cabinet door, and it’s so easy to grab what I need and just as easy to put them away!

To get the rest of the cabinet organized, I’m using a small lazy susan for all of the boys plastic cups. I found that stacking them upside down makes them more stable, so they don’t tip over as I turn it around.

My boys can’t get enough of these super long bendy straws that can be twisted into spirals, or even tied in a knot. I grabbed an extra mason jar to keep the straws up right and in easy reach.

We’ve donated all of our other sippy cups, but I do like having a few toddler cups on hand for friends and cousins when they visit. Our favorites are the dentist-recommended, spoutless Miracle Cups. They don’t stack inside each other very well, but I had just enough room left on the shelf for four of them stacked two deep.

I always joke about how happy an organized space makes me, and that I’ll open the door just to admire it. Well, I think I’ve officially rubbed off on my husband, because Scott can’t stop opening the cabinet door and the silverware drawer {a story for another day} and smiling at the new organized situation.

I love quick and easy organizing projects! There’s so much satisfaction in finding a simple solution that solves a problem and makes life a little easier! This might just be my favorite five minute organizing project of all time!

The post Water Bottle Storage appeared first on Blue i Style.

Brilliant Ways to Organize the Garage

blueistyle — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 16:00:00 +0000

Our garage used to be my dirty little secret. I would go out of my way to not let friends of family ever sneak a peek in there because it was so bad. SO bad. Like “no room to park two cars in a three car garage” bad!

Last fall we finally reclaimed our garage and I shared lots of pictures with you when we finished. Since then, I’ve gotten quite a few comments suggesting that the photos looked good because it was just a “staged” version of our garage, and that it wouldn’t look that way once we started really using it with all of our stuff.

But almost a year later, I’m proud to say that our garage still looks almost exactly the same. And that is for one reason, and one reason only…

…because when I took those pretty garage photos, all of our stuff was already in there. We simply found creative ways to give everything a dedicated space, which not only makes the garage look nice, but more importantly, it makes it easy to keep it organized.

So today I want to show you how we did it by giving you a much more detailed tour of all the solutions we employed to make the garage an organized space with room for everything, and that’s easy to maintain.

But, of course, we need to start at the beginning. The scary, overwhelming beginning.

THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE

The garage needs to be the hardest working space in the whole house. We need ours to serve as a workshop for our DIY projects, hold all of our outdoor tools and toys {as well as our outdoor cushions and decor during the off-season}, bikes and sporting equipment, holiday decor, and so much more.

We are lucky to have a finished basement that adds a lot of living space to our house, but that means almost no extra storage space. As a result, the garage also becomes a catch all space everything else that we have no room for inside the house.

That’s a tall order! And until last year, our garage was not up to the task. This was the “cleaned up” version after we cleared out tons of no longer needed items last fall…

You can see that we’d made an effort to organize the space once upon a time. But a wall full of shelving units and all the plastic totes in the world weren’t going to make this space functional because it didn’t give us room for all of the other “stuff” we needed to store. And as long as the bikes, wagons, strollers, tools, and trash cans were piled in front of the shelves, getting to the semi-organized stuff on the shelves was an impossibility.

WHERE TO BEGIN?
MAKE A LIST

We came to the realization that we needed to start from scratch with a whole new organizational plan. Once we had cleared out everything that we no longer wanted or needed {donations, recycling, and trash – in that order}.

Then I made a list of everything that remained, and also made a pass through the house adding to the list anything else that I wanted to relocate to the garage. Then I got really bold, and added to the list some of our big wish list items, like an extra fridge, freezer, and rolling workbench. I figured it I was starting over, this was the time to try to find a space for those items.

DIVIDE & CONQUER

Once I had a fairly comprehensive list, I started dividing the list into categories. I then measured the garage and started to sketch out a plan that would address each category on my list.

I designated a zone for each type of item that we needed to store in the garage, and then began brainstorming the best ways to address each need. Here’s the final version of the plan I came up with {although a few things still changed once we started to implement the plan}:

By breaking it down section by section, and category by category, it was a lot easier to brainstorm creative solutions.

The ultimate key to my plans came down to the organizing mantra I come back to time and again – use every available space! That includes the walls, floor, and ceiling, and a few more spots you might be overlooking. Let’s break it down space by space…

*This post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase something I recommend you’ll pay the same price, but I may receive a small commission, which helps me keep this blog running.

DITCH THE SHELF UNITS
& CLEAR THE FLOOR

The number one key to our success in our garage was ditching the shelf units that I bought when I first moved in. They originally seemed like a great solution, but over time their flaws became obvious. They didn’t allow us to take full advantage of the height of the garage, we ended up stacking all of the larger items in front of them.

