Day 27: Declutter and Clean up the Laundry Room

Read the previous entry in this series:  Day 26: Magazines/Books/Bookshelves or start at the beginning with the Introduction: 5 Ways Clutter Costs.

Let's see.

I tossed an old rug. I moved things and swept and found my dryer balls (yay!) and the phone (double yay!). I got rid of a pair of pants, a sweater and countless stained and/or otherwise unwearable items. (H&M recycles clothing in any condition, so the crate and barrel bag is for them.)

Oh, and I did loads and loads of laundry.

see all that stuff under the table? That'll all be cleared out on or by Saturday.

Can I say I am looking forward to the end of this month? I will be glad to be done.

Read the next entry in this series Day 28: Excavting the Purse.

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A Retrospective: 3. The Bathrooms, Laundry Room and Pantry, 2007-2014

In honour of my blog's eighth anniversary, I am taking us on a tour of the changes I've made to our house over the years. This is the third in the series. The last areas to be featured were the Passageways: Entrys, Hallways and Stairs, 2007-2014. If you want to start at the beginning, go here: The Front and Back Yards, 2007-2014


The service areas.

You don't see these areas very much on house tours! Not unless someone has done something stunning, of course. Not to set you up: but I haven't. Done anything stunning, that is. In fact, my downstairs bath is in need of an overhaul. But I am getting ahead of myself.

So Good.

It wasn't supposed to happen.

I took all of these "before" pictures on January 29th.

At least not like this. Not today.

I'd vowed to get every single stitch of laundry done by bed-time tonight. (I won't have another day off until Tuesday so today was "prep for the long haul" day). I started up a recording of a webinar I'd missed for the Sea Change course I'm taking from Leo Babauta and away I went.

While my daughter was trying to get laundry done in this mess (and honestly, who can get laundry done in this mess?) the shelf came down and the box of washing soda spilled all over the top. So, it was relatively easy to wash this up once it was cleared off.

It had been one of my goals for February, but I had been working at a snail's pace--not even 15 minutes here and there, more like move one item from here to there, and oh! here look, maybe another.

Meh. I suppose I could put that shirt of my husband's away in his closet some day soon. Then again, he won't be needing it for another 2 1/2 months.

But, on a precious day off, I continued to declutter my laundry room until I found myself sweeping the floor and then clearing and cleaning the surfaces.

Unfortunately, the dryer was covered with spots and blobs of wood stain from projects I'd done last fall. I worked at them with paint thinner--while the dryer was working. Probably not the greatest idea. There was quite the smell.

I even cleared off the little project table!

Yes, I believe that's the same big black garbage bag as before. It could be a different one. Nonetheless, it comes in handy for old shoes and coats and things to worn out to donate and too big to fit in the kitchen garbage can.

Unfortunately, the combined smells of washing soda, bleach and paint thinner have left my stomach feeling a bit odd. And, other things I had planned to do didn't get done.

But the kids can vacuum the stairs and wash the kitchen floor, right? They have a three day weekend.

They'd better.

The Dresser

Another organizing project.

A project about taking something murky and unconscious and bringing it into the land of intention, focus, usability and beauty.

Yep. All that.

This story begins when I was about 15. I stripped this dresser. I lost the hardware. Someone came along years behind me and added these rope pulls so it was functional again, at least.

I went away for many years. I forgot about the dresser.

Somehow, when I returned to the city I live in now and set up house with my husband, the dresser returned to me.

It sat in the basement, neglected, sad, crammed full of stuff.

The top drawer (of which I don't have a picture, naturally) was full of seasonal type decorations and artificial flowers.

The second drawer was full of wrapping paper supplies. It was the only drawer we actually used.

The third and fourth drawers had cords...electrical and telephone and audio-visual. There were coax and digital cables. Speaker wire. Adaptors, the list goes on. And on. Somehow, I only have a picture of one of the two drawers. Too bad. It was impressive.

The bottom drawer stored old book jackets, walkie talkies, and fax paper.

