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Does your laundry room spark joy?

Or ignite fear and dread ha ha.

For me, the laundry is an ever present reality. We’re a relatively large family – five young kids and 2 adults – and we produce a lot of laundry. Baby clothes, bedding, towels, football kits, pjs, etc etc.

It used to get me down – the ever present laundry. But I’ve decided to get the negative emotions out of it. After all, providing clean clothes for your family is just a kindness. I want to bless them with matching socks occasionally 😛 

So, inspired by the recent KonMari trend, I’m facing it head on. I want my laundry to spark joy!!

There are two elements to this:

the laundry room

and the process of laundry itself.

 

So, taking the laundry room first.

 

1. Make the laundry space beautiful!

 

Full disclosure: I don’t actually have a dedicated laundry room (most small houses don’t, right?). 

But I do have a dedicated laundry space. 

Having it aesthetically pleasing actually does make a big difference to me. It’s not really about having it fancy – just something that makes me smile a little. 

Check out this laundry metal street sign. I love how it makes the laundry area an official work space. And evokes lots of nostalgia too. 

 

Try this wooden rustic Farmhouse style laundry sign for a more cosy farmhouse look:

Now onto laundry baskets. You need baskets for dirty clothes and baskets for clean. I suggest color coding them so that little people can easily get more involved in the process. The colors make it much easier to give clear instructions. Mine are from Ikea.

 

I’m a little bit in love with this series of peg bags by the Ulster Weavers. Cute and practical! Cows, sheep, owls… Really cute gift, too. 

 

 

 

And how cute are these gorgeous colored pegs?? Talk about sparking joy! I love how a simple little thing can make such a big difference. 

 

2. Make the laundry process as tidy as possible

So, the actual process of laundry. 

Sometimes laundry makes me feel a liiiiitle bit stressed out. What is it about an unassuming pile of clothes that can do that to a grown adult?

For myself, it is the laundry creep. Little piles appear across the whole house. Some to put away here; some to put away there. A little pile to iron here. A big pile of dirty towels to wash there.

So organizing it in one place and in a tidy fashion makes me feel better. And it makes the process easier to follow through.

Here’s what I recommend:

1. Write down the whole laundry process as it happens in your own family.
2. Where does the laundry collect?
3. What different processes are involved?
4. Then write down the physical space where each of these processes happens. Does that need to change?
5. Do you have every container you need for a streamlined laundry process?
6. Do you have a tidy space with a sense of beauty, so your laundry room can spark joy for you?

I keep a rail for hangers in my laundry area, so shirts can go from the wash pile to the machine to the rail to the ironing board, thus avoiding the scrumpled heap of clean shirts on the sofa (which have happened previously).

I like these chunky wooden hangers from AmazonBasics for helping clothes to keep their shape.

 

 

Also useful: two different storage boxes for detergents.

I like to have one for the products I use several times a week, and a separate one for the products I use less frequently. 

They get messy quite easily so I recommend these high quality plastic containers – easy to rinse out, and sturdy too. 

 

It’s definitely a process – making my laundry room spark joy for me. But making it beautiful certainly helps. And making the laundry process more streamlined 

 

 

Are you in the mood for sorting out your kitchen and streamlining your cooking processes? Then check out this post: What do you REALLY need for a minimalist kitchen 🙂

 

Tot straks! Elizabeth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the author

Elizabeth is a writer and a long time occupier of (mostly rental) small kitchens. She delights in making kitchens beautiful, and in helping you to do the same.    Over the past 10 years she has lived in an apartment above a restaurant, a tiny Victorian terrace, an Edwardian (even tinier) home, and a house with a kitchen from the 1980s. She now lives in a 1970s house with lovely natural light but very minimal cupboards.