My Laundry Room

We have lived so many places I have had to adjust, shift and squeeze my laundry system.  In our smallest condo we had the biggest space!  Dallas I had a laundry closet in the kitchen!  In California I had a laundry closet and I had the washer and dryer stacked to have more room– when we bought the house we had zero money left over, so it was a  cat room for a long time and I painted it a turquoise.  In our Ann Arbor home we had a laundry room and I had The Closet Company put up shelving and cupboards above the washer and dryer–for this project I thought I did a great job of planning–I talked with several Moms with lots of kids and had a great design–every kid had their own spot for shoes, coats and backpacks.  And now once again I have had to get acquainted with how the laundry room in this house will be used.  It is not really a laundry room but more of a laundry hallway–if you can call it a hallway, maybe entrance way, or area where you walk into the house through the garage.  It is a smallish space for the amount of activity that happens.  The washer and dryer are on one side and on the other side in a pantry.
When we moved into this house we had a washer that worked but not a dryer–so the dryer became a shelf.  It was a small pile at first and then it grew.  Once the water park opened up a mere 8 houses away–it held swim gear for the 6 of us plus extra suits, towels x2 per person, swim diapers, a pool bag, floaty things and pool toys.  It kept morphing and growing until it grew so high that I needed to get a stool to reach things.  It became the area for “anything” summer related.  Did I mention that it still was the home for Luke’s changing table?  Luke is potty trained but the dryer just didn’t look like a dryer if it didn’t also double as a changing table.

With the old dryer gone and a new one in place–I made the washer and dryer the same height and now have a system.  I run a load of clothes when it needs it and then once it is dry I sort by person and then when the bin gets full that person folds and puts away their clothes.  Charlotte is really the one who does the washing, drying and sorting of the clothes but I get the assist.  We may do two loads in one day and we often skip days. 

What I love is that the laundry is contained.  All the laundry has a home.  Everyone is responsible for their own stuff and I’m loving that.  I used to do laundry once a week and it was a daunting task but now I feel like it is doable.  I don’t have tons of laundry piled up and the laundry is contained in a manageable workload for the kids.  The girls wear uniforms but not enough to get through the week so we often pull from the bins which is less to fold and put away. 

For right now this system seems to be working.  I can change it if need be but I am excited that I finally have a system that works after trying so many other ways of doing laundry.