I realized that no amount of organization was going to make our garage work for us until we could figure out a way to keep the floor space clear so that we weren’t climbing over bikes, trikes, wagons, and coolers in order to get to everything else.

The solution was to install a system of shelves and drawers on the garage wall, with enough open space below to tuck most of our larger items underneath. {Side Note: Notice that shiny, pretty metallic floor?! You can read more about that here.}

There are a lot of options out there for inexpensive wall track shelving systems, but after looking at all of my options, I decided that I was willing to splurge a bit for a customizable system that allowed for both shelves and drawers. {Fortunately, my splurge was off-set by a 25% off sale, phew!}

Over the years, I’ve found that bins are great for items that we use occasionally, but they become a pain to put up and down for more frequently used items. Choosing matching white plastic totes for the shelves helps keep the garage looking fresh and clean.

That’s why I love the drawers so, so much! They provide us much easier, eye-level access to many of the things that we use on a regular basis. Rather than the standard ventilated drawers, I opted for the translucent plastic drawers with snap on lids that keep everything inside clean and free from dust and bugs.

Regardless of whether drawers are the right option for your needs, definitely opt for adjustable hanging shelves that allow you to clear the floor space and adjust the spacing between the shelves as your future needs change.

So what did we put in all the bins and drawers?

UPPER SHELF BINS: Holiday and seasonal decor that’s only accessed a couple of times a year
LOWER SHELF BINS: Tarps; Moving blankets; Beverage dispensers for entertaining; Shop lights; Shop vac accessories
DRAWERS: Reusable shopping bags; BBQ tools; Picnic backpack & blanket; Gardening gloves & tools; Extra trash bags; Car wash tools & towels; Ropes & cords; Shop rags; Extra light bulbs; Small balls and sporting equipment

I added simple paint chip labels to the front of each bin and drawer to make it easy for everyone to find what they need, and to add a fun touch of color. Paint Chip Label Tutorial

Moving everything up onto the walls to clear the floor space provided room for us to tuck a lot of the bulky and heavy stuff underneath, including our rolling beverage cooler, wagon, trike, scooter, shop vac and air compressor.

Hanging the shelves and drawers on the wall also allowed us to take full advantage of the height of the garage, which allowed us to free up additional wall space for the extra fridge and freezer that we had been wanting and needing.

The white fridge and freezer were calling out for something fun, so I covered them both in more paint chips. The tutorial for that is coming soon!

OUT OF REACH OF LITTLE HANDS

We were able to take advantage of the space on top of the fridge and freezer for additional storage, including for our cooler and beverage tubs. We also used this space for all of the liquids that need to be kept out of reach of little hands, like weed and bug sprays, antifreeze, windshield wiper fluid, and cleaners.

I used large open front storage bins {similar to these} to contain all of the bottles, and to ensure that any leaks would be contained.

YARD TOOLS

We use to have a rolling tool organizer {like this one}, and it worked well when it was in the corner of our garage with high ceilings, but when we tried relocating it next to the fridge, the garage door creates a lower “ceiling” and it was to hard to shovels and brooms with long handles in and and out of the rolling cart.

We decided to instead use the open wall space to hang our yard tools, and we installed a broom and rake tool hanger with adjustable clamps that can hold handles of various diameters. We wanted to keep the clippers up high, out of reach of the kids, so we installed three garage wall hooks to keep them securely in place above the other tools.

Hanging the tools freed up the floor space for our frequently used items, like our bucket and watering can.

In keeping with the theme of taking advantage of every available space, we also made use of the side of the fridge for additional tool storage. Five heavy duty magnetic hooks hold our broom, dustpan, pond skimmer, collapsible gardening trash can, and light bulb changing extension pole.

TRASH & RECYCLING

Trash cans always pose a storage challenge in the garage because they take up so much space. We live in a neighborhood with an alley rather than a driveway, so when we had our new backyard fence built a couple of years ago, we included a small, gated enclosure against the fence to hold our three large, city issued bins for trash, recycling, and composting.

Moving these three large bins out of the garage and out of site, while still keeping them out of sight has been a major game changer for us.

If you’re looking for a similar solution for hiding trash cans, take a look at these options:

WORKBENCH & TOOLS

In the front corner of the garage, we finally have a dedicated workshop space that provides enough storage for all of our tools and makes it easy to work on projects.

