Ready for another fun laundry room organizing makeover? I’m choosing my topics carefully this month, doing my best to give you a shot of color and wow factor in between some of the less fun topics like paper organizing from yesterday. How is it working for you?

Remember this fun basement laundry room with teal bins a few days ago? Today I’m going to show you mine, which is really more of a laundry closet. It takes up one side of my galley kitchen, behind bi-fold doors. It’s super convenient, super organized, and not all that attractive from this angle.

There are two things that I really wanted from this laundry makeover:

1. Color!
2. Better use of the high ceiling for air-drying laundry

Anytime you are dealing with bi-fold doors like this, it’s best to take them off the track before starting a project. If yours are broken, as they often are, this is a great time to repair them with inexpensive hardware for bifold track doors. (affiliate link) You’ll be surprised how easy it is.

The plan includes one of my favorite blues, Sherwin Williams 6524 Commodore. This small space needs a big shock.

I’ll warn you, deep colors like this do not look good with one coat, even with excellent paint. It needs two coats, no question.

Don’t forget the little details, like painting the old outlet cover. It’s loose ends like this that will drive you crazy at the end of the project if you missed them while painting.

I love painting small spaces like this because it goes quickly. The next part of the job was to mount the drying rack for the ceiling. (affiliate link)

I’ve been jonesing for one of these every since I installed a different kind of drying rack for a client here and wrote about the high-end, European-style PulleyMaid drying racks. The drying rack I installed here is lightweight, adjustable, and easy to mount on the ceiling. It was even easier with my little helper and her little fingers. She loved the painting more than the hardware.

This is what the drying rack looks like installed on the ceiling.

Each of the rods work on an independent pulley. I can load delicates like sweaters onto a rod right out of the washer, pull them up, and they are out of the way until tomorrow, when they’ll be nice and dry.

Clementine boxes were already there, but painting them white was going to make everything look calmer and more organized. I hand-stencil each with a category. I still love Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, even though I don’t get to DIY much these days. I haven’t seen clementine boxes for a while now. Do those mini oranges still come in those cute cases? I only see them in plastic netting now.

You have no idea how challenging it is to photograph this space! Shooting into a closet is always a challenge.

Our recycling goes in the gray bin from IKEA, and we empty it outside every other day or so. The small pump bottle is concentrated laundry soap. If I don’t have this one, then I’ve got a bottle of Method laundry soap (affiliate link) there. There’s no need to have big, bulky bottles of detergent taking up valuable shelf space. I’m thinking about switching to new detergent strips that come in a cardboard box. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Whenever I see cute shelf liner like this chevron pattern (affiliate link) in the stores, I snap it up. There’s always a craft project waiting for good liner at my place. Lined shelves are easier to keep clean, and don’t warp from water damage.

We keep dishwasher packs in a big glass vase because it’s prettier than the packaging. I transfer trash bag rolls to a plastic pretzel can that I covered in cute shelf liner years ago. I still love that pattern.

All that stuff you have under your kitchen sink? This is where mine lives, because our Keureg coffee maker and baking pans live under our sink.

That big white metal LAUNDRY bin is holding my handful of specialty cleaners you saw in the before pics, including three  cleaners I can’t live without. Putting them inside this giant metal bin keeps everything looking much more organized. Let’s be honest…no one else in my house knows what’s in there, but it makes me happy. I got mine locally, but here is a giant metal farmhouse-style LAUNDRY bin on Amazon. (affiliate link)

There’s nothing like a shot of color and a little organizing to brighten up laundry day.

This little spot in my kitchen is a high-traffic spot. We’re in and out of here dozens of times each day. There’s often a box of things to donate sitting on the washer, headed out to my car.

It only took me several years to turn it blue, but I love this bright, bold laundry room. It’s one of my favorite spots in my house.

You wouldn’t think that a quart of paint could make such a difference, but just look!

These projects are here to inspire you. I LOVE all the emails I’ve been getting this month about changes that YOU have made to get more organized because of what you are reading here. Please post below with your SORT and Succeed projects.

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See all of my January 2021 organizing articles in one place.