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One of the necessary evils of having been blessed with several kids is the infinite amounts of laundry always lurking, waiting to be thrown into the washer! How many times can one kid change clothes in a day? That’s not a fair question for my kids because their mom and dad often wear 3 different outfits in any given day, as well.
The laundry room at the Yellow Cottage is a decent sized room, if it’s only function is to hold a washer and dryer. Unfortunately for us, we need our laundry room to also function as a mudroom based on its location near the most frequently used door, in and out of our house, and the fact that we have little wall space to set up a makeshift drop zone/mudroom.
I have detested this laundry room for a year and a half and finally decided to give it a little update! I’ll do a more in depth post about the transformation later, but today, I thought I’d share a few products that I find helpful in keeping my multipurpose laundry/mudroom relatively clutter free.
Shoe Storage
Not only do we have a ton of laundry, but we seem to have 1,000 pairs of shoes. There’s boots, flip flops, choir dress shoes, school shoes, training shoes, track spikes, sandals, Crocs, shoes that fit, shoes that don’t fit, stinky shoes, wet shoes…You name it, we have a shoe for it!
For our shoes, I decided to go up and chose this taller, 5 cube bookcase. My oldest child is almost 14 and is about 5’6″ so he has no issues reaching his bin.
As far as hiding stinky shoes, I chose 13″ fabric cubes that fit perfectly in the bookcase. These are a great storage solution for so many things because they’re relatively inexpensive and available in a variety of colors and sizes.
Wall Hooks
One of the biggest things that was missing in the previous set up of our laundry/mudroom was someplace to hang a jacket, towel, or wet bathing suit. Imagine a mountain of random jackets just thrown on a shelf or the daily scavenger hunt for a coat on a cold morning! Yuck! Alas, there’s no other out of sight place in this house to hang coats.
There are lots of different options for wall hooks! Too many if you’re indecisive like me! Here are a few examples of things I considered before deciding on what I chose.
Laundry Baskets
No laundry room is complete without some way to store dirty clothes, right? My kids had gotten into the habit of throwing laundry on the floor in front of the dryer because there wasn’t a designated place for them to put dirty clothes IN the laundry room. They all have baskets in their own rooms, but that requires 25 extra steps!
Miscellaneous Laundry Room Storage
It’s easy to get creative when it comes to storing laundry pods or fabric softener sheets, or really any other small item stored in a laundry room. Glass jars are both pretty and practical when sitting on a shelf.
Baskets, like these, are great for storing light bulbs, candles, flashlights, etc. Lots of times laundry rooms become a catchall for rarely used items, but items to which we need easy access. Hide those unsightly things in a pretty basket!
What are some must haves in your laundry room or your mudroom? What are your biggest challenges in these areas? I hope I can offer you some help and hope that your laundry room can be a delight and not a deterrent!
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