The really great thing about re-organizing a large space like the basement--and the laundry room within it--is that you have a chance to think about what you need. You have a chance to reinvent the way you do things if the old way isn't going to work any longer.

I had to move the dresser to make room for the paint cabinet--which was being moved to make room for a large wonkin' cabinet coming out of my husband's workshop--to make room for a bin he wanted to build to hold his wood.

But that meant the swimming gear would be homeless. I kept it in a plastic case on some wobbly wire shelving under this window.

 

I also needed a new home for those towels, too. I created it in my "Linen Closet" (which is actually just open shelving between the pantry and the upright freezer kitty corner from here) by removing and donating two huge old IKEA pillows.

 

 

So, when I thought about what I needed, I realised I wanted one of the dresser drawers to hold the swimming gear.

 

 

 

I had wrapping supplies in two places: this drawer and another, close to it's original location at the foot of the stairs. Since this dresser was moving, I wanted to put all the wrapping supplies in one place. 

 

 

 

When we cleared out the area under the stairs in order to insulate the wall and put up the wallboard, I discovered two boxes of my husband's old jeans. I had kept them as "patching material" for the jeans he wears to work. I went through them and kept only a few in the best of condition. And then, I put them in a drawer along with some sewing notions and tools stored in yet another place!

 

 

 

Finally, I went through all the cords and cables and chose to keep a few. They went into the bottom drawer.

 

But I wasn't quite done.

 

This piece was stripped more than 30 years ago. It sat in an outdoor shed for years. It's been in my basement at least 15 more. So, I cleaned and nourished it. I used 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup of lemon juice and an old tea towel. My dresser drank it thirstily.

 

Can you see where it has been cleaned and nourished? The bottom of this picture should look a smidge darker.

 

 

And so, here it is. All fed and spiffied up. Awake and intentionalised. Useful and beautiful.

 

Another post for the William Morris series hosted by Jules at Pancakes and French Fries.

 



Laundry Room Challenge

I love a challenge: and this is it!

My laundry room, last week.

It's come a long way since just last year:

basement: pantry and freezer area to the left, laundry room to the right.

But since we put up the wall panelling last fall, we haven't done much else except insulate the mudsills (That area right up under the rafters, ours are all pink or blue styrofoam--whatever the previous homeowners left for us.)

I've not had proper light, nor tidy storage for months! Not surprisingly, I was struggling to keep up with the laundry.

So, in honour of Home Storage Solutions laundry room challenge, I decided to take mine on.

messy supplies

As the article points out, there are several sub-functions to doing the laundry. The author helpfully listed them:

•  Space for major appliances of washer and dryer (fortunately, check)
•  Storage for laundry supplies (a mess, above)
•  Area for pre-treating and soaking items, for stain removal (nonexistent)
•  Drying area (for those clothes or other items that don't go in the dryer) (nonexistent)
•  Laundry folding; (check) and
•  Ironing  (check; upstairs)

As I don't have a laundry sink, pre-treating and soaking items in the laundry room is a challenge. Currently, I hand wash things in a dish pan upstairs in the bath tub. (Not good for my back, really.)


I did stack two dishpans on the table next to the washer to hold my cleaning cloths which I bleach--and I guess I could put items treated with stain remover in them too--if I ever thought to treat them more than five seconds before they go in the washing machine!

I used to have a long cord suspended from the rafters for drying clothes. I hated it. It was just a clutter catcher and everything on it just got in my way. I really, really wanted to buy something like this:

(PORTIS from IKEA)

It isn't even all that expensive! But, as ever, in the interests of frugality, I decided to see what I already had on hand: and so I invented my own.

Essentially, it's three (cheap) towel racks mounted onto two boards with shelf supports.

Here it is on the wall:

It kind of reminds me of the Starship: Enterprise.

I cleaned up the mess of laundry supplies:

Bottles of fabric softener, a box of powdered chlorine bleach and several spray bottles of stain removers whose nozzles were missing or broken--all of it stuff I don't use--as you can tell by the build up of dust and dirt on them.

I called up my mom and asked her if she wanted them--and she came and took it all away. Hooray!

