Organizing Your Craft/Laundry/Utility Space

Project organization continues today, I'm on a war path and I can't tell you how delighted I am to share this before and after with you.  This space has been a long time coming for me. We have this little open space in the very back of our house in the laundry area that was in need of some major help.  Its a great little space for storage but it was having all sorts of issues (obviously from the before pic).  This storage area is a shared space - it houses craft supplies, laundry items and tools/utility things so it needed a good plan.  It took me months and months but I think I finally have something I'm happy with!  I'm sure I will continue to tweak as I go but this space has been functional and has stayed tidy and organized for almost two months now so I'm feeling like we can do this organization thing.  Once you get something that works and that you love it becomes quite easy.  I speak from experience.

This did not happen over night, or over a week, or even over a few months.  It was almost a year of purging, painting, hanging shelving, coming up with laundry solutions, slowly collecting storage containers that I liked, planning and of course organizing.  It has gone through many phases.  Here is a previous stage, just before I finally decided to really tackle it.

Not terrible, but not great.  I needed to utilize this space in a better way - I just felt like I was wasting a lot of precious space in our house by not filling the shelves with items that were shoved in other places. So I decided that this area would house most of my craft supplies along with the obvious laundry items.  Justin also gets some space back here too for tools and things that we would like to have in close reach. We also keep seasonal items up top - I'll share more about this in a bit.

This is mainly all of my craft supplies.  I have bins for felt, yarn and ribbon.  I have scrapbook supplies,  paint brushes, glue guns, craft paint, etc.  I even have an entire bin of glues...don't ask me why I have so many glue varieties...its just the way it is.

The side shelf holds meds, spray paint, ironing supplies, our tool box, painting supplies (like tape and such) and the taller fabric laundry bin is where I sort out the clothing items that are hand wash only.  Lots of things going on in this small space - but it works.

Ok, so I thought I would give you a run down of what exactly I have going on back here, plus a supply list in case you are looking for similar storage containers.  I know how expensive storage containers and organizational items can be - most of these I slowly bought over time when I had a few extra bucks here and there.  The only exception was the top shelf - I haven't really gotten to streamlining those bins yet, they are just what we have had for a while and for now they are doing their job.

1 - This bin holds our winter gear (in NC you really don't need that much).  So it has hats, gloves, scarves, thermals and some ski goggles.  I got this bin from Target way back - source.  

2 - This bin is for our summer items - mostly beach towels, bathing suits, beach totes and flip flops.  This is just and 18 gallon Sterilite bin from Target.

3 - This bin is for work clothes - like painting and roofing.  We go on a lot of construction mission trips so we need to keep these things around for that.  Also from Target - source.

4 - Felt Storage, fabric bin is from Michael's.  I got these when they had a bogo sale so I snatched several up.

5 - This pretty box holds fabric scraps.  Its also from Target, I couldn't find it online but its a new item in their stores now.
6 - This little basket hold our ironing supplies.  I love these basket weave bins from Target and if you look now you might can find some on clearance.  I got all of mine on clearance.  They are rolling out newer colors so the older colors are marked down (even though they are the exact same thing) - source.
7 - Same bins from Michaels, this is yarn and ribbon storage.
8 - These boxes hold craft supplies, office supplies (like pens, hole punch, extra scissors, etc) and Recipes. Multi color plastic bins from Target - source.
9 - These boxes hold the same as above -White photo boxes from Michael's - source.
10 - Laundry bin for sorting out hand wash only clothing.  We got this laundry basket as a wedding gift (almost 12 years ago!) but its this same one from Target (I just took the wheels off) - source.
11 - This is a bin for tool items and large extension cords.
12 - Laundry Bins - I love these.  They are from Crate & Barrel - source.

Oh, the gray storage bins were found in the Target dollar spot but that was over a year ago.  That is a great spot to check though for storage items, you never know what they will have there.

Well that was a lot of detail and it was a lot of work but so, so, so worth it.  Ya'll I'm loving this organizing thing, I just want to look at this before and after all day - but I think there are some bed-side drawers in desperate need of some attention.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great Wednesday!

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