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Benita of blog Chez Larsson decided in May of 2008 to start sharing her organizing mania and neatness with the masses instead of keeping them to all to herself. Her blog, www.chezlarsson.typepad.com , focuses on home life the clean, bright, white, organized and Scandinavian way. Benita lives in a small 1930’s house in a Stockholm suburb and that’s where all the organizing action takes place.
Recently one of my readers, Lynda , sent me an e-mail asking for help with her laundry room. I can sort of see why she’s desperate:
Lynda needs the space for more than just laundry. Her pantry is in there just behind the door and she also needs to store dishes, pet products and craft items.
Solution: every organization starts with editing. Edit, edit, edit! This basically means you open one drawer or cabinet at a time and ruthlessly get rid of the things that are no longer in use. Get a trash bag and a box for charity out and divided the things you no longer need. Keep asking yourself all through the process if you use the item or not. When in doubt, throw out.
You then sort what’s left. In Lynda’s case I suggest she starts off by putting all her kitchen related items in the cabinets closest to the open pantry shelves. Depending on how much there is she uses as many cabinets as needed.
Any leftover cabinet space on that side can be used for craft items. Those things have tendency to overflow if you don’t keep them contained. I love using white ice cream containers to sort ribbons, notions, stickers. A little basket can hold tools like scissors and tape and such.
For the laundry items which are used daily I suggest corralling them so they don’t trail all over. Keep them in a pretty basket or on a nice tray. Corralled they can stay on the dryer as Lynda requests. If this was me, I’d consider decanting the detergent and fabric softener into white or clear plastic bottles and labeling them. I once bought a brand I didn’t particularly like only to get the nice milky white plastic bottles, removed the labels and wrote the contents with a marker. Assign the cabinets above the washer and dryer to store all things laundry related. Inside the cabinets again corral small items like clothes pegs in containers or baskets.
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