Laundry Room/Family Closet

Yep, I'm still here...really, I am! I have been working hard on things but unfortunately, there's been so much to do before I can even get to the "decluttering" part, which is why you haven't heard from me in awhile.  For the past few weeks one of my projects has been getting our laundry room/family closet in order.  If you've never heard of a family closet, the premise is that ALL clothing is centrally located in one room or part of a room. 

The benefits of a family closet are many:

• no clothing all over the house, especially in children's already-cluttered bedrooms
• no toting laundry baskets up and down the stairs
• Mom can be sure everything is getting put away properly
• no more rummaging through dresser drawers to find something
• children's closets can be used for other things besides clothing
• eliminating dressers gives you SO much more space!

and the list goes on!  We have 4 children living at home, ages 2, 4, 6 and 8, and they share two bedrooms.  The bedrooms are small.  The laundry room is large in comparison.  These are the factors that made us to decide to implement the family closet a few years ago.  I don't have any "before" pictures but now that this area of our home is mostly decluttered and organized, I thought I'd share it!

Here is how it works for us.  Each child, plus Mom, had a basket on the shelf for clean items such as t-shirts, shorts, underwear, PJ's - basically anything that doesn't get hung on a hanger.  There is also a basket for clean socks, which we sort periodically.  All other clothing gets hung on the rods on either side of the room.  If you turn completely around, here is the view:

You can see our dog's cage here also, this is where he sleeps.  Today I put a small basket on top of his cage to put his flea & heartworm meds, leashes, treats, etc.  And here are pics of either side of the room:

Now I said the room was in order, not perfect!  Yes, there are hampers full of laundry waiting to be done.  There are plastic bins with out-of-season clothing, cloth diapers, and other items not currently in use.  And shhh...don't tell but 2 of those black plastic trash bags contain Christmas gifts for some of our children!  They would NEVER think to look there! 

As for the hanging clothes, they are divided by person.  Right now I have my clothes, as well as my youngest child and oldest child on one side and my daughter and middle son's clothes on the other side.  On the shelves above the clothing, I store bulk packages of diapers and wipes, other plastic bins with things like swimming gear and one with empty tote bags, etc.  I do hope to re-visit this room and organize and declutter it a bit more, but for now I am just so glad I can get in there and move around!!