Friday, February 18, 2011

52 Weeks of decluttering - week seven

Another shortened week, as I was at a conference last weekend. So only a small project on my decluttering list.

Our laundry is an awful space to use. It must have been just right in the mid 70s, when the size of the washing machine was most likely a twin tub, which was nowhere near as deep as modern machines. And dryers were a luxury item mostly seen on American sit-coms! So we were doomed before we began with the space.

Over the time we have lived here, I have made multiple attempts at creating storage space from where there is none. (Now if that great, big broom cupboard we turned into a second pantry had been built in the laundry, life would have been much easier!)

In our household, everyone is responsible for their own laundry (except me, who has my cleaner do it!) so the space is actually used by five different adults. It is also where the cat litter tray lives and where all the cleaning supplies and tools are kept.

I had a small, elderly cabinet scavenged from my parent's home which has done it's best to provide storage for some years, but it gets incredibly grotty incredibly quickly! And our cleaner was tending to pile all the cleaning products into a bucket anyway, to carry around the house and this didn't fit on the shelf, so ended  up taking up vital floor space.

The new bins on the old shelves


I was inspired by these at Ikea:

But was even happier to discover these at Officeworks:
Which were much cheaper and much closer to home! 

But they were out of the actual units when I finally went to buy some! So I bought the bins and pondered what to do. Then, when I popped in to the local store near work for some stationery, there they were! So I bought the medium-sized unit and my son assembled it for me.



I am really happy with the result! The cleaner can take them out to transport, I can add/remove or rejig the whole arrangement and it is easily wiped clean. I plan to stock up on the bins to use elsewhere in the house, as they are so inexpensive, and am trying to work out where else I can squeeze some units into - at $59 for the medium, compared to $95 at Ikea, they make for a very affordable option!!!!

5 comments:

Alyson and Ford said...

Good for you! I need to put some elbow grease into my laundry room which also doubles for an office space - yikes! Not a good match to be working beside the dirty laundry!

Alyzabeth's Mommy

Alexandra said...

What a great solution. I need something like that in my office storage closet. Thanks for sharing.

Ally Simons said...

Looks great!

Martha said...

That's a great solution!

Samantha said...

I really like the storage solution you found for your laundry room. I don't have an IKEA or the other store you mentioned close to me but I would like to have one of those! The laundry room is a problem area for me as odds and ends tend to accumulate there.

Good job!

Samantha