Building More Shelves in the Laundry Room Closet

 You know I love a good closet project! 

Our laundry room has this little closet with two wire shelves. You also know how I feel about wire shelving. Ugh! 

Here's my SHAME ... after months of living here, that closet looked like this ... 


I know.... it's shocking, right?! 

After reflecting on what we NEED this space for, I pulled together a very simple plan to add shelving. Yup... Storage by reusing those less-then-classy plastic crates again. 

The good news is, I've done this before. (Evidence here in my old pantry.)  YAY! 

Step 1 is to pull off the door (which we don't need), clear out the mess and take down the shelf. I'm leaving that top shelf for several reasons, but mostly as a "just in case." Just in case I need extra coat storage this winter.

Here's the cleared out closet: 


Notice how the previous owners didn't install baseboards in this closet. WHY?! 

So I'll fix that, too. 

The next step is to install the cleats that will hold the shelves. I measured my crates, leaving a little space above for any spillage. And I used up some wood trim I already had in the garage. I screwed them into studs for added strength. 


Then, the hardest part of the project, going to Home Depot, finding the 3/8 depth MDF and asking them to cut it. Paying for it. Clumsily carting it to the car. Discovering it won't fit in the trunk. Returning to the store and the guy to ask him to cut it AGAIN because it didn't fit in my car. Getting the side eye. But also getting some nice "been there" jokes from other builders, it's a mixed bag usually. And then pushing the four pieces back to the car and wishing I was a big, burly guy and not a tiny women. The end. 

Next, I painted. I like to wait until after the cleats are up because I can put pencil lines everywhere and not worry about messing up the clean walls. I've painted the cleats before, and it's a pretty good look, but this time I left them visible. It's a laundry room closet, after all. It's vacuum storage, let's not get fancy.  

Last is to fit the MDF board in place. This is tricky because walls/closets are never perfect squares, so there's a bit of shaving to be done. Luckily, it was pretty straight forward. I tacked them down with just a few nails. 


All that's left is the 3" trim along the front for a more finished look. And to clear out the drop cloth on the floor, and maybe touch up the paint, again. 

The crates will hold our plastic bag (eye roll) storage, paper grocery bags, rags for cleaning, and maybe my collection of totes. I've really got to think through the storage in this laundry room. 

It took a few days, but this is a much better storage solution for our laundry room. 

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