Mackenzie Carose

A Minimalist Laundry Room

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neutral laundry room

A minimalist laundry room, you might ask, does it even exist? Do you even have a washer and dryer if you are a minimalist? Are minimalists even supposed to have a room specifically for doing laundry? Isn’t that the opposite of being a minimalist? Are you secretly a maximalist??

I could go on with the questions and some of them are valid. But the truth of the matter is whether or not you are a minimalist, consumerist, luddite, or any of the other adjectives one uses to describe themselves, we all wear clothes, and they all need to be cleaned at some point.

Okay, so back to my laundry room. Yes, room. This part is important. I live in an apartment that has a laundry room. It is right off our garage, and everyone traipses through it to get inside. Because of this, it has become a catch-all for everything that comes out of the car, inside to the apartment, then no one knows where to put said item and it just goes into one of the cabinets in the laundry room. While my family and I have lived the hashtag apartment life for many years now, we have never had an actual room in which the washing machine and dryer were housed. Stackable machines got us through many a load of laundry back in the day. But when we moved into this apartment last year, we got a room full of cabinets to house our clutter… I mean, a room to do laundry.

This is not a typical laundry room makeover post. There wasn’t a need to go to a big box store and purchase bins and containers to house newly organized items. I didn’t procure a “Live. Laugh. Love.” sign to hang above the dryer. If you’ve seen the Geico “Becoming Your Parents” ads, then you know 😉

The room didn’t require a fresh coat of paint. What was on the walls stayed on the walls.

I merely got fed up one Saturday at not being able to find things that I knew we had and that were just buried under other things that had no business being there. So, I dumped everything out of the cabinets and got to work.

Anything that was rubbish immediately went into the trash. Items that were similar were grouped together and then housed together. When you can’t actually see what you have, you go out and purchase more because you think you have run out of said item, hence our multiple packages of dental floss. Lesson learned.

I then wiped down the cabinets and then put back what needed to go back. Obviously, laundry detergent and sheets for the dryer. Extra rolls of toilet paper, bars of soap, and our beloved dental floss, were also placed back, but grouped together. But best of all? There is a whole part of this cabinet that is empty. Nothing. *sighs of happiness*

Everything is in order, and it is easily able to be found. I organized and it cost nothing monetarily out of pocket. It did cost me my time and frustration though. This project took a few hours, one because I had a four-year-old trying to “help” me 🙂 and the other reason was across from the washer and dryer in these photos are more cabinets and they honestly were the worst and just filled with nonsense. It was extremely difficult to try to photograph because of the cabinet placement and lack of lighting so I don’t have a before and after of the shenanigans that was those cabinets. But suffice to say, those shelves are also now organized, and the broom and dustpan no longer fall on you the minute you open the door.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post called Extra Square Feet: Extra Anxiety. I had just had a baby and with the extra square feet in that particular apartment, I was starting to feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that seemed to be trickling in. There just always seemed to be stuff and it was giving me anxiety. I feel like in the four and a half years since I wrote that post, not much has changed. Clutter = anxiety. Extra stuff = anxiety. Stuff not being organized = anxiety. What has changed is how I personally deal with my anxiety and the tools I have in place to get through those waves. But clutter just makes me crazy.

The problem with the laundry room before I overhauled it, is that everything was out of sight, out of mind. If you can’t see the clutter, then you don’t have to deal with it, right? Yes, up to a point. But it stays in the back of your mind. The fact that you need masking tape, and you know it is in that maelstrom of a cabinet… *sigh* The only way out is through and the only way to get it, is to just get it.

Also, you don’t live in a vacuum when you are a minimalist and live with others who are not as spartan as you. And that’s okay (sometimes). But for the most part, we are on the same page and everyone loves how organized and efficient the laundry room is now. We have sworn to keep it looking this way and keep it structured.

Also, we are good on dental floss.

6 Month Check-In: A Year of Renewal

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2022 Vision Board

Back in January, I wrote about creating my vision board for 2022 and the words that I chose to encompass what I thought the next 12 months would bring forth. I spoke about the feelings of renewal and rebirth, and how those were the words and feelings that I would be focusing on for the next 365 days. You can read more about that here: The Road I am Taking: Vision Board 2022.

So, how is it going? It is going along as I thought it would. I wasn’t going into this year thinking massive changes would simply happen overnight. I wasn’t going to just suddenly wake up and be the butterfly without going through the caterpillar stage at all. I knew there would be ups and downs, highs and lows, shedding old thoughts and thinking new ones.

The renewal is happening, just at its own pace.

A big goal for me this year is to be more comfortable in my own skin. Self-esteem comes to some more easily than others and it is something that I continue to work on. Childhood trauma can do a number on your thinking process and how you view yourself and I have had to do the work in changing how I view myself. I still have moments that I think that I am not good enough to do something, but I always follow up that thought with “why not me?” The only person I limit with my lack of faith in myself, is myself. Anything negative that pops in my head, I try to follow it up with something positive. This has helped me tremendously. I am not my thoughts. Thoughts are something that happen, but I do not encompass them.

My health is an ongoing part of my life that I focus on daily. I exercise most days of the week, try to incorporate as much fruit and veg as I can, and drink water. Meditating has helped me as well. 10-15 minutes in the evening has been conducive to helping me deal with anxiety.