I wanted a nice, stationary workbench, but since we splurged on the wall shelving/drawer installation, I opted for a very inexpensive but functional workbench, and then made it look nicer with a few easy DIYs. We swapped out the particle board top and lower shelf on this workbench for birch plywood sheets from Home Depot {$20 each}, which I stained with Rust-Oleum Summer Oak and added two coats of polyurethane for a higher end look. I also painted the peg board using Sea Mist Pearl Metallic spray paint.

But let’s focus on the function…

Large Tools. One of our biggest challenges was finding storage space for our miter saw without filling up our work surface. That’s where this workbench is a big winner for us. That large shelf on the bottom is perfect for our saw, as well as our large toolbox, and more.

Extension Cords. Because the workbench frame is metal, we were able to use two more heavy duty magnetic hooks to hold extension cord roller cases. These keeps our extension cords close at hand without taking up valuable shelf space.

Pegboard. The pegboard is a great solution for basic tools that we use frequently. Having these tools on display makes it easy to grab and go when I’m working on a project in the house and need to hang a few pictures or assemble a piece of furniture.

In addition to using hooks to hang tools, I added a couple of pegboard part bins for my measuring tape and allen wrenches.

Instruction Manuals. I’ve always kept all of our instructional manuals together in the house, but I realized that it would be much easier to keep the manuals in the garage for our tools, air compressor, and the like. I hung a white file holder on the pegboard to keep all of our garage-related manuals in the same place.

Nails & Screws. I wanted to organize our nails, screws and other small parts and pieces in a way that I could easily carry them in the house for hanging photos and other small household projects. I used to teal craft boxes to sort and store them. If you want more details on how I organized everything in these boxes, including how I added labels to keep track of sizes, watch this quick video I made.

Rolling Workbench. While I love stationary workbench provides a lot of storage and function, there are times when we need more elbow room to work – especially when using our saw to cut large pieces of wood. To address this need, I purchased a rolling workbench with an adjustable height top. I love that that it can be moved out into the middle or the garage for projects. And, of course, the then drawers of varying depths are perfect for storing all of our other tools.

That “DIY with Style” wood sign was a quick and easy project, and it does a great job of hiding a bunch of electric wires that run through the studs right behind the sign.

HANGING FROM THE WALLS

We still had quite a few big items that needed to be stored for easy access, so we again looked to the walls. Our fold-flat sawhorse worktables hang on the wall above the rolling workbench using two extra deep ladder hooks.

Because these worktables are very lightweight, it’s easy to lift them up and down when we need them for a project.

We also hung our step ladder and our full height ladder from the garage walls as well. The step ladder hangs from a jumbo ladder hook.

We tried hanging our tall ladder using the same kind of hook, but it didn’t hold it flush enough to the wall. Instead, we ended up using a multi-use storage bracket.

Doesn’t that metallic floor just get you every time?!

BIKE PULLEY SYSTEM

Originally we had planned to hang our bikes the opposite direction with some simple ceiling hooks, but then realized that they our SUVs were too tall to park under the bikes in that position. Instead, we ended up hanging them parallel to the front wall of the garage using a bike pulley system – and I’m so glad we did!

I had been concerned about my ability to lift my bike down form the ceiling, and thanks to the pulley system, I don’t have to! Instead, I simply have to unwind the excess rope, pull to release the locking mechanism, and lower my bike.

The wall hooks that we wind the excess rope around also provide a perfect spot to hang our bike helmets.

OUTDOOR CUSHION & COVER STORAGE

Last, but not least, we needed to find way to store all of our outdoor cushions, pillows, and accessories during the snowy winter months, and where store our bulky furniture covers during the summer months. I knew a deck storage box would be the ideal solution, but we didn’t have a good place for one in our small backyard.

We park two cars in our three car garage, and I was thrilled when the measurements revealed that we had just enough depth for a large deck storage box in front of one of the parking spaces {below the bikes}.

We were left with just a small bit of extra space next to the deck box that turned out to be the perfect spot to tuck away our folding banquet tables that we deemed too heavy to hang on the wall, as well as our jawhorse portable work station.

Phew… that was long! Let’s review. Here’s a quick summary of my best garage organization tips:

WHERE TO START: Make a list. Divide and conquer.
DITCH THE SHELF UNITS & CLEAR THE FLOOR. Opt for adjustable wall shelves and drawers with space below for larger items. This provides the flexibility to adjust as your storage needs change.
OUT OF REACH OF LITTLE HANDS. Create a space up high for potentially dangerous / toxic items.
YARD TOOLS. Make the most of vertical space using wall hooks and heavy duty magnets.
TRASH & RECYCLING. Create an outdoor enclosure to keep these out of the garage.
WORKBENCH & TOOLS. Allow space for large tools without taking up your work surface; use pegboard for your most frequently used tools; dedicate a space for instruction manuals; use small divided bins to organize nails and screws; a rolling workbench provides a flexible work space.
UTILIZE WALL & CEILING SPACE. Use a variety of hooks to hang yard tools, sawhorses, ladders, and bikes. Pulley systems makes it easy to hang bikes from the ceiling without the weight of lifting them down.
OUTDOOR CUSHION & COVER STORAGE. Create a dedicate space to store outdoor cushions/pillows during the winter, and to store furniture covers during the summer.

