$45 Laundry Closet Makeover REVEAL (Before and After)

So there's good news and bad news. The good news is the laundry room/closet makeover is complete.  The bad news is the washer decided to conk out completely about 3.2 seconds after I added the final touch and now we are shopping for a new washer.   I really wasn't planning to take the laundry room makeover that far - after all I was on a $100 budget here - but when life gives you lemons you make lemonade  a broken washer the laundry piles up fast!

That being said....I could not wait a minute longer to finally reveal my new laundry room.

Laundry Room Update...This is NOT Going Well

I cursed myself!  Yesterday, on Instagram I shared this picture of the final touch in my newly made over laundry room.  The caption: "that's a wrap." Yeah, well guess what..the washer had other plans.

It honestly wasn't an hour later that I noticed a pool of water in the pan under the washer.  Are you kidding me?   This is not normal.  Water is not supposed to be in the pan. Don't get me wrong, it's better than it being all over the floor, but it's not supposed to be in the pan.  Something is leaking. Something had me sitting on the floor next to the washer with a turkey baster and a bowl for a good half hour sucking out water drop by drop.  (Not even joking...don't laugh!)  Something is holding up my big reveal! 

So today, instead of taking some gorgeous pictures of a newly made over laundry room (that I'm sure will never be nearly as neat as the moment it was snapped on film) to share on the blog, I will be dealing with finding an appliance repair man to come in and tear apart my laundry closet and figure out what is wrong with my washer. 

The washer is old.  I don't know how old, but it's likely not worth putting too much money into.  We will see what he says...but I'm pretty sure any repairs or replacements are going to push me over my $100 laundry closet makeover budget.  A new washer was not in the plan or the budget. 

The good news is at least I have about $50 to play with since the laundry room makeover, to this point, with a new light, new cabinet, shelving, decor, paint, and a wall mounted drying rack, didn't cost me much at all.

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Turn a Thrifted Cabinet into Laundry Room Storage (And Tips for Hanging a Cabinet)

After being stalled for a few weeks, my laundry room makeover is finally nearing completion.  The biggest project - and what had me at a standstill - was the cabinet.  I purchased the old kitchen cabinet at a thrift store for just $15 several weeks ago.

I cleaned it up and peeled off as much of the nasty shelving paper as possible. 

12 DIY Projects for Busy Moms! (March Wrap Up)

It's time for a look back at some of what we did around here in March!   Looking back I realized that so many of the DIY projects we shared, last month, were completed in less than an hour.  As a busy mom of two - a 5 year old and a 2 year old - I am often squeezing projects in during nap time. DIY projects and crafts have to be pretty fast for me or else they are left half finished.  

Here are 11 busy mom-approved DIY ideas.  Just click the title above each photo to go to the tutorial.

DIY Dollar Store 'Industrial' Light Fixture

My laundry room makeover is in full swing.  Nothing is safe (just ask my drying rack).   Not even the ol' bulb and chain.  The laundry closet light is literally a light socket with a bulb in the ceiling.   There she glows...

I know it's just a laundry closet, but I did want to spice up the light a little and I didn't want to spend much money.   A $2 DIY light fixture did the trick.

DIY Laundry Drying Rack (Wall Mount from Floor Standing)

Many a days I'm asked "Oh that's cool...where did you get that idea? Pinterest?" Yeah yeah yeah, I got it inspired from Pinterest, okay...what's it to ya?  But I got news for you today...I didn't get this DIY drying rack idea one from Pinterest.  No ma'am!  I actually had a moment of pure genius last week and thought this one up all.by.myself. 

If you've been following recently, you know I'm in the midst of making over my laundry room.  I'm on a tight budget and working in an even tighter space.  One of the items on my 'must have' list was a wall mounted drying rack.  With a $100 budget I was definitely going to DIY it, I just had to figure out how.

In our old house we had an actual laundry 'room'.  It wasn't pretty, but at least there was room for a foldable floor standing drying rack.  Our current laundry closet is extremely limited on space and I'm forced to hang all of my unmetionables all over the door knobs on the second floor.   Anyway, we've been storing that foldable laundry rack for years and the other day it caught my eye...it almost had a little glow around it like "TAKE ME!!! I AM THE ANSWER TO YOUR DRYING PROBLEMS".  And so...I did.

Laundry Room Makeover Progress

Yippee!! My laundry room isn't nearly as scary as it was just about a week ago.  Now, it's also no where close to being done, but progress is definitely being made.  It's kinda tough to get much done with just a few hours here and there...when my youngest is in pre-school a few mornings a week and my oldest isn't having a(nother) snow day.

If you follow me on Instagram you know I scored a $15 cabinet at my favorite local thrift store.   She was UGLY!  If you thought the outside was bad, the inside was 100x worse.

HELP!! My Laundry Closet Needs a Makeover

Perhaps it's because I've been seeing the same four walls of my house for too many consecutive days this winter...that doing laundry actually feels like a retreat most days.  It's five or ten minutes that I can hide upstairs alone when no one is asking me for a drink or to find their Batman (no the other one) or calling from the toilet that "Mommy, there's a problem" only to find out the 'problem' is that he can't get his superhero underwear (oh sorry, mask) on his head without my help.  WHAT is going on!!???!!

Oh wait, I retreat upstairs to switch the laundry and I'm faced with this and it's like WHAM BAM thank you MA'AM this is no haven this is an ugly, inefficient, and scary small laundry room closet.