Laundry Room makeover!

I am so embarrassed to show these pictures, but without them you won't truly see the difference. Don't judge me!  I have been trying to get the laundry room under control for years. So far it has not. gone. well. It seems that any time there is a shirt or towel or any item that needs to go in the laundry basket it instead gets tossed nonchalantly into the laundry room. It's not just dirty stuff either. My kids toss trash, toys, shoes...anything that they want to disappear forever in there! Here is what my laundry room looks like most of the time:

This is what my kids do. Throw EVERYTHING in there. See the pink chair on the bench? That was supposed to be taken to the garage so one of the seat slats could be repaired. Instead it only got as far as the laundry room. 

All these boxes are supposed to be collapsed and taken to the trash can outside! The laundry all over the floor is supposed to go in a basket which should be under the bench!

See all this laundry. It's clean. The kids are supposed to take it out of the dryer and put it on the couch and fold it. Nope. Not my kids. It is WAY easier to just put it here! The stuff up top is some of my extra homeschooling stuff. I need to organize it. I also need to finish this cubby system I built forever ago!

So, here I am looking at my laundry room trying to formulate a plan that will help keep it clean. I look through pinterest and get sad because all the laundry rooms on there are clean and beautiful. I needed a plan. So, I decided that part of the problem is no one really has an assignment on when they should wash their clothes. Many days I tell my kids to get dressed and they tell me they don't have anything clean. So I make them do their laundry right then and there. I realized my problem. There was NO planning or organization! Because I have to be crafty and I can't just print off a checklist I made this awesomely cute laundry chart!

All I needed to add were the kids names (and mine too of course) and then we had a perfectly organized chart for who does their laundry when! 

The next thing I did was um, well, not what my husband expected. First I decided that the cubby system wasn't working how it was supposed to so I tore it out. Of course I did it while hubby was at work...when he came home the laundry room was empty except for the washer and dryer. He was a bit surprised because I had been so excited to put the cubby system in there in the first place.

Next I patched and textured the walls and got them ready to be painted. Then I moved the washer and dryer and realized I had forgotten about the 1 x 1 foot section of the wall that got damaged when we moved in. I had to rip out more of the sheet rock and patch the whole darn thing. Good thing I knew how! Then I painted  the room the same color as my playroom because I had leftover paint and, well, I thought it would go nicely with my red washer and dryer plus I didn't have to go buy more paint!

The 1 x 1 foot section that I had to repair was just below the water lines. See how well the patch job turned out? Pretty good if I say so myself!

I bought an IKEA Expedit shelf off the local classifieds and added workboxes for homeschool (I will post about that separately) because our current school system stopped working. So without further ado....here is my new laundry room!

The basket on the right hanging on the wall was a thrift shop find for $4. It is a PBK mail sorter but it works nicely for holding my swiffer  pads, cleaning gloves, and cleaning rags.

There is my lovely IKEA ironing board and my laundry day chart. The clips on the rod to the left of the basket are going to hold a laundry symbol chart.

This is the workbox system for our school. The cabinet to the left holds my laundry soap, and other laundry products.

The laundry room has been finished and working for nearly 2 weeks now and the it is staying CLEAN!!!! That has never happened before! If something is dirty my kids throw it in the blue hamper that you can see to the right. I am so happy that I finally found something that is working for us!! Yipeee!!!!!