MORE STORAGE IS NOT ALWAYS EFFICIENT
When we moved into our house, I loved our laundry room. I thought, “Wow! This has so much storage for a laundry room.” There were four cabinets above the washer and dryer, two cabinets above the sink, and a decent-sized cabinet under the sink. Well, this is a prime example of more storage is not always better. Or an efficient use of space. Over time, I started to realize all of those cabinets were not properly utilized, and they were a great place to “tuck” and hide items that did not have a permanent home (at one point I found vacuum bags to vacuum we do not own; another time I found a few Christmas items that did not make into the holiday boxes after Christmas). Come on, we all have that one room, whether the garage, a guest room, the laundry room… when guests are coming over and you have run out of time, you hide all of the random, last-minute items somewhere unseen. Well, mine was the laundry room. And things seemed to go there to die and never return.
Although there was a lot of storage in there, I was not using that space for laundry-related items. Most things in there were out of sight, out of mind. The other issue that started getting to me was that with dark cabinets and no windows, the laundry room seemed dreary and closed in. Laundry is not my dreaded task (it’s dishes actually), but I started dreading laundry because I did not like spending any time in there. These two issues combined got my wheels turning for a project to reorganize the laundry room.
First, I decided to take down the cabinets above the sink. The only things in those cabinets that belonged were laundry stain remover and dog items (medicine, collars, shampoo, etc.). It was surprisingly easier than I thought to take down the cabinets, although there was some damage to the walls that needed to be repaired. And when I cleaned out all of the cabinets, I realized there were only a handful of items in ALL of those cabinets that actually needed to be in the laundry room. Sooo… out went all of the upper cabinets! Over the washer and dryer, I wanted shelves with open baskets, with only laundry items in the baskets. Over the sink, I decided to try my hand at tiling and forgo shelves or cabinets. (Tiling is hard. Grout is hard. Caulking is hard. It is not perfect by any means. But I am very proud of how it came out for a first-timer.)
To open up the space, I painted the walls and trim white. I used white tile and white grout over the sink. I put up white shelves. I refinished the remaining cabinets and painted them white. Yes, I would do my whole house white if I could. But in all seriousness, I really wanted the entire space to be lighter and appear more open so I stuck with a white theme. I also wanted a very minimalist look on the shelves without crowding and “things” everywhere.
This project was the perfect example of having an inefficient use of space. I had a lot of storage, but I was not storing a lot of items in it. Even with a few subtractions from this room, I still have space to organize the items that belong in the laundry room, which allowed me to clear out the clutter and waste. Our laundry room transformed from a graveyard for miscellaneous items and half-empty cabinets, to a space to do laundry. Imagine that!
It is important to come up with a system and space that work for you. In this instance, my goal was to minimize. And reduce the risk of hiding items in the (unseen) laundry room. Organizing does not necessarily mean adding space for more items. Like here, it could very well mean making better use of a space with less and editing what you have in a specific space.
