Week Two | April 10 | Laundry Room Makeover
For the Spring 2024 One Room Challenge we are tackling our Laundry Room — it’s tiny and sad and needs help!
Be sure to check in on all of the other ORC projects on the ORC blog here.
Well, it’s been a busy week, and honestly, things don’t look all that different — well, except for the hole in the ceiling! Oh, and everything is cleared off. Ok. So there IS some actual progress to report!
Let’s get started!
The Laundry Chute
One of the goals for this project is to create a laundry chute from the hall upstairs into the laundry room, and we started that process this week by cutting holes in the ceiling of the laundry room and the floor in the closet above. I am not going to give you a tutorial on how to create a laundry chute. Every home is built differently, but if you want to install one, there are a few things you’ll need to consider:
Framing: figure out where your framing is within the walls. You don’t want to have to cut through any joists or framing to make this happen.
Systems: Consider where your electical and HVAC lines run as well as your plumbing, too. You don’t want your laundry chute to run into or to compromise those systems.
Path: The straighter your chute can be, the less likely things will get stuck!
Fortunately for us, there is a straight line from the bathroom cupboard to the laundry room. The laundry will drop down out of the ceiling into a laundry basket on the countertop. Easy!
The Laundry Room Before
Eek! We have a hole in the ceiling!
Oh, look! The inside of the ceiling!
We are lucky — as you can see in the photograph, our HVAC ducting runs in the same spot, but there is plenty of clearance to put the laundry chute in.
So, that project is in progress!
KonMari with Me
“Sort and evaluate all Laundry Room items using the KonMari method. ”
Of course, the KonMari method is SUPPOSED to be used on your entire home. And I have done that. Twice. It’s transformative.
But I have also applied Marie Kondo’s principles to individual rooms as needed, and they work just as well on a smaller scale as they do on a whole home — assuming you don’t have duplicates scattered over the entire house. And that’s really what has transformed our lives: every type of item in our home has a dedicated place. So when it is time to thank something and say “goodbye” I know there aren’t five more of that particular thing hiding elsewhere in the house.
Yesterday, I had a spare 45 minutes, and I decided to tackle the cupboards next to the laundry area. These two cupboards serve two purposes: storage of items for the guest bath and storage for the laundry area. And, frankly, they were FULL of bathroom items — largely shoved into the cupboards during construction.
For those of you just joining us, a brief refresher: on April 4, 2022 an unfortunate event forever known as Poopapalooza occurred in our home whereupon sewage from the upstairs bathroom overflowed and flooded both the up and downstairs bathrooms. Thus the last two ORC projects were the Guest Bath and Primary Bath — and our house was under construction at some level for 22 months (very, very slow contractors).
Ok. Now you are caught up!
So, honestly, cleaning out those cupboards had been on THE LIST for months. Well, with a spare 45 minutes, what could I accomplish?
Check it out — and seriously, I set a timer. I had to go do the school run at the end!
My goals for this week:
Finish the laundry chute
Install the countertop
Make decisions about shelving
Gardening News
This weekend we had hurricane-force winds for two days. Fortunately we didn’t have much damage at our house. Even the daffodils who are blooming their little hearts out right now were largely fine!
I am thankful that I have focused on bulbs for the last few years. I have planted a few hundred each fall, and I am finally achieving a critical mass so that they have a big impact! Here’s a peek:
Lots of seeds starting and I’ll be doing an update on the Grow Along soon, too. Be sure to follow along on Instagram and YouTube for more!
Here’s your April Gardening Checklist!
Your April Gardening Checklist is here!
Grow Along Essentials
Click here for all of the details!
Ok. I’m off to get more work done! Hope you are well, and as always, thanks for cheering me on!
Have a great week!
Cheers!
Angela
The Project Goals
I have several goals for this project — all with a goal to make this more functional AND more attractive.
Creating better, more usable storage spaces both above and around the washer and dryer.
Installing a countertop to create a more usable work surface — and prevent things from falling behind the machines.
Cleaning and revamping the hall cupboards and linen closet to create better usable space.
Installing a laundry chute for dirty laundry from the second floor.
Adding color and texture tying the Laundry Room into the surrounding spaces using leftover tile and/or wallpaper and other items.
Sort and evaluate all Laundry Room items using the KonMari method.
Adding an area for hanging clothes to dry.
Some of these goals are more achievable than others, and next week I will lay out the plans for it all.
This is the smallest ORC project I have ever taken on, but it will have a huge impact for me. I am the person who does most of the laundry since it is right outside my office door. I keep laundry going all day as needed, and having a neat and tidy place to do it will make all the difference in the end. I can’t wait!
Thanks to my sponsors
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