Hi.
I'm Lorie Marrero, creator of the Clutter Diet book and on-line program, and today I
get to show off my new laundry closet.
So I just downsized from a 4,500 square foot home to a 1,600 square foot home and I used
to have a big laundry room and now I have [POP] a laundry closet.
So I did a video before about the basic 12 elements of the ideal laundry room and I had
showed my old laundry room in that video.
So I had some comments there saying, you know, "I don't have a laundry room," and I'm so
thrilled to say, I've been able to accommodate all of these 12 features, mostly in this closet
and certainly in other areas of the house, and make a functional laundry system in this
much smaller space.
So how did I do this?
I used Elfa Shelving from The Container Store.
I used their expert designer [POP] over there who worked with me to design this closet.
I design my own closet sometimes, but I still like using their experts because they really
are familiar with the product and it's free.
So why not, right, get their opinion on it and get their insight?
So I did that.
And also I did my own installation.
They actually will do that too, but I kind of enjoy it.
So here's how the installation went.
I first had to rip out the one rod, one shelf that you see here in the before picture that
the builder put in.
And you can see how that was working for me in this shot.
But I was really happy to rip it out.
It's kind of therapeutic.
I enjoy it, with, you know, my rubber mallet, pounding out these old shelves and I ripped
out everything and patched and painted it and got it ready.
And then the install for the Elfa Shelving is so easy, that's why I like using it for
projects like this.
All you really have to install is the track along the top.
So all the drilling and putting in of screws and things like that is involved with the
track.
Everything else hangs down and snaps on to the track.
So once you've done the track, it all falls into place and it's very forgiving.
So believe me if I can do it, you can do it.
So -- and if you don't want to do it, they can send their installers over too.
But I really like the product, so I just wanted to give a plug here for my friends at The
Container Store.
I really appreciate them helping me on this makeover because it is a great product.
It is adjustable, it changes with your needs, and it's easy to work with.
So those are the before pictures, and you see here the after picture and I'm going to
go through now the basic 12 elements of the ideal laundry room and tell you how I accommodated
those in this new space.
First let's talk about, number one, the washer and dryer.
Obviously that's part of an ideal laundry room.
But I want to make a point about that, and that is that I have a front loading washer
and dryer, and so what that does for me is it gives me the surface on top of the washer
and dryer to make that available for folding, or putting other items that need to be stored,
like these laundry baskets.
So obviously if you're in the market for a new washer and dryer, you want to consider
having a front loader because it's easier for storage.
So the second thing is sorting and staging space.
So this is space to sort your dirty clothes and ideally when I had my old laundry room
I had a sorting hamper in there, and that's perfect because you've got three different
compartments for lights and darks and delicates, or whatever that means for you.
What I've done now is accommodate that in my closet upstairs in the master bedroom.
I've gotten the sorting done up there, and then I take the clothes down here to actually
wash them.
But in the meantime, I do have a place for some dirty clothes, like dishtowels, that
originate from this floor where I live with the kitchen and everything.
So I can put that here.
And that's kind of my hamper for this area because I don't really need that much here
for a hamper.
The third thing in an ideal laundry room is folding space.
Because, again, I have a front loading washer and dryer, I can use the top of this for folding
if I want to.
But, most of the time, like a lot of us, I really kind of enjoy taking the clothes over
to another surface, like I used to use my dining table, and now I can use my sofa, and
that way I can interact with other people and kind of have a little more space and listen
to music or something else.
But I can fold here if I want to.
Number four is hanging space.
And you want to have that close to the dryer so you can hang things up right when they're
coming out and minimize the wrinkles.
I was able to accommodate that on the back of the door here.
You can see this in this picture.
So I'm able to hang up these clothes very easily.
And that was something that I lost when I took out the rod that the builder put in,
but it didn't matter because I was going to put it over here on the door.
So number five is drip-dry space.
For me this is one of the most important things because I have a lot of exercise clothing
that I wear and, you know, my delicate items that I don't want to put in the dryer, so
I have this accordion rack that I've always loved -- I also got this from The Container
Store -- and this folds in and out and I can snap it back to the wall when I want to.
But I'm able to hang up all those delicate items and that has an accommodated space right
here.
So number six, storage and shelving.
So for holding your clean clothes and other kinds of items, obviously I have a lot of
shelving in here.
As a matter of fact, you can't really see it, but this goes all the way up to the ceiling,
and I have a lot of stuff up there.
And I really have almost more space than I need, which is kind of funny.
So I went from all that crowding to having, you know, even empty space up there.
So number seven is cleaning and laundry supplies.
And as you can see here in this picture, I have put all of that on the door.
I also have a caddy that's on one of these upper shelves, so that I can grab a few things
at once, carry them around with the caddy when I want to.
But all of it's accommodated here on the door, it's gotten out of the way, and it's great.
All right.
Number eight is an ironing station.
So this is one thing that I've taken completely out of this space and I've moved to the master
closet.
Pretty soon I'm going to be so happy to give you a tour of my new master closet that got
re-done.
And it has an ironing board in it, so it's kind of a cool little surprise.
But that's all moved there, and so that function is accommodated somewhere else.
So number nine is maintenance supplies.
So you want to have a place for handy household tools, like your tape measure, and, you know,
common screwdrivers and things that you need.
That is right here in this basket.
So I have that available for me.
And then number 10 is what we call "the lonely socks place."
So I believe when you have a sock that doesn't have it's mate, you don't want to take that
to a second location, in your dresser drawer, in your room, in your kids' rooms.
I believe in keeping that centralized in the laundry area so that eventually they find
their way to their match.
So I have this basket here where I'm keeping the lonely socks.
And at some point, when they gather up, I have a little lonely socks wedding and I put
those together and everybody's happy and I donate whatever is left.
[POP]
So number 11 is pocket items, for things that fall out of your pockets in the dryer, you've
got your loose change, you've got kids that collect rocks and things like that, and you
want to have a place to store those.
So I have this little dish here for, you know, buttons that fall off, things like that, I
have that dish for that.
And number 12 is a trash can.
So your trash can is for the dryer lint and all the other things that you pull out of
pockets that are trash, you've got a place to put that.
I also want to add that I have a change jar here, that's part of the pocket items I forgot
to say, but loose change I put in this bank and then I save it up for, you know, buying
some new clothes.
But that's how I've been able to accommodate all 12 of those functions in this small space
and still have room [POP] to spare.
And I hope you enjoyed it.
You can watch my other video to see how the other laundry room used to look and you'll
see some of these familiar things in there too.
I just want to offer that if you need some help with this, we have people to help you
every day, seven days a week, our expert team at clutterdiet.com.
When you're stuck with a project like this, this is what we do every day.
We've helped thousands of people in 18 countries.
We give advice on-line for about the price of a pizza.
So come check us out at http://www.clutterdiet.com/learnmore.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.