A Year Living With Less: Week 4

By Amy L. Hatch

There’s nothing quite like a surprise visit from the dryer repairman to light a fire under you to clean out your laundry room.

My laundry room, in its salad days. (Photo by Amy L. Hatch)

My dryer quit on me this week, when I literally had loads of dirty clothes piled higher than my washer. When it became clear that someone was going to have to do something about it (or I was going to have to stand at the dryer and hold the timer down for an hour to get it to run), I freaked out.

No, not because my dryer was broken, although that was The Big Stink. I freaked out because A STRANGER WAS GOING TO SEE MY LAUNDRY ROOM.

People, it was bad. Like, “Call Child Services, STAT!” bad. When I finally got all the laundry out of the room, I found at least 12 months’ worth of old potato chips on the floor.

*hands head in shame*

My laundry room is right off the kitchen, and it doubles as a pantry. Three years ago we installed a Rubbermaid shelving system to get more mileage out of the space. They were nice and neat for about, oh, A NANOSECOND.

Then that area became the “Toss It All In There And Close The Door” room. Toys, art supplies, food, canned goods, soda, beer, cookbooks … you name it, we tossed it in there.

Sunday, when I knew the repair guy would need to pull the dryer out, I paid the piper for all that stuff. Big time.

Frantically, I went in and started pulling stuff out. I threw away the empty snack bags (for shame!) that someone put back in there. That someone may or may not be me, I will never tell.

One of the biggest clutter culprits in the laundry room was a mesh hamper in which I dump all the laundry that ends up downstairs — kitchen towels, random socks and any other discarded outfits that wind up on the family-room floor.

In our bedroom, we also had two hampers: Don’t ask me why. I’m sure I had a reason at some point.

I folded up the mesh hamper and stowed it behind the washer. Then I took one solid hamper from our room and put it in the laundry room. That hamper is a) not see-through and b) smaller.

Then I went through the craft supplies and decided what to keep and what to give to preschool. Viola! Clean laundry room.

When my babysitter showed up the next day, she said — and I quote — “Wow! What happened to the laundry room!”

I didn’t know if I should be mortified or thrilled. I was a little of both. But hey! I actually have room for laundry in the laundry room now! Score!

What did you get rid of or organize this week?

Up Next: Who is going to clean that basement?

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1. Living With Less: Where To Donate in Champaign-Urbana