I’ll leave you with a last look at how all of the full organized garage, for perspective on how each of these organized zones fit together.

SHOP GARAGE ORGANIZATION

Be sure to pin the image below so you can find your way back to these organizing tips when you are ready to tackle your own garage!

Want more details on some of the other projects in the garage? Use the links below, and feel free to leave me a comment if you have a question that I haven’t answered.

OTHER GARAGE PROJECTS

How to Install Wall Mounted Shelving	Metallic Garage Floor Finish
Nails & Screw Organization	Paint Chip Labels
Framed Paint Brushes	DIY Wood Sign
Paint Chip Fridge – Coming Soon	Better Homes & Gardens Photo Shoot

The post Brilliant Ways to Organize the Garage appeared first on Blue i Style.

IKEA HACK: 20 Ways to Organize With an Ikea Shoe Cabinet

blueistyle — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 11:23:00 +0000

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who said they have too much storage in their home. Quite the opposite! No matter the size of your home, I am willing to bet you have at least a few problem items that are a constant source of clutter or that you just can’t find a good place to store.

We recently bought an IKEA shoe cabinet to organize the piles of shoes that are constantly piling up in our kitchen. But after assembling the cabinet for our entry way, it occurred to me that it could also provide a perfect storage solution for tons of other items as well.

At only 11 inches deep, and with two tilt-out doors, a shoe cabinet like this could fit just about anywhere from the entry way or mudroom to the office or even a kids room. The organizing potential is pretty much limitless! I came up with a crazy long list of ideas, and I managed to photograph 20 of them. So today I give you 20 Ways to Organize With a Shoe Cabinet that Don’t Involve Shoes…

If you’re not familiar with the IKEA Hemnes shoe cabinet, be sure to watch the video above for some context of what the cabinet looks like and how the tilt-out doors work. Now let’s take a closer looks at some of the ways you could use this versatile piece of furniture to organize just about anything in your home.

*This post contains some affiliate links.

First up are three solutions that solve problems I hear most often from readers: electronics overload; an overflowing coat closet; and no space for gift wrap supplies.

Electronics are a constant source of clutter! There was a time when there was a computer on the desk in the office, and that was that. But now we have multiple laptops, tablets, and portable keyboards floating around the house all the time. Add to that cameras and video cameras, headphones, and other small electronics. These are all items that we want to keep close at hand and easily accessible, but they too often wind up piled up on the kitchen counter.

I recently created a stylish solution for storing our cords, cables and chargers on the kitchen counter, but the bigger items are more challenging. I gathered up all of our gear and was amazed at how easily it all fit in one tilt-out section of the shoe cabinet, with room to spare.

Many people struggle with a too small coat closet, or simply want to store their winter gear closer to the back door where they more frequently come and go from the house. In addition to keeping shoes from piling up on the floor, the tilt-out doors of a shoe cabinet can also provide a great space to store umbrellas, rolled up scarves, hats, gloves, and earmuffs.

I use one side of our guest room closet for storing gift wrap supplies, but I’ve heard from a lot of readers who say they need a more compact solution for wrapping paper, bows, and gift tags. I decided to test out the shoe cabinet for this purpose and was pleasantly surprised to find that a standard size roll of wrapping paper fits nicely at an angle, allowing the door to still close with no problem. A narrow shoe cabinet in the hallway, guest room, or office would allow ample space for wrapping paper, gift bags, rolls of ribbon, bows, greeting cards, and gift tags.

Here are 17 more ideas broken down by category…

FOR FAMILY GAME & MOVIE NIGHTS

My boys have started to get really into games and puzzles lately, and I’m looking forward to many family game nights in our future! Our closed storage space is at a premium, and I don’t love the way game boxes look stored on open shelves, so I decided to test out some games in the shoe cabinet. Even our biggest board game boxes fit easily!

Ok, so I’m probably dating myself here by showing you that we have a DVD collection. We typically stream the new movies that we want to watch, but I just can’t let go of my old favorites that I enjoy watching over and over again in the background while I work. Plus the kids have their own collection of animated movies now. The shoe cabinet has plenty of room for all of our DVDs, as well as the remotes.

