Laundry Room I can live with

The "Before" Shot

Our laundry room has always been one of the worst rooms in our house, it just seems to "catch" everything.  It is right off the garage so things land their on their way into the house and when I need to clear a kitchen counter the dryer seems like a great place to "stack" things... So when part of the Declutter Calendar (thank you Pinterest) said to make a donation station I took that a step further and just organized this room.  Now when I come in the house I feel SO much better....  Here is the warning, if you have a weak stomach, or dirty houses make your skin crawl, look away NOW!  The first step was to literally take everything out (except the washer/dryer); sort it out and throw away garbage.  The calendar recommended boxes like donation, gifts, deliver and library (their ideas came from The Red Chair Blog); I took those ideas and modified to my needs, using file boxes (on sale at Office Max) and printed signs using Word.  I kept boxes for gifts and donations and added my own (see system pic below.)  I have a box for Emma (the dog) for her food, toys, leashes, etc; one for Scrapbooking to hold pictures, cards or memorabilia to add to scrapbooks later; one for File to help keep my kitchen more clean by holding check stubs, paid bills or documents that go in our file cabinet upstairs (but never seem to get there); one for Donate that is pretty simple, things to go to Goodwill; one for Killian and one for Cohen, which will hold their art they bring home, projects or things that I want to save to embarrass them with later in life:); one for Gifts, right now it has a couple cards in it and my mother-in-law's birthday gift we will give her on Sunday; and finally one that says Return which will be for library, borrowed things, rentals, etc.  The final step was to put everything back in the laundry room and I added a basket for the shoes to collect in so we don't trip as we come in the house!  A big THANK YOU to Amy at Red Chair for giving me the motivation and idea to run with.  

The Supplies

"The System"

The "After" Shot