I now have... a ZONE. It's my place, where no one else is allowed. I don't even let the dog or cat down there. My husband rarely goes down into the hole, and from the beginning when we moved here in May, my KIDS have not been allowed to step one foot down there. If I see an ankle peeking through the stairs, their butts are mine.
I have everything set up as I want it and the best part is, NO ONE is ever down there to move things. I know I should sort of be offended that my husband won't enter the space, but now I've grown to enjoy it. It's ALL mine. Nothing disappears, is broken, get's spilled, and no one begs me for anything from the room.
It's like my cocoon: energizing me and returning my sanity. It's my laundry room in the basement.
I laid an old 9x12 carpet down, and some carpet pieces line the dusty floor from the stairs to the laundry area. Much of the basement floor is dirt, so it's just not ideal. I have plastic totes for separating clothes like mine and my husband's, my two youngest son's, my oldest son's, my towels and sheets, and one for white.
I have a clothes line ready to go up, a drying rack and several nails on which I hang clothes with hangers. Each person has their own nail(s) to hang on and I've always used different color hangers for each individual. Like mine are black, my husbands white and green (until I can make them all one color), A is blue, T is white and J has the other primary colors.
I use some phone line or something that's stapled up there snug to hold all of our empty hangers, and I have several hampers and clothes baskets awaiting folded clothes.
The landlord's washer and dryer set that came with the place (non functioning) sit just opposite mine on the rug, and a big shelf unit sits off the side/middle for soaps and odds and ends. I have purchased a counter top ironing board which I hang near the dryer and my iron plugs in over the dryer itself. How perfect is that? The washer and dryer are brand new, and an old end table sits between the shelf and washer on the corner of the rug for holding hampers higher so I don't have to bend all of the time.
Everything is folded or hung the second it comes out, and I can now iron my husband's shirts when I have a few minutes in the evenings. I make my husband and kids carry it all to put away 90% of the time. They at least carry it and then I put it away when I am upstairs.
I find it's an escape - a retreat from mommyhood, the house, and being the wifey. I get to tell everyone laundry is important and we have so much of it that I must stay on top of it....therefore Daddy will take care of everything up here, I'm doing laundry. I am even washing towels and sheets more often just to have something to wash.
I have hampers in everyone's bedrooms and insist they're used and then emptied every 5-7 days. Interestingly, the hubby has been the one who leaves his clothes out the most, with my oldest being the runner up.
Everything in the area is hung or folded almost perfectly and I spend 20-30 minutes down there at a time; or easily an hour when ironing all hubby's clean shirts. Laundry has never looked so good or been so caught up. I am thinking about installing a hammock.
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