I put up shelves to hold what was left. Yes, these too were "on hand" --the shelf brackets used to be in the bathroom and the shelves in the kitchen.

When I tracked down the light to put it up, hubby and I discovered that the switch was broken. I ran to Home Despot and found a new switch for $6.98.

So, the laundry room is now pleasant and functional once again.

At the beginning of this transformation last fall, I posted this inspiration photo from chez larsson. Then I sort of forgot about it.

from chez larrson

Cool beans.

Decluttering and Project Report for October

"murdered pumpkin" in leaves, plastic, wood and metal.

The most surprising thing to me about keeping house during the 31 day blogging project was how much time it took. Doing the routines themselves wasn't too bad. Taking pictures for the posts and editing them were time consuming on some days, but not on others. Writing the blog entry took time. A lot of time. I mean how many ways can you talk about the same thing over and over again? (It turns out the answer is 31.)

But the project as a whole did not leave me a lot of time for decluttering or getting things done on my project list. Still, looking this over, I managed to get a fair bit done what with hosting Thanksgiving and a family Birthday party for my newly minted fourteen year old son.

The Project List: (from this post)

1. Finish slipcover
2. Finish the kitchen cabinet project: doors back up, hardware cleaned and back on.
3. Insulate and construct wall in basement
4. Paint son's room.

Optional:
1. Stencil soffit in Kitchen
2. Sew cafe curtains for Kitchen.
3. Paint window trim in Kitchen.

Kitchen projects:

I'd started painting my kitchen cabinets. I finished them--and I did the window trim. I love the brightness!

I couldn't resist starting the other two "optional" projects too.

I've painted most of the soffit with a stencil I found free on the web. That took an enormous amount of time and it's still not done. I have to stand almost completely motionless on the counter and it is very hard on my feet.

What do you think? It looks a bit "off" somehow to me--does it seem that way to you? Any suggestions? I am thinking of painting the bottom cabinets a deep dark teal blue--would that restore some balance?

I managed to sew one curtain for the kitchen. Have yet to do the other.



Laundry Room Wall:
The basement was completely my husband's "staycation" project. He worked leisurely and almost finished.

Left of the sewer stack before:


Now:


Right of the sewer stack before:


Now:



Slipcover:
The slipcover will have to be put on November's list of projects, I'm afraid. Actually fear is the reason it will now appear on its third monthly To Do list. I will have to cut the fabric--and once that's done, there's no going back. Perhaps the third time's the charm to undo the paralysis.

My Son's Room:
When I mentioned painting his room to my son a few days before I'd planned to start, he told me he didn't want me to paint it red and blue. He said, "I thought we were just talkin'" As money is tight, I didn't really like the colours chosen and I was up to my eyeballs in work already, I let it go. He doesn't like change--that's all it is--and it's OK.

There was one spontaneous shelf paper project in the kitchen just before Thanksgiving

I also worked on two unplanned projects in the dining room.

1. I lengthened my curtains. (Outstanding from the summer project list.)

2. I installed lights over my desk.

Decluttering:

As for my decluttering I did take time during the 31 days to do the seasonal clothing switcheroo. Here's the donation pile.



I also purged old tablecloths from a drawer in this dresser while searching for my table linens for Thanksgiving.

I snapped a picture of everything on the floor but I didn't notice there wasn't a card in the camera until I was finished.

I was ruthless. So ruthless, in fact, that when I went to set the table for my son's birthday, I had only my winter snowflake vinyl tablecloth. I had purged the all because my (new to me)kitchen table is round--which is where I usually use the vinyl--except, of course, for birthdays.

There was one other small bit of decluttering. I decided I could get rid of a few books and dvds from the shelves over my desk including one with the title: "Everything that Linguists Have Wanted to Know about Logic (but were ashamed to ask.)" It's obviously a book I purchased while I was in University--and I kept it because I thought the title would impress anyone who saw it on my shelves.

Are you impressed?

Good. I can let it go now.

And that my dears was that. A fairly productive month, I'd say. I'll be making my plans for November, soon.