I truly feel like our laundry room is one of the most used rooms in our house, seeing as I am washing at least one load of clothes a day (if not more)!  I am constantly in and out of that room so I really needed that space to be functional but pretty.  I mean, who doesn’t browse Pinterest to see all the amazing laundry rooms people have created.  I always get laundry room envy from them!  Our laundry room is small with no storage and very low ceilings.  There were a lot of problems with that space that I needed fixed to keep up with all the laundry.

When we moved into our house, the laundry room was painted a depressing yellowish color and had no character.  There was no storage of any kind, except for a small shelf over the pipes that could hold detergent.  Seeing as I was practically living in the laundry room having just had a newborn, I needed it to be cheerful and cozy.  I also needed storage of some sort as we were using the laundry room to store extra cleaning supplies.  I have a lot of clothes that I need to hang dry. We needed a drying rack somewhere in that room, but not totally sure how I would do that seeing as the ceilings were low and the room is small.

I made Ben paint the room so it wouldn’t seem so blah.  We decided on Benjamin Moore Wild Orchid, as I wanted the room to be purple.  (Little did I know that we would be painting the baby’s room the same color!)  I also have Ben paint the trim and door to the wall-mounted ironing board, white.

Once the room was painted, it started to feel fresh and cheerful.  We had an old bakers rack that I got from a dear friends’ parents.  It has been with me since I moved to Chicago and I really don’t have the heart to part with it.  It has made it through four moves and allows for tons of storage.  When we moved in, we decided that the bakers rack could go in the laundry room as storage and we would purchase a larger piece for the kitchen to store our kitchen items.  This bakers rack has been so helpful in keeping things organized in the laundry room.  I like how it is open so you can see everything, making the space feel warm.  By adding baskets to contain our extra cleaning supplies, the bakers rack makes the perfect storage solution for our small space.  This one from Wayfair looks like it would be a good solution if you didn’t want to put in shelving but still need the extra storage space.

I still couldn’t figure out what to do about adding a drying rack.  I needed something, but couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.  I decided to focus on adding some character to the space by hanging up some pictures.  I started by looking for white wooden letters that spelled WASH to hang over the washing machine.  I found some at Michaels that I feel in love with.  I had some extra ribbon lying around from our wedding that I used to hand the letters.  Using a hot glue gun, I glued the ribbon to the letters.  Once the glue dried, I spaced out where I wanted each letter and hammered in a nail to hang the letter.  To keep some of the letters from moving out-of-place, I used Command picture mounting tape to keep them straight.

I found these super cute free printables from The Shabby Creek Cottage and The Cottage Market.  After printing them off on sturdy card stock, I hung them on a ribbon that matched the ribbon I used to hang my WASH letters.  I painted some clothespins white, and used the clothespins to attach the prints to the ribbon.  I feel like I turned a boring wall into a cheery space.

Then I took an old picture frame and turned it into a space for missing matching socks.  After painting the picture frame white and taking out the glass, I took some card stock and printed a sign saying “Seeking Sole Mate”.  Attaching the sign to another piece of card stock the size of the frame, I added some twine and clothespins.  Securing the twine to the back of the picture frame using a nail gun, I am able to hang missing socks so when I find the match, I can easily find it!

Now I actually had to address the drying rack.  I had stalled long enough.  Seeing as there is no way we can use a pull out drying rack, and my collapsible drying rack didn’t fit in the laundry room, I needed a more functional option.  There is a dip in the ceiling in our laundry room, that I thought we could hang clothes hangers from to use as a drying rack.  This would also be really easy to take the clothes and put them back in the closet once they were dry!  Well, we couldn’t nail into this dip because it is part of the heating system.  But we could use Command hooks!  Placing the hooks on the dip, I can now hang my clothes hangers on the hooks and have my clothes dry.  I also have a sweater drying rack that we hung on the wall using a decorative hook from Home Depot.

I can finally say that the room is complete and I am so happy with how it turned out!  From this whole process, I have learned how to organize a small laundry room, and keep it organized!

– Creating storage doesn’t mean spending an arm and a leg; you can find storage from anything…including an old bakers rack.  Think outside the box when it comes to storage!

– Utilize low ceilings for storage or drying racks!  By hanging clothes hangers from the ceiling, I have an easy way to create a drying rack that doesn’t take up too much room.

– Get as much stuff off of the floor as it creates more room for your space.  We have the ironing board mounted on the wall, giving us more room in the small space.  By having the ironing board hidden in the wall, it isn’t taking up space when we are not using it.

– Keep the space cheerful by using a bright color or adding fun, colorful accents to your space.  By adding some prints to the space, it makes the laundry room more cheerful and cozy.

– Using containers to hold extra items decreases the visual clutter in a small space, making it appear larger than it actually is!