Slow Home Challenge Week Three: The Laundry Room/Pantry

The laundry room

This week I'll be dedicating time to tackle and slow down my home's laundry room/pantry.

This is a tough room for me because it serves waaaayyyy too many purposes, and is constantly disorganized, and therefore a true hindrance of me gaining better efficiency.

The Utility philosophy of the Slow Home concept states:

"A Slow Home has utility spaces for parking, laundry,

mechanical equipment, and storage that are unobtrusively

located, highly funcational, and do not conflict with other uses."

-Slow Home Studio

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our pantry: not a whole lot to brag about there!

I am thankful that my home actually has a laundry room (with a door I can close, might I happily add), and a pantry separate from the kitchen, yet, I'm not so sure that they're being practically right on top of one another truly reflects the Utility philosophy of the Slow Home. It is what it is, however, and unless my husband agrees to build a whole new laundry room in the attic (which I think is a fantastic, yet doubtful idea) we are going to have to accept this space as a multi-functioning room. 

Here are the typical contents of our Laundry/Pantry room:

• dry goods (cereal, soup, grains, your normal pantry items)
• washer/dryer
• (super) large bag of dog food for our two lg. breed dogs (and sometimes two bags when Sophie, our occasionally over indulgent Weimaraner, needs some healthy weight management chow!)
• cleaning supplies (spray bottles, laundry detergent, floor cleaner, etc...)
• mops, brooms, dusters
• one... (okay I'll fess up, it's really four) containers of random household odds and ends
• kids lunchboxes
• a pile of dirty kitchen towels and cloth napkins on the floor (more of that fessing up the truth thing here)
• two separate bins for the kids shoes
• one bin for dry vegetables (onions, potatoes, etc...)
• one bin of cloth rags and old towels for cleaning (I don't use paper towels)
• grill utensils
• shower rod for hang drying clothes
• recycling bin
• hanging mesh storage piece from IKEA (can anyone properly name this?) holding: plastic bags to be returned to Publix, snacks for the kids, and... hum, I'm not really sure what else is in there! (note to self: find a better purpose for this one!)

I think that actually might be it...unless of course I mention all of the random junk that usually ends up sitting on top of the washer and dryer during the week because I can't seem to find a better place to put it. Yup, then there is that stuff too.

We do have lovely tile floors, high ceilings, and a decent size window that lets in lots of natural light.

Here's what we don't have in the laundry room/pantry:

• cabinets in which I could properly store (hide) all of this stuff!
• (ohhh so pretty) front load washer and dryer
• a folding table
• a sink (I know, that would be fantastic, wouldn't it?)
• an actual laundry basket...this would be really ideal for the above mentioned kitchen towels and cloth napkins

So there we have it. Way too many things being stored in such a small room. Although this is going to be a tough challenge, I'm excited about going through this room in an effort to reduce and organize the contents, make it more asthetically appealing, and improve its overall efficiency and functionality. Another challenge for me is that I am sure this room is   going to require a lot more of my time. These days I work part time as a freelance writer, and am feeling the time squeeze now more than ever. With that in mind, I plan on having the kiddos help me out with this week's challenge. (I'll be sure to update you on how that aspect of it goes as well!).

Does your home's laundry room/pantry align with the slow home philosophy? If not, what changes will you be making this week?