Dropping one of my son's baseball teammates off last night at his home, I noticed something that made me stare in awe. It was his garage. It was amazing! I mean, it was just a regular garage, but it was immaculately organized and free of debris. I couldn't take my eyes off it. It was so beautiful!
As we drove away, my neck craning in an effort to take it all in, I thought to myself, "Wow! How does one maintain such a clean, organized garage?" I have never been inside the house, but I can only imagine how immaculate it probably is. I mean, if the garage looks like you could eat off the floor, I'm guessing the house reflects the same neatness and organization. It was incredible to me. I found myself being in awe at this family and how well they took care of their home and belongings, and my mind couldn't help but do a quick review of my own garage, and then my own home and I'm sorry to say I could come up with very little that left me with the same feeling of order as this family's garage. It was a little disheartening, to say the least!
Before I sunk into utter despair over comparing my unkempt garage with that of another family's, I quickly got a hold of myself. Get a grip! I thought. You're beating yourself up over someone's garage, for goodness sake! That's when I took a breath and thought very hard about what spaces in my home/yard make me feel happy because they are almost always in order. I'll admit I had to think pretty hard. But finally, I came up with something!
Yes, it's my laundry room. And yes, it's pea-sized due to the fact that we live in the basement and this was only supposed to be a second laundry room for my children to use until we decided to move our entire family down here and rent our upstairs. BUT the reason I love this space is that:
1-It's so much better than it used to be. Before I got the stackable washer/dryer, I had a regular ones that faced the wall, leaving only about two feet of space between the units and the wall--just barely enough for the dryer door to open. Thus, I had to shimmy along the wall to get to the washer, then bend in an awkward position to get the clothes from the washer to the dryer before shimmying back along the wall to get out. When retrieving clothes from the dryer, I had to practically stand on my head at the side of the dryer. It was an interesting challenge, to say the least. Then, luck of all luck, our washer started acting up and we had to get new units. This is what we came up with, and although my laundry room is still tiny, it's oh so functional. I simply fold the clothes and pile them in the bins to the left and my children put their laundry away every evening--just like magic!
OK, so it doesn't quite work that way; usually, they get around to emptying their clean laundry bins only once a week, but at least they do it, right? And they also sort their own laundry in a sorting bin that's right outside the laundry door (in the furnace room--where everyone keeps their laundry sorters, right?), which I forgot to take a picture of, but you get the idea.
Then, I bought some fabulous (not beautiful but extremely functional) cabinets off KSL and felt like prize pig at the fair when my husband finally got it installed in the corner of my laundry space. It's perfect!(see above picture). The best part is that this space is so small and simple, it actually stays quite orderly. So whenever the rest of the house is in chaos, I can simply go to my little laundry room and breathe in the scent of dryer sheets and Downy and feel rejuvenated again at this clean little spot in our home:)
This is the other space I love.
Anyway, the moral of this post is simply to say, if you think you don't have the most amazing, organized, beautiful home and garage--the kind that makes people stare in awe--don't fret. Instead, take a minute to find the spaces in your home and life that bring you happiness, spaces that do stay organized, spaces that hold great memories or at least pictures of some.
Everyone has such spaces, even if they are simply a 4x4 foot laundry room!
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