Creating an Organized Children's Utility Center

Over the last Summer our two little girls were in swimming lessons.  There seemed to be an ongoing trend of searching for their goggles, towels and shoes right before we were just about to walk out the door.  Besides the hunt for the missing items being stressful with two impatient kiddo's; I would have to prep for heading out fifteen minutes in advance to give us the allowed time to find them without being late to swim class.

Towards the end of the Summer, enough was enough!  I had to come-up with a better plan to centralize the location of the girls "where is it" items, by utilizing space that was out of site, yet conducive to our needs .  Our laundry room had plenty of  unused wall space and was right next to the garage, perfect!

I stared at the white walls and came-up with this; the items had to be at the girls reach for them to learn the responsibility of preparing themselves for an outing. I wanted to create labels for each item using pictures and words to ensure the items were put back into the correct spot and to use this as a tool for reading. Then I thought of what else would I place in here to work to my advantage and make life simpler? We were forever finding their tiny socks everywhere. Ta da! A sock bucket right next to the shoe baskets! Trust me, it works! I rarely find socks anywhere but in the sock bucket! To hang the items into place, I used the 3M Command hooks. I will let the pictures tell the remainder of the story.

Here I used the "Towel" label for winter coats. 

I implemented an idea from Pinterest to organize the girls art supplies. This simple and inexpensive idea has been a life saver! Now the girls can see what they have and explore their creative side.  Plus, I have found that our four year old has learned to put back her checked-out items once she is done. That in itself is a blessing! I did place the items that need adult supervision out of reach; for example, glue, markers, paints and scissors.





 
As you can see, I used the wall space to my advantage. I would paint the walls to make the space look fresh and crisp, but mind you this is the laundry room. There are two very heavy machines that are not pictured. I hope you find my element of design helpful, and enjoy creating your own
"Where is it" space.