And what’s a family movie night without some cozy blankets to curl up under? I tucked two of our favorite blankets in the shoe cabinet, but I could have easily fit two more just in this section alone!

Our Wii hasn’t seen much action in the last five years, and my husband rarely finds time to play XBox football any more… but I know the days of video games will soon return to our house as the boys get older. And when they do, the shoe cabinet will provide a great option for storing all the games and controllers neatly out of sight.

IF YOU’RE SHORT ON LINEN CLOSET SPACE

The hallway linen closet {if you’re lucky enough to have one} is often bursting at the seams! A shallow shoe cabinet would be the perfect solution for storing extra sheets and towels. You could even add one of these space saving cabinets in a small bathroom for towels and toiletries.

When I lived in a small apartment during grad school, I found cleaning supplies to be one of the most challenging things to store. I had no room to spare in the kitchen, the one bathroom cabinet was too small for anything extra. I decided to test out the shoe cabinet and found that it could hold extra rolls of paper towels, toilet paper, boxes of tissues, napkins, dusting rags, and more. Bottles of cleaners would also fit nicely in one of the tilt-out doors.

Try as I might to use fabric shopping bags as much as possible, I still wind up with lots of paper and plastic grocery bags in the house. I take most of the plastic bags to the bag recycling bin at the front of Target about once a month, but I need somewhere to store them in the meantime. And that paper bags are always good to have on hand for reuse. I typically store mine under the kitchen sink, but I love they way they fit in the shoe cabinet as well!

FOR THE DIY & CRAFTY TYPES

As a addicted DIY and crafter, spray paint is one of my favorite tools. But storing it has always been a challenge. Our garage is detached and unheated, so it’s not an ideal spot for paint. And our small utility room is ok for storing extra water-based paint {like latex wall paint}, but it’s a no-no for cans of spray paint and other paints that are flammable or combustible. I was easily able to fit my entire rainbow of spray paint in the shoe cabinet. The tilt-out doors would also be great for storing other painting supplies, like drop cloths, paint brushes and rollers, and painter’s tape.

I’ve talked a few times recently here on the blog about my Cricut electronic cutter being one of my favorite craft tools. I love all of the ways I can use it to create decor and to make beautiful labels for my organizing projects, but storing and organizing my growing collection of rolls of adhesive vinyl has become a challenge. I discovered that the shoe cabinet is the perfect size for my vinyl, as well as my oversized cutting mats, paper and paper cutter. This would also be a great solution for scrapbooking supplies or other craft supplies!

Our recently organized garage is where we store all of our big tools, but I like keeping the small tools that we use on a regular basis {like nails and picture hangers, measuring tape, hammer, screw drivers, and small cordless drill} inside the house where I can grab them quickly when I’m hanging a piece of art or assembling a piece of furniture. All of these items fit neatly in just one half of one of the shoe cabinet tilt-out doors. I filled the other half with extra light bulbs – another of the items that we never seem to have a good place for in the house.

BECAUSE . . . KIDS!

These last few ideas are all about the kids. Whether you’re a parent or a grandparent, you know how quickly kids stuff can take over a room {or a whole house}. Books, games, legos, trucks, dolls and action figures… just so much stuff!

Our kids have a play area in the basement and keep more toys in their rooms, but they also like to have some books and toys on the main floor of the house. I don’t mind them playing in the kitchen and front room, but I’d rather the toys in these spaces be stored out of sight when not in use. I was impressed by how much I could fit in the shoe cabinet, and the boys thought it was so fun to tilt-open the doors to find their treasures inside! This would also be a great way to keep library books separate from other books in the house so they can be quickly located when the due date rolls around.

My boys have really gotten into art lately, so our collections of kids’ art supplies is quickly expanding… construction paper, coloring books, stencils, paint, crayons, markets, colored pencils… so much to keep track of! But the shoe cabinet is up to the challenge, and the large space is perfect for storing the over-sized items, like my boys’ favorite Melissa and Doug reusable sticker pads.

And where there’s art supplies, there’s bound to be loads of precious artwork! Between the art they create at home and all of the drawings and paintings they bring home from preschool, I needed a way to store our favorites. A while back I shared my solution for filing and protecting kids’ art work in these archival storage boxes, and it turns out that they fit perfectly inside the shoe cabinet!

We’ve been a diaper free household for about six months now {hooray!}, but anyone with little ones knows the pain of running up and down the stairs for every diaper change. I preferred to keep some diapers, wipes, and cream on each floor of the house, rather than having to trek from the basement playroom to the nursery hour after hour. I filled the shoe cabinet up with the extras we had around, but it could easily hold way more than you see here. This would be a great way to keep a supply in easy reach for quick changes away from the nursery.

