July Monthly Room Challenge: Laundry/"Mud" Room - Page 3

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i just use vinegar, lavender EO, and baking soda. I also will use a whitening powder if I need to.

I have done two days now of hand washing. I don't care for it, but it's not terribly difficult. First, at night, I put everything in the laundry sink with some whitening powder. Then, i do a quick cold rinse in the morning. then refill with cold and add the vinegar, baking soda, and EO. Then, I use a large wooden spoon to agitate it for several minutes. Then I agitate it by hand (gently squeezing the clothes and drawing cleaning agents through them) Then I let it soak for a bit while I do something else (usually another chore), and then rinse. Nothing in this lot really needed to be "scrubbed" -- so I rinsed everything out. 

then i started hand wringing and it was really tough. So, i put the load into my washer and put it on the 2 minute spin cycle. I decided to do it twice -- even though it felt fine/normal after one -- to see if it would shake off more water. Some items came out nearly dry. I hung everything on the ine and most of it was dry in several hours!

We do not really get freezing temps here. It's sort of like San Fran or Portland in the weather. We occasionally get below zero, but not really. THe issue is really the wet. It usually takes several days for clothes to dry. But, using the spin cycle twice really made a huge difference on how wet the clothes were before I hung them up, so that's a process that I can easily repeat. 

I think that I may need to scrub with my rock if I have really muddy/dirty clothes, but since DS is toilet trained and we rarely have accidents, and we now basically pre-soak everything, there's really no need to scrub. which is nice.

Also, I don't iron anything. I don't find that I need to. But I don't have anything that needs to be ironed anyway, like oxford style sirts. we really don't own any. Just a few for DS, and he doesn't care if he's wrinkled.

[ZakareyasMama]

Eek! one week to go... I've been distracted from this task but am feeling pretty good about the house overall.

Now I need help... We keep all cleaning supplies above the washer (see photo) so that we don't have to worry with baby-proofing and it's just easier than having stuff spread out. So I have all these cleaners... some I use daily-- some rarely-- in this closet. There is a ton of vertical space her e and it feels wasted. Aside from going out and buying a shelf for these bottles, how could I better make use of this space?? 
 

Originally Posted by ZakareyasMama 

The entryway is my biggest problem.

My space for laundry is a small closet. We actually store all of our household cleaners on the top rack so we don't have to worry with baby-proofing all the cabinets. The laundry supplies are stored on top of the dryer, but it doesn't bother me there at all. This space is always a bit untidy, but I do laundry every day so it's constantly being changed. It's upstairs right next to our bedroom.

[Turquesa]

I'm leaving town this weekend sooooooooo.......here are the "after" pics.  I apologize in advance that you can barely see anything.  We have a teeny-tiny laundry room....that tends to house big, big messes!

First, I finally found and installed the right weather strip for under the door.  No more grabbing random coats to stop the drafts or heat leakage. 

Not a lot of changes here, but I've just started canning and wanted to make room for new canning supplies.

 A little less cluttered now. 

The secret to my organization sanity: Photo boxes!!!! 

The cabinet tops are mostly empty.  A laundry basket normally roosts up there but was occupied at the time that I took this.  To the right, there is some food stored up for our coming trip, and I didn't want my LOs to be able to reach it. 

[ZakareyasMama]

Okay here was my "inspiration room" I loved the map and the pinky colors on the fabric. Eventually I'll get some of those great glass jars to put my homemade detergent in, but I'm going to use up what I have made first. Too bad I couldn't punch out a beautiful, sunshiny window 

So here are my laundry closet after pics:

The laundry necessities are kept in the old filing box until I get those glass containers. There's a cut-up old rug on top of the dryer and on the top shelf too. It just adds some color and texture and absorbs any falling liquid that may occur.

I hung this old poster I had from Barcelona to get some pinky color on the empty, white void. I also covered some shoe boxes w an old map. All the cleaning products in the house are in there. There's a ton but eventually I'll whittle it down as I learn to make my own stuff and use more natural, multipurpose cleaners.

As you can see the rack is still being used as a drying place for socks and little person clothes. It looks kinda junky, but hey-- that's life. I may eventually hang a line in the closet itself. The Scrabble pieces are hot glued onto magnets. This makes a great play place for the 2 y/o I babysit. She entertains herself with that while I hang all these clothes! I used these bc I had them from my teaching days (in fact a lot of this stuff is repurposed from my classroom), but I also thought making "clothing" magnets would be super cute too!

The main drying space is in the hallway bath. We don't use it for showers (just baby baths) so I decided to hang a homemade line across the tub to get a few more feet of space. I am thinking of getting clothespins, but I don't know if they are necessary. I may eventually get some more zig zags of line throughout the whole room. 

I don't know why my photos look so yellowish... I guess I don't have natural light in these rooms! I enjoyed this challenge... now what's on for next month??

[ZakareyasMama]

Turquesa... nice job! What kind of weathering strip did you get? Was it easy to do? Our front door desperately needs some! Also, I really like the photo boxes idea!

[sunnysandiegan]

Nice work!

I mostly finished the task, but haven't taken any "after" pictures. The only things left are the very top shelves because I cannot reach them...   I can drag a chair or grab the two-step stool, though, just haven't gotten to it yet...

[clutterwarrior]

I really love that idea of the boxes covered in maps! Thanks for the inspiration.

[accountclosed3]

i seriously need to take pictures. the flooring is still stained, of course, but otherwise, the place is clean and organized!