The Laundry Room (Again)

 Happy Fall!  Is anyone still reading?  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if all have given up on me! I 'm so behind on updating here and posting some of our house projects!  Which is actually good in one sense, because it means we've gotten some things accomplished!  :-) 

After moving in, painting the laundry room and exposing the original ceiling was one of the first projects we did and it made such a huge difference.  Then last year we made a few more updates to complete this room, like replacing the shelving and adding new trim.   You can see the first laundry room post here which has all the before pictures! 

Having a laundry room that opens up to the back door and has a lot of through traffic (located between downstairs bath and kitchen) has forced me to keep a tidy laundry room and also a decluttered one!  In our previous house, our laundry room was a separate room where I could close the door and forget about the piles of laundry.  Not so much since we've lived here. ;-)  Daily laundry is a must or the piles accumulate, but it's also gotten me into a few really good habits.  

 We also added a peg rail on the back wall for hanging some of our utility items, like brooms, egg basket, dust pans, etc.  (During the summer, this also became a place to store all the ball caps - wink.)  After visiting a shaker village several years ago, I loved the idea of utilizing pegs on the wall to store items.  Since then, Justus and I have incorporated pegs in several places throughout our house.  

When we moved in, the laundry had some existing open shelves, which we used for several years.  Last year we replaced the shelving, but I wanted to keep it open as before.  The open shelving helps keep the clutter down and also helps keep the room looking open and bright. This year I also repainted the ceiling.  When we first remodeled, I painted it blue also, but I went a little more subtle this time around.  This is probably a change that is only noticeable to me!  ;-)  I painted the shelves white.  At first I tried staining a gray color, but I was unhappy with the results.  While I like the idea of it, I feel like in a house like ours where there are so many different materials and textures, white just helps everything flow a little more smoothly. 

  There are two small little windows on each side of the back door and I love the light they let in.  It's always a bright, cheery room and makes the laundry tasks a little more pleasant!  None of these pictures are styled for this blog post, but happy for you, I did move all of the dirty clothes out of the basket for these pictures.  ;-)  When I first bought this laundry basket beside the washer for our dirty clothes, I thought it too small, but it's actually been the perfect size.  When it's full, it's time to do a couple loads, so this is just another thing that helps me keep on the ball.

Having open shelving like this, I've had to get a little creative with storage.  Baskets are always a must for corralling smaller items!

I also use various buckets for holding items that aren't visible to anyone.  The large tub on the top shelf (pictured a ways above) holds miscellaneous items, like winter hats. I have a bucket that stores all of our clothes pins and the chamber pot holds cleaning rags.  

 On the other side of the laundry room, we added a shelf above the dryer for extra storage.  And while everything pictured so far looks tidy, I can assure you that everything in that white cabinet next to the dryer is a cluttered mess!  Instead of a junk drawer, we have an entire cabinet!  ;-)  

 Just for fun, the above photo is a before photo of the laundry room after we removed the styrofoam ceiling tiles and exposed the original ceiling.  You can see we hadn't done any work in the kitchen yet!  It was so dark and dreary.  And the after picture below.  (These before and after pictures are really for me... just serve as a reminder that we actually have done a few things around here!)

 (Huck's favorite sunbathing spot...)

And here's a real life photo of life around here on a daily basis... never ending laundry and ironing.  But I sure am thankful to have a cheerful, pretty room to do it in!  :-)  

I'll try to post some more of our house projects soon.  Spending a little more time here has been a goal of mine for awhile, but I never can seem to quite get there!  I'm always open to blog post suggestions... I know a few of you have asked for a cleaning post, and while I don't feel like I have much to share there, I'll try to get that done too!  I also have got to post some about our flower business and try to get some summer pictures posted for myself as memories.  ;-)  

Hope you're having a wonderful October so far!