So first off, I knew the paint color had to change. I never liked the wine/red color, but figured - hey, it's just the laundry room, so who really cares? Except that I hated it. So apparently I cared. So for Christmas, I asked for a gallon of grey paint. Boom, gift accepted - thank you Santa. Next I wanted FUNCTION - which means I needed shelves, baskets to store things, and a cabinet for all of my cleaning supplies (including the awkward vacuum, brooms, mops, etc). One trip to Lowes solved all that!
The biggest challenge was cleaning the place out. The laundry room itself wasn't too bad, but the closet attached to it where I keep EVERYTHING (shoes, winter gear, 3 cubic tons of art supplies, all the bulk items I buy from Costco I can't fit anywhere else, etc) - no matter how often I cleaned it, within 1 week it always looked like a hoarder house (but yes, I SWEAR I need 2,000 Ziplock bags! They're soooo useful!):
The other must for me was doing something with all of that unused space above the washer/dryer. I looked into cabinets, but they weren't very big to maximize the space, and custom cabinets would've cost almost $1,000 according to the estimate I got. NO way. So instead I bought some $15 shelves and some bins!
So house project #1 for 2016 is FINISHED! Whoo hooo! The next room I'm gutting is the playroom, which will be turned into an art room now that my kiddos are a little older and we can finally get rid of all the little plastic toys. That will be a massive milestone! After that will be the formal dining room, which was turned into a movie room, which will eventually be turned into a study/craft room. Hooray!