BANISH THE PAPER PILES

Paper clutter seems to be the number one challenge in most households. It piles up and gets out of hand so quickly. If you struggling to get your paper problem under control, consider adding a shoe cabinet near the front door. It’s a great place to drop the day’s mail, the newspaper, files, calendars, and planners. The tilt-out doors are wide enough that you can easily give each it’s own dedicated space.

Where are my fellow magazine and catalog hoarders? Do you love to hang on to them so you can flip through them again later? Yep, me too! But I hate having stacks of them piling up around the house. Shoe cabinet to the rescue again…

I use these translucent storage boxes to contain all of the instruction manuals, organized into a few categories to make it easier to quickly find what we need. But the boxes are a bit too deep to fit on the shelves of our entry table or in our cabinets. But one of the tilt-out doors of the shoe cabinet is the perfect size to hold all four instruction manual storage boxes.

Whew!! How’s that for the most functional IKEA hack around?! Would you believe me if I told you that’s just a small portion of the list I came up with for ways to organize with an IKEA Hemnes shoe cabinet? I bet by now you would believe it, and I bet you’ve even come up with some new ideas that I haven’t thought of yet.

Be sure to pin these 20 ideas for later {I’ve got an easy pinnable image for you below} and then leave me a comment to let me know how else you’d organize with a shoe cabinet! A “Part 2” may be in the future…

My friend Melissa, over at Polished Habitat, also compiled a list of 14 genius ways to use a shoe cabinets to add extra storage in the kitchen. If you’re tight on cabinet or pantry space, you won’t want to miss her tips!

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Small Laundry Room Organization Ideas

blueistyle — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 21:58:00 +0000

Whether you have a tiny laundry closet or a spacious laundry room – its job requirements are the same. This means that the smaller the space, the harder it needs to work for you! This post is full of clever laundry room organization ideas that are perfect for small laundry rooms and laundry closets.

Last week I showed you my newly made over laundry closet, and shared all the stylish details, like the temporary wallpaper, the pendant light, and the abstract art. Let’s be honest, though… a pretty laundry room might make the chore more bearable, but if the space isn’t organized and functional, the bloom will soon be off the rose!

This post contains some affiliate links. If you buy something that I recommend, you pay the same price, but I may receive a small commission.

When designing my new laundry space, I spent a great deal of time focusing on the organizational and functional details. I followed the same 10 steps that I always do when tackling an organizing project, including completely emptying the space, measuring twice and making a plan, using every available space, and selecting appropriate containers.

You can read all about my organizing process here, but today I want to talk about the specific small laundry room organizing ideas and products that help our laundry closet function like a much larger space.

Laundry Closet Organization Ideas

Despite the small square footage of our laundry closet, we’ve managed to pack in plenty of function by finding creative uses for the available space, including the walls, the doors, and even the floor.

Laundry Room Wall Cabinets

I am a proponent of using every available space for storage, so you might wonder why I chose to install only two cabinets above the washer and dryer, when there was room for three? It was about striking the right balance between all of my needs – and in this case, the need for better light in the formerly dark and shadowy closet won out. Leaving a space between the cabinets allowed me to add much needed light. The fact that the light fixture is also very stylish is just a bonus!

From the start, I liked the idea of glass front cabinets doors for added style, and because they would allow me add green to the cabinet doors without it being too much of a good thing. I knew, however, that glass door wouldn’t be the best decision if I planned to use the cabinets to store detergents and cleaning supplies, because seeing all of this inside the cabinets would make the space feel visually overwhelming.

This is where the planning process comes in. Before purchasing the cabinets, I had already made a list of everything that I wanted/needed to store in the laundry closet, and in looking at that list I realized that the cabinets would provide just the right amount of storage to allow me to purchase paper towels and toilet paper in bulk.

It saves so much money to buy paper towels and toilet paper in bullk (at places like Costco), but I needed a dedicated space to store it all. I always keep a couple of extra rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom, but the remainder of my paper products were previously taking up too much space in the linen closet. Storing all the extras in cabinets above the washer and dryer was a much better solution for my needs.

I can now store 12 extra rolls of paper towels, and two large packs of toilet paper. Because these rolls are lightweight and soft, they are much easier for me to reach in the cabinets without fear of dropping something heavy.

