When you live in a house that was built for the average American family size, including 2 adults and 2.5 children… there are bound to be some serious renovations necessary in order to transform that house into something do-able for a family of 14!
One of those areas in the house I have always hated the most is
my laundry “room”.
my laundry “room”.
It’s a closet. With bi-fold doors.
Right next to the bedrooms on the upper level of the house.
While I first thought that having the laundry upstairs would be awesome since that’s where the clothes live, I have since decided that I need more space for the clothes that the 9 of us (soon to be 14) accumulate in a day or two.
And the folding situation… it’s horrible.
Right next to the bedrooms on the upper level of the house.
While I first thought that having the laundry upstairs would be awesome since that’s where the clothes live, I have since decided that I need more space for the clothes that the 9 of us (soon to be 14) accumulate in a day or two.
And the folding situation… it’s horrible.
My typical laundry routine goes something like this:
1. Grumble about pile of clothes.
2. Announce implementation of naked-day if people don’t stop putting doll clothes and folded clothes they just didn’t want to put away back into the dirty clothes pile.
3. Decide empty threats don’t work, but throwing clothes into the goodwill bag does.
4. Cram as much stuff into the front-loading washer as possible, add soap and softener, press start and plan to outsource the moving to the dryer to a child in an hour.
5. Grumble because said child didn’t move the clothes to the dryer, or they set it on “touch up” instead of “high” and everything is still damp.
6. Move dry clothes into baskets for “curing” until folding can take place.
7. Threaten to kill dog when she knocks over clean basket of clothing to make her nightly “nest” to sleep in.
8. Repeat.
Clearly – not working out for me.
Insert, hubby to the rescue!!
He borrowed some tools, used some Christmas gift cards to Home Depot, and solved my horrible laundry problem!! Here are the pictures!
Before… but not really. I removed the boxes of stuff from the shelves, all of the piles off of the washer and dryer and the doors came off months ago… THEN I decided to take a photo for this little before and after story!
Then… I painted the walls inside the closet with the leftover kitchen paint, and hubby started making boxes! Once the cubbies were up, I said… “gosh, it sure would be nice to have a counter top type thing for folding clothes…” and VOILA!
Folding table!
He added some trim, we put a few coats of white paint on everything… and POOF!
Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL!!?
Thank you, honey!
That looks great! Number 2 is a big problem in our house too. I can also relate to 6 & 7 very well too! The laundry is the hardest part I have had to keep up with in our growing family! I can't tell you how many times I find doll clothes and folded clothes in the pile as well!
ReplyDeleteThat is beautiful!! I recently tried something new with our laundry and it's helping! Everyone has their own basket (except me and hubby.....ours are still together) and when it's full, it gets washed, dried, folded and put away. No more sorting which clothes belong to whom and no more piles everywhere. It really just takes very few minutes. I actually usually do all the laundry in one day (we only have 3 kids), but it's very quick and doesn't take up my whole day anymore.
ReplyDeleteWow! Nice job, Chrissy and Paul! Looks great!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more posts about large families because I'm still convinced mine isn't done growing!!!
ReplyDeleteOkay I have got to show this to my husband. Our laundry room is crazy small too and I love the way this turned out. It's fantastic!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it funny how exciting things like a new laundry room can be? Before kids we dream about romance and trips to exotic places, now it's beautiful laundry space and clean kitchen floors!!
ReplyDeleteIs he for hire?? Mine is not so mechanically inclined and although I am I just don't have time....
ReplyDelete