New Cleaning Closet

Besides the kitchen I spend most of my time in our utility room. It is also the room I have liked the least in this house. It is our catch all. Anything that needs to be taken outside or find a home ends up in here somewhere. Since we bought our house in 2006 we have made some major changes. The way I see it is if I have to spend time in there I might as well like it. So, here are some before and after pics and our most recent upgrade.

This is what it looked like when we bought it. The time stamp is wrong on the pic. Isn't it UGLY!? The curtains came with the house, lucky me! Those were the first to go.

Here's the most recent (today) pic. Lil man had to be in the pic of course. We painted and added a border and a ceiling fan. It made the room so much brighter.

     We uncovered a window and added tons of shelving. This house had no storage at all. When you live in a 1100 sq ft, 2 BR house you need all the storage you can get. I have been saving diaper and wipe boxes for storage and they will soon be getting a makeovers courtesy of pinterest. We still want to replace the vinyl flooring. Also, my handy husband is going to build me risers for my washer and dryer so, I can get rid of the sorting hamper and have more room. The cabinet by lil man is our pantry and it will be torn out and that whole corner will be turned into lockers. This room has really come a LONG way and there are just a few projects left to make it my dream utility room.

I want to replace this with a custom built pantry cabinet that goes to the ceiling. I don't want any wasted space. This is just our catch all for now. This is the best it's looked in a long time.

Here's the before of our most recent project; the cleaning closet. I can't believe I'm posting these. It's a disaster. I was always tripping over everything in there.

This cabinet contained a little bit of everything!

Here's a view from the inside. Not much space in there.

All the junk that didn't fit

Lucky for me Menards had a shelving sale and I have a handy husband! Bless his heart he used his Christmas money to help a girl out. Secretly, I think he was just tired of hearing me complain about it. The project cost a total of $60. It was so worth it! You can see the floor!

I can now find everything. I'm going to get some cute lil plastic containers to group some of the items together and of course label them. What you can't see in the pic is that there actually is still an empty shelf on top. I'm going to store paper towels up there. I know we should go paperless but, they are one thing I haven't been able to sacrifice.

Look, I have a tool hanger for my mop, broom, and swiffer. It's AWESOME!

I actually enjoy going in there now. Before it was complete and utter dread. I'm happy to have one more project marked off the honey do list and so is my husband.