This and That

Hello everyone. Hope you are having a great week so far. As you can imagine, mine has been quite busy already. Saturday I drove to the new house to help Mr. S. paint (still a lot to be done); then Sunday I drove up to Phoenix to help my sister move. I ended up cleaning the tile floors in her new condo with my Hoover Floormate (LOVE that thing). She had already scrubbed them 5 times and they still wouldn't come clean... Floormate to the rescue. You wouldn't have believed the gross, dirty water that was left in the tank when I was finished. Whoever lived there before her must have never cleaned the floors; it was disgusting!

Thanks for all your suggestions for my laundry area. I was at Target last week and they have a whole section of Closetmaid storage items back in the Home Storage section. I ended up purchasing 2 small cabinets that I can put next to the washer and dryer, and a five-tier shelf for the area across from it. I decided I needed the storage more than I needed a place to fold clothes. I may change my mind later, but that is the plan for now.

My next decorating dilemma is plant shelves. They are all over the new house. There is one in the foyer, one in every bedroom and one in the family room. The one in our master bedroom spans the length of one entire wall, and it's a long wall:

I don't want to put too much stuff up there and make it look really crowded and junky, but I also don't want to just leave it empty either.  Any suggestions for this area would be much appreciated!

The big move is scheduled for the 28th, but I have another important day coming up next week. Monday the 23rd is the day I turn the big FIVE OH!! That's right, I am turning 50! I can hardly believe it, it just does not seem possible. In honor of that auspicious occasion, I will be doing a giveaway. Stay tuned for details to come.

The rest of this week will be another busy week. I've got more packing to do, and I may drive over to the new house for a couple of days to help Mr. S. with more painting. The poor guy has been at the new house for over a week sleeping on an air mattress, and when he isn't at work, he is painting! He really wants to get it all done before the furniture gets moved in, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he makes it.

Have a great week everyone.

Help Wanted

I need your help/suggestions with an area in our new home. My laundry room (if you can even call it that) is a very strange area. It is between the kitchen and the garage, and instead of having a long space with shelves above it (what you typically see) it is two small spaces on either side of the door.

Here is what it looks like:

As you come in from the garage, this is the space to your right. Washer and dryer go here (obviously they have to stack on top of one another). To your left is this space:

That's it.. that's all I have! Hence my dilemma. Each space measures 46 1/2 inches in width and has about 30-32 inches in depth.

My new washer/dryer are about 27 inches wide, so I will have some space to the right of them for storage.

I need some help figuring out what to do with this space to make maximum use out of it. I was thinking that next to the washer/dryer Mr. S. could make me some shelves that could go on that side wall so at least I would have a place for laundry soap, etc.

My first thought for the space to the left of the door was to get something like this:

That would give me plenty of storage, but where am I going to fold my clothes at?
Any suggestions or ideas you might have for this space would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much!