Laundry Room Makeover

As you may recall, I've been embarking on a bit of a house reorganization project. The key points here are that we have a super limited budget, and so we are trying to make the most of what we already have at home, and be more intentional with our choices with what we keep and how we use it. You might remember my post about how we spent $10 and redid our bedroom, and now I thought I'd share what we did in our laundry room.

Here's the Embarrassing Before Photo:

Wow, right? Things really got out of hand in there. This was one of the rooms where we tended to just throw things we weren't sure what to do with. It had been ages since we'd really cleaned the floors and that kind of thing, so I just took everything out, cleaned it all, and only put back in what we wanted to keep.

What we needed this room to give us:

1. Space to be a functioning laundry area.
2. Storage for all kinds of things: cleaning products, winter wear, sports equipment, pantry overflow, business extras, and all that kind of thing.

I really recommend the approach we took to get a handle on this room. It was so much easier to see what we needed to do once we got everything out. It also really gives you perspective on the things you own and have been storing. I found out that a huge part of the back corner was being taken up with a huge rubbermaid bin that was completely empty! Apparently we had just assumed it was holding something important and we kept stacking other things on top! 

I also got a chance to take stock of all the canning I still have stored away and now we have a better idea of what we can make meals out of, and what needs to be made for next year.  And also (as you can see from the above photo) that there are several things we need to get eating or toss out soon since the years are passing by!

I even got enough floor space cleared to put in my prototype rug I made that eventually became this one in my shop.  It's actually super nice having a rug in my laundry area.  I'm not sure what took me so long to think of putting one there!  

 We didn't do anything particularly earth shattering in here. We did have an idea of possibly moving the laundry machines to a different wall but the hoses were too short for that so if we really want to it's something we can save for another time. While we might do something bigger in the future, I am so happy with what we got done in the meantime. Maybe take this post as encouragement or inspiration to tackle those hidden storage areas in your home! It really feels so good to sort those out!

Seed Storage Makeover

I've been sitting around here waiting for the snow to melt, so with the time that I would normally be out in the garden I've been working on various other projects.  I've been storing my seeds in an old ammo can that I got from an army surplus store, and overall I really like how practical it is (so durable and fairly watertight).  I never cleaned it up much, and it is starting to look a little rusty and I thought I'd give it a bit of a makeover.

I wanted to try painting it.  I like my chosen seed storage container, but I'm not emotionally invested in it or anything, so I felt fine with experimenting and painting it.  I knew chalk paint would be a good candidate, but Annie Sloan wasn't in my budget at the moment, so I thought I'd give Rustoleum's "Chalked" paint a try because it is actually half the price.  Above you can see the "before" photo, as well as what it looked like after just one coat of paint.

Materials I Used for This Project:

The paintbrush is not the exact one I used but is similar.

This is basically what it looked like after all the coats (but before I applied the sealing topcoat).  I have a lot to learn about painting items like this, but I think it came out ok!  It's not all 100% perfect, but overall I like it better than it looked before, so I'll count that as a win.  I really like the quality of the Rustoleum paint, but I am not totally thrilled with the topcoat.  I have another item to try the paint on that I'll likely post about later on and I'll give it another chance there before I give the final verdict.

How do you organize your seeds?  I like this little box since it is small enough to be portable and the durability just can't be beat.  I'm not sure if my old case is 100% watertight, but it is still pretty good, so that's definitely important for storing seeds.  To keep things organized inside I use a combination of accordion files, the little tins that some David's Tea came in, empty spice containers, and the tiny plastic bags you find spare buttons in when you buy new clothes.

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