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My utility room-please help

8 years ago

Hi everyone, this is my utility room, we live in Ireland so it's in use 365, our family has grown in the last few year and the amount of washing has exploded, any words of wisdom on how best to use this space??

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Comments (3)

redtartan
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I deal with a lot of laundry too, especially at times when the kids will bring me a weeks worth of clothing. Where I am we pay electricity at different rates depending on the time of day so if I don't keep it somewhat organized it will start to overflow because weekdays I can only do loads in the evening to save $. One thing I did was to install cabinets with doors above the washer and dryers. I just re-used ones from our kitchen tear out, but you can usually get second hand ones fairly cheap if you are on a budget. This keeps all our laundry washing/dryer needs tucked away. We also have extra batteries and lights stored in there and our first aid and medication in the other cupboard for us and our livestock.
We also have a laundry sorter for darks/whites/linens. It looks like you already have a great set up for that with your bins.
Not sure how old your kids were, but they can start at a pretty young age at putting clothing in drawers if label the drawers with pictures. I think my kids were about 5 when they started doing it. It wasn't perfect of course, but they would have to put them in the drawers after I folded the clothes. It helps if you don't have clothes that need hanging. My one teenage son still gets all his clothes in drawers because they never seemed to make it on hangers in the closet.
I would designate a folding area for the counter above the appliances and the counter above the cabinet as where folded clothes stay until their owner puts them away.

I'd also maybe put some hooks or a rod above your laundry sorter. This would allow you to have clothes that are hung put on the hangers until they are put away.
User
8 years ago
The first thing I would do is remove everything that isn't attached to the walls or the appliances. So you're left with an empty space. Get those cabinets with at least one interior shelf. Now, put back only laundry related items. No toys, no decor, no baby carrier. No bins or boxes other than what relates to laundry. Now decide what else you NEED to keep in the room. If you need to store the baby seat there, try to find a way to hang it on the wall, off the floor. A closet rod across the room, opposite the appliances, can hold the carrier as well as any clothes that need hanging. If you need to store other things, a shelf close to the ceiling can hold those. Be brutal! If you use this as a storage room, it will not function as a laundry room, and you will be back where you started. No decor on surfaces, but some pretty pictures on the wall will be cheerful.
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linlac
8 years ago
If you need more bins you can add another row or two with extra counter space above.

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