Once I decided that I would use the cabinets to store only my white paper products, the decision to select glass front doors was an easy one. IKEA Centennial, one of my sponsors of this laundry closet makeover, provided these SEKTION white wall cabinets with Björket birch and glass doors, which I painted in Sherwin Williams Kilkenny Green (SW 6740).

Laundry Closet Back of Door Organizers

Using the cabinets for my paper supplies meant, of course, that I needed to find somewhere else to store all of my detergents, stain removers, and other laundry supplies.

To address this, we installed a platinum colored Elfa mounting rail from The Container Store to the back of the door on the left side of the laundry closet. From that rail, I hung three Elfa Utility Large/Deep Baskets.

You probably noticed that all of the baskets are on the top portion of the door. This is because, when closed, there is very little space between the doors and the front of the my washer and dryer. In the picture below, you can see that a basket on the lower half of the door would bump into the washer.

I positioned my baskets carefully to ensure the bottom basket would clear the countertop when the door is close. But if you have a deeper laundry closet, or a full laundry room, you could certainly take advantage of more of the door space by adding baskets all the way down.

The Elfa utility baskets also come in a variety of other sizes, including narrower and shallower. I chose the widest and deepest baskets available to maximize my storage space.

I use the top basket on the door for my bottles of stain remover spray and other laundry supplies.

Containing Small Items in Glass Storage Jars

When it comes to finding containers to fit in the Elfa baskets, I recommend taking one with you to test various container options. Relying on the measurements alone is deceiving, because they are based on the outside dimensions of the basket, rather than the inside. Additionally, the very center of each basket has an inset where it fits on to the Elfa rail.

I took one of my Elfa large/deep baskets with me to IKEA when I was in search of jars, and I discovered that four of the BURKEN jars with lids fit perfect in each basket. I purchased eight of these jars, and filled them of my small laundry items.

The first four jars contain sewing and mending related supplies, including a measuring tape and small scissors, thread {including those little packets of mending thread that sometimes come with your clothes}, extra buttons, and needles and pins.

The remaining four jars hold a variety of miscellaneous items, including my favorite tool for removing pills from sweaters, my mesh bags for washing delicate items, stain remover wipes and pens, and packets of HE washing machine cleaner.

I am normally a huge fan of labeling everything, but by choosing clear jars for all of these small items, I am able to easily see what is inside without the need for labels.

To make the jars more stylish, and to fit with the design of the rest of the laundry closet, I added a quick and easy black and white detail around each jar {get the 5 minute tutorial for these custom jar lids here.} These jars now also matches the washi tape detail that I added to the shelves in the linen closet.

Dryer Sheet Storage Container

The box of dryer sheets was too big to fit in the basket, and the individual dyer sheets were to too large to fit in to my glass jars, so I had to get creative in order to fit my dryer sheets in this space. I searched around for a smaller, refillable container that I could transfer some dryer sheets to for easy access, and I came up with a travel sized Huggies baby wipes case for the nursery!

I can fit quite a few dryer sheets in here, and this case fits nicely in the Elfa door basket. Best of all, I can just pop the lid and pull them out one by one. I love finding ways to repurpose items for new storage uses! I’m storing the larger box of dryer sheets in the linen closet for refills.

Laundry Canisters for Detergent

After placing most of my laundry items in the back of door baskets, I was still left with two containers that were too large for these door baskets – my laundry detergent pods, and my OxiClean. For these, I purchased two larger canisters from Target {again, adding washi tape detail to each}.

I made sure to place these laundry canisters in the far back corner of the deep countertop, far out of reach of little hands! Similarly, I put the other laundry cleaners in the top basket of the door system to keep them out of my boys’ reach as well.

Laundry Room Countertop for Sorting and Folding

You’ll notice that other than the three small containers on the back corner of the laundry closet countertop, I have left this space wide open. Although I could have maximized my storage space by utilizing more of the counter, I specifically chose not to.

In my prior laundry closet design, the counter was cluttered with too many storage containers, which made it hard to use for its intended purpose of sorting and folding. This time around, I was very conscious of keeping laundry room countertop space wide open so that I could actually use it for doing laundry rather than having to drag my laundry to another room to find space to sort and fold.

In addition to this counter being very functional, I’m proud of how it looks! We had wanted a wood plank styled laminate counter, but the price was way out of our budget! We instead managed to DIY the look we wanted using a cheap melamine board and some vinyl flooring planks for a fraction of the cost! Get the DIY laundry room countertop tutorial here.

Laundry Room Lint Holder

Since our laundry closet doesn’t allow space for a garbage can on the floor, it’s a pain to walk to the bathroom down the hall between every load. Instead, I used to create a pile of lint on the counter that I’d eventually take to the trash every few days. When planning the laundry room makeover, I wanted to find a more function {and more stylish} laundry room lint holder.