I mentioned that when creating my vision board, I really wanted to focus more on writing and photography as those are my true creative outlets. On the writing front, I have definitely accomplished that. I have done pretty well at getting a blog post up at least once a week which would equal 52 posts for the year which is quite a lot. I may or may not hit the 52-post goal of sorts, but I am writing as much as possible which makes me happy.

I have not been as active on the photography front if I am being honest. I used to enjoy taking photos and posting them to Instagram but my enjoyment for that particular platform has been waning for several months now. I am thinking of just taking photos and maybe tinkering around with them to get better at editing and shadowing and the different kinds of light you can use, etc… Maybe a photography course of sorts? I am not sure. I will have to think about this one for a bit.

Mais Oui I am learning French! I am true beginner however so I can’t hold conversations yet or anything, but I am challenging myself every day to learn more. I am using the app Duolingo which was recommended to me by a friend. It is really easy to use, and they have many languages to choose from if you are interested in learning a new one as well!

The phrase “in need of a new outlook” is something that was important to me back in January when I created this vision board and it is still important now, 6 months in. Old thoughts and ways of seeing things are giving way to new thoughts and ideas. Part of having a vision board is envisioning a different kind of future, a different kind of life than the one you have now. My new outlook is helping me see goals and accomplishments that I thought I could never have, but now know, are within my reach. Remember earlier I said the phrase “why not me?” These 3 words help me see things in such a different perspective. My path may be meandering and go in different directions sometimes, but I will get there. I can do it.

This is still the year of renewal and rebirth. That hasn’t changed. I am still finding my way and trusting that where I am today matters for who I am tomorrow.

I am walking to the beat of my own drum and I kind of like it.

Why I’m Having a Slow Summer

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A common theme starting right around Memorial Day, is creating a summer bucket list. What are your plans? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? What do you want to accomplish? What are you going to do with your life for 8 solid weeks without a game plan? What. Are. You. Going. To. Do?

Just typing that out is exhausting and to be honest, I almost fell for the hype. I almost got sucked in. It was familiar, this keeping up with the Jones’ summer extravaganza super hyped summer palooza do all the things fun fest.

Because you see, I’ve done it before.

I have made a super summer bucket list before. I put all the things and all the activities on it and was determined that we were going to have the BEST SUMMER EVER and start the school year when all this summering was over, blissfully happy that we spent June, July, and August truly living our best sunburnt life.

What really happened was that the list exceeded what we could actually accomplish before that first bell rang on that first day of school. What happened was that days of rest were sometimes preferable to doing all the things. What happened was that I felt societal pressure to set unrealistic goals and activities without thinking of the intent behind them. What happened is that I was disappointed. No one else felt this way but the mom guilt was real. Was I still a good mom if we didn’t make sandcastles at the beach? If we didn’t eat ice cream at least twice a week, complete with said ice cream dribbling down a chocolate cone, did I fail as a person?

Never mind the fact that social media will have you believing all the smiling photos that show #bestsummerever is a true thing and unless your children are in matching swimsuits complete with matching sandals and sun-kissed faces, well you just aren’t doing it right.

Well, guess what? I am not a hashtag. I am a person. And this person is not jumping into the go-hard-or-go home mentality surrounding summer. I can’t do it all and I don’t have to. Summer is not a thing to conquer or get through. It is a season of life. I am not going to do everything perfectly, especially on 90-degree days, nor should I feel compelled to.

I am not making a list of all the things I should be doing this summer. My day-to-day and what I strive for always, is a simpler yet intentional life. That shouldn’t change simply because there are more hours of daylight to be had.

Here is what I am doing this summer:

(*) Reading. Trips to the library and the bookstore. Reading on the couch, reading outside on the patio, reading at the kitchen table while drinking tea. My daughters enjoy reading as well so you will find all three of us with a book in our hands at some point during these days.

(*) Swimming. I am not a huge spend-hours-at-the-pool kind of person, and neither is my family to be honest. But we like a quick trip to the community pool now and then so we will be there toting floaties and sunscreen until we’ve collectively had enough.

(*) Travel. We have one big family trip coming up next month. We are going to Utah for a week. Our family hasn’t been on a proper vacation in almost two years, and we are looking forward to some fun mixed with some rest and relaxation.

And that’s it.

Will there be ice cream at some point? Yes. Also, we’ve already had some so I can definitively answer this question. We will probably have some more over the next few months, but it is not a bucket list item that I need to strike through. We had some and it was fine.

We might make it to the beach, we might not. Again, the sun will continue to rise whether or not I dip my toes in the sand or just walk the pier and go home.

Life is better when we don’t try to plan every single thing and I say this as a person who likes schedules and routines. I know this about myself, and I also know summer is one of those seasons that just needs space and breathing room. There is a saying that I am probably not quoting correctly about the fact that you only have 18 summers with your children and to make them count. Making memories is important and so is being in the moment. These high temperature days are the perfect time to just let go.

We do not have to give in to pressure to have a thrilling, knock-your-socks-off kind of summer. It is okay to choose contentment and reflect on what you actually want to do and what you don’t want to do. You can choose how to use your time the best.

There is beauty in the simple.