Laundry Room Triumph

I would be kidding myself if I didn't say that I feel like I deserve a medal at this very moment for my laundry room. You see. I am a habitual procrastinator. Combine this with being a creative decorating minded person and you have piles and piles of laundry. It is always the first household task that I forgo in the midst of busy life, and getting caught in other projects. We have just returned from spring break vacation. Prior to leaving we spent 2 days doing nothing but laundry. Before we left all the laundry was completely done. To commemorate this joyous occasion I took pictures. To celebrate even more I am blogging this to ensure the event does not go undocumented. That would just be a waste of a good thing. Without further ado...here is my laundry room:

The entrance

Lockers from a friend of mine who owns a store called Affected Interiors. They just had their grand opening this past Saturday. The lockers house all of our cleaning supplies, trash bags, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. Plus side if you have little kids and want a safe way to keep cleaning supplies out of harms way...you can put a padlock on any of the doors. I bought these lockers from them in raw original form. However, they usually refinish their lockers in beautiful fresh colors!

My message center used to be in my kitchen. On a decorating challenge from a group that I am a contributing administrator for, we were challenged to move some furniture around. Well...one piece of furniture being moved usually starts a snowball effect in this house. I believe 5 area of my home were affected due to the moving of 1 piece of furniture. My Mid-Century Modern hutch is now in my kitchen, and my message center (aka paper piles) have been moved to this little area in my laundry room. I love it here as it is out of the way and I don't have to stare at all that paper.

Our sock organization system. The system works great when all of the socks are matched and put away.

A little craft project I did a couple of years ago. I love it when my laundry is sorted in all the right baskets. Which is rare. I do live with 5 boys.

This ladder rack is something I made and had used at my store for display. When I closed my store it was one item I couldn't bring myself to liquidate. It make a great drying rack.

Vintage ladder and vintage wrought iron corbel.

Our laundry room has great storage above the washer and dryer. However it is too high and too hard to get to above the machines, so I don't use them for every day items. We added the shelf on the right and the hanging bar when we renovated our home. The shelf above houses our extra booster seats and cleaning buckets. 

The color of the room was a mistake. It was suppose to be the same custom color that I created for our master bedroom which the paint company called "Aqua tint". However the day I showed up to the house and saw this I was in a bit of shock. It is true, pure Aqua. It was an accident, but it couldn't have been more right for the room. Our laundry room is small and narrow, this bright, clean, and happy color is just the refreshing color needed amongst piles of dirty laundry.

To the left is our list of house projects/fixes that need to be done. A list that is always kept up. I love to cross those items off!

 

My favorite part of the room is the growth chart on the back of the door. I now have to stand on a step stool to measure our oldest son who is 5'10".

 

So there you have it. A once in a lifetime event. If you happen to stop by on a random day, don't expect a tour of this room. I will non-chalantly point in the direction of the room and say "oh...and over there is the laundry room".

Being Transparent

This week has been amazing. I have received and accepted an invitation to be an official member of the Allume team.What is Allume?

"The Allume conference exists to offer a gathering place for kindred spirits to connect, learn, grow, and be refreshed so they can persevere in being a people who bring hope to the world through the social media medium. We want to reflect His Light in all our spheres of influence. Our goal is to go beyond the surface into intentional blogging and real life living, all to the glory of God. Allume is a one-of-a-kind conference that seeks to engage women by teaching blogging techniques and social media skill while also urging and encouraging women to live fully integrated lives with their faith and family." ~ Source taken from the Allume About Us page

Allume is being held October 24th-26th 2013 in Greenville, SC. A new location this year! If you are interested in attending, you can go here to check out tickets...beware they are usually sold out by the end of March early April. 

My role on the team is "Newbie Welcome Lady". Consider me your go to for making your first Allume experience an amazing one! We have a Facebook page set up for the newbies where we can chat about questions, work out feelings of fear or excitement. We are getting to know each other now instead of waiting until that first day of the conference. Consider the Facebook group your newbie refuge! There are plenty of veterans sprinkled in the group to help answer your questions and offer encouragement. If there is one thing we love...it is to love on you newbies! Afterall...I was just a newbie myself last year! Read my post Allume 2012 experience here.

One of the things you will read on my bio listed on the Allume "meet the team" (and seriously, it hasn't really sunk in that my name is listed on the website!) page...is this:

"Janelle enjoys helping other women peel layers of emotions and tear down walls which stand in the way of living their lives to the fullest potential. She strives to be transparent and real to her readers and friends. She even revealed her weight to the world!"

My first thought when all of this excitement was going on this week was that I need to hurry up and come clean up my blog. You know...tidy up before company...shove things in closets...throw stuff away...show your best side. And then I thought..I want to be real. What you get here is what you will get in real life. So..in an effort to be extremely transparent, vulnerable, and just plain crazy...I am going to show you this....

This knee high mess is my laundry room as of two weeks ago. I have had some other events going on that have caused me to be busier than the norm...and whenever I get overwhelmed laundry is the first thing for me to just give up on.  Although this is quite embarassing...it is also quite liberating to air my dirty laundry. pun intended...

 

And this is my laundry room as of this weekend. Yes folks..it took about two weeks to get through that pile. But through an entire family group effort it is caught up. 

 

 Great concept...but with a house full of boys it is a rare thing to see all of the clothes in their correct baskets. *Paint color Sherwin Williams Aqua*

 

 And just in case you are new to my little slice of the world wide web...sarcasm...and dry wry sense of humor...they are a gift of mine...they also get me in trouble sometimes.

 

Being perfect...or letting people believe you are perfect is for the birds. Takes way too much effort. Being real is where its at.

 *excerpt from Sandy Coughlin's Reluctant Entertainer book*

I can not wait to get to know all of the new Allume attendees!