My friend Melissa, at Polished Habitat, created the most fabulous wall mounted laundry room lint bin, so I initially thought of using her solution. But then I spotted a black and white striped, lidded jute basket at The Container Store that I was totally smitten with, and I realized it would be a perfectly as a lint holder for my laundry room. Now I just empty the lint to the bathroom trash down the hall once every few weeks when my lint collector basket fills up.

Small Laundry Room Clothes Hanging Ideas

In the prior version of our laundry closet, I had a rod for hanging clothes as they came out of the dryer, but it was set high and above the washer where I could barely reach it, so it rarely got used.

I wanted to find a better hanging solution for our laundry closet {one that my short self could reach}, so I once again opted to use the back of a door. I purchased four bar towel holder from IKEA {similar to this towel rail}.

The outermost bar is just the right distance from the door to be used with standard hangers. Now I can hang clothes as I take them out of the dryer! And the four bars also provide an ideal space for draping multiple items that need to hang to dry!

Best of all, even with clothes hanging from the towel rack, I can still fully close the door when I want to hide the laundry away. We installed the rack high enough on the door to ensure that the bottom on my husband’s dress shirts hang just above the countertop when the door is closed.

I should also mention that I my hanger stacker {here’s a similar one} also makes doing laundry much easier. I fill it up with the empty hangers out of our closet so that I always have plenty of hangers on hand for clothes coming out of the dryer.

A Laundry Memo Board to Keep the Whole Family in the Loop

Laundry is a family affair, so to keep your clothes looking their best, it’s convenient to have a place to leave notes to keep everyone on the same page.

I often put a load of laundry in the washer, and then later my husband will move it to the dryer, or vice versa. It was always a challenge to remember to remind each other to check for stains on certain shirts, or not to dry certain items. To solve this problem, I’ve added a laundry memo board to the back of the door below the hanging rack.

To make the most of the space, I also designed a cute laundry symbol guide and placed the poster behind a KLUDD glass noticeboard from IKEA.

The noticeboard works well with either dry erase markers or chalk markers. Dry erase markers are more convenient because they just wipe away with a Kleenex or paper towel, where as a chalk marker requires water to wipe it away. However, I have chosen to use a chalk marker to make that the writing won’t rub of on clean clothes when I hang them from the rack above the laundry memo board.

HOW TO STORE LAUNDRY BASKETS BETWEEN LOADS

Laundry baskets can take up so much room between use. A few years ago I got rid of all of my bulky plastic laundry baskets, and replaced them all with the collapsible variety {these are my favorite}.

I like to keep a couple of these baskets in our master bedroom closet all the time to make it quick and easy to carry clothes down to the laundry room.

I tuck another couple in the space between the washer and the wall in the laundry closet, ready for use to carry clean clothes to the appropriate rooms. Collapsible laundry baskets pack a whole lot of function into very little storage space!

I love that our new laundry space is much more organized and functional than it used to be, but it’s also more prettier and looks less cluttered.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to sacrifice style for function! It’s all about finding the right balance and using the available space in a creative way!

A few more things to consider when planning updates to your laundry closet or small laundry room:

Should you stack the washer and dryer in your laundry closet?

We are fortunate that our laundry closet is wide enough to accommodate a side by side washer and dryer, but even so, at the outset of the makeover I strongly considered whether to stack the washer and dryer.

Ultimately I decided against stacking for several reasons: (1) the linen closet adjacent to our laundry closet already provides ample floor to ceiling shelving; (2) my boys love helping with the laundry by putting clothes in the washer, or by transferring from the washer to the dryer; and (3) I wanted to maximize my sorting and folding space with a large counter space.

However, there are just as many good reasons that you might want to stack your washer and dryer, even if you have the space for a side by side. Stacking can add more space for easily accessible shelves and cabinets; can free up floor space if your house lacks a broom/vacuum closet. If you are thinking of stacking your washer and dryer, you might want to check out this room, and this closet for inspiration!

Do you want to raise the washer and dryer up on drawers or pedestals?

Another important consideration for your laundry room is whether to put the washer and dryer right down on the floor, or whether to boost them up onto laundry pedestal drawers, or onto a custom built pedestal with space for laundry baskets {like this one from Addicted 2 DIY}.

I quickly determined that pedestals weren’t the right choice for me because my priority was to have a usable counter space for sorting and folding, and placing the washer and dryer on pedestals would have made the top too high for me to use. But, depending on how you use your space, and what your needs are, this can be a very efficient use of space!

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