Story and Photos by Dianna Glenn, Owner and Designer of Organized by Di
Are you desperately trying to find more storage space in your home? Do not overlook your laundry room! Most laundry rooms come with space for a washer and dryer and a small countertop all on one side of the room. The other side of the room is normally just a bare wall. After Joe and I moved into our home I tried several different systems to use on this blank wall. I put up small shelves and a row of hooks. They did not hold much and I just kept thinking to myself if only I could use this entire wall!
I am an IKEA junkie and had recently renovated our dining room into a “library”. I was installing the black IKEA Billy bookcase system in it. And one day it hit me…put bookshelves in the laundry room. Crazy right? So I measured and headed to IKEA. I decided to do white bookshelves for the laundry room.
Here is the deal with the Billy bookcases. They are extremely versatile and shallow. At only 11 inches deep they work so well in a tighter space like a laundry room. They also come in a variety of widths and heights with adjustable shelves for a completely customizable system. However, the thing I love the most about the Billy bookcases is the height extender. Most homes today have taller ceilings. And in a laundry room you want to use every inch you can including the full height of the wall. After adding the extender I had more storage than I could have every hoped for. I left some shelves open and added doors to others.
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- Before
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- After
One of the biggest pitfalls with organizing or adding organization systems is that we don’t go through our things first…you do not want to add more storage to store more stuff you aren’t using. Be selective about what goes on your new pretty shelves. If you aren’t using it now don’t waste your new shelf space to store it! AND, its ok to have empty shelf space. Empty space is ok. Repeat. Empty space is ok.
I use our bookshelves to store our paper towels, my Young Living supplies, our beach towels, sunscreen, and other swimming necessities, lunch boxes, winter hats and gloves, our cleaning products, and our medicine. Lastly, the price for a completely customizable organization system like this is unbelievable. If custom cabinetry is not in your budget I highly recommend checking out the IKEA Billy bookcase.
The laundry room is not the only hidden space in your home. Where could you add shelves on empty walls to maximize storage and organization space? It could be under stairs, in a closet, even in a bathroom. Think outside of the box and use those empty walls…floor to ceiling!
