Cleaning up the laundry "room"

Ok, so it's a closet but we were able to make some changes that greatly improved the functionality of this space!

There were many things I knew that I'd miss about our old house and the laundry room was definitely one of them! We had a big laundry room off the mudroom that included a super functional utility sink. In the new space, the laundry "room" is really a closet on the second floor right outside the kids' bedrooms. Not as convenient or spacious but I was determined to make it more functional. It had a mismatched washer and dryer that were old and one shelf that was too high for me to really reach.

My thought was that doing a stackable washer and dryer would make more sense so of course I turned to Pinterest for validation of this idea, but it wasn't there! Though it made so much sense to me, my Yoda-like source was not confirming my intuition. Of course this stalled the project completely. How could I proceed with this idea if the all-knowing, all DIYing gods of Pinterest were not verifying and inspiring with countless photos of similar projects!?!

As the drying limped along and finally was barely working, my hand was forced and off to Lowes I went in search of an affordable Washer/Dryer combo. The pressure was on - stackable or side by side??!! I took the leap, cast off the training wheels and swung without a net - stackable for this girl! And since I was throwing all caution to the wind at this point, I decided to try my hand at tiling for the first time!

After we pulled out the old set and removed the high shelf (which we repurposed in the garage for additional wall storage!) I painted the walls and ceilings with a neutral off white paint we left from another project. After the washer and dryer were installed, I was off to Lowes again for supplies. I bought two 1/2" x 8' x 4' finished plywood and had them cut to measure for the shelves and divider wall. I grabbed some edging, support scraps to hold up the shelves and some L trim wood to make the edges of the shelves more finished (ie. hide my mistakes!). I found some discontinued tile sheets and bought six of those for less than $10 to use as a backsplash. Even though I don't have a sink in this laundry nook, I thought the tile backsplash would be a nice touch. Again, more for look than function, I added a few "feet" to the bottom shelf. These came from Lowes as well. We have a few collapsable laundry baskets which I am able to store under this bottoms shelf (it's all about storage in a downsize!!)

I really love the little utility light pucks - they offer great task lighting and didn't involve an electrician as they are battery operated and have a little remote that I afixed to the wall just inside the door. I had a wrought iron dish towel rack that I'd bought for the kitchen but it didn't fit so I put it on the door which is great when we do loads of my husbands shirts and want to hang them rather than add them to the clean basket coming out of the dryer.

One of the biggest frustrations going from our big laundry room to this laundry closet is keeping the clean and dirty piles straight. In an effort to add clarity, I bought some magnet tags and labeled two of them Dirty and two Clean. I put magnet stickers on each of our laundry baskets so they can have a Dirty of Clean tag easily slapped on. When they aren't in use, the tags stick to the side of the dryer so they are easily accessible. So far, this system has really worked! (Thanks kids!!).

I added an antique ironing board to the top shelf and a few other fun laundry themed decor items and this project was done!