Good observation, Serendipity. It does seem to be instructions for wrapping a cat doesn't it? LOL. I locked myself in the laundry room to wrap some gifts today, and had to listen to the "Orange Tornado" yowl and rattle the door cause I was doing something without his help. He didn't think that was acceptable. Jazz is a good cat tho, saves me lots of money on cat toys. I don't have to buy any, his two favorites are a straw and an ice cube. Both of which he loves to bat around the kitchen floor. He's easily amused. But then, so am I. hugs, Karen

First, difference between gas and electric dryer are nil in the grand scheme of life. Plus you're not limited to an electric dryer since you have gas there you could run a gas line and electric outlet and have gas. You could put a stackable unit in there and have both. Do some upstairs and some downstairs. That way not lose as much room. You say you don't like doing laundry. Why? If it doesn't include going downstairs or the related, this probably won't force you to enjoy laundry. Maybe you need to do other things? Have kids sorting their stuff? Have kids help with laundry? I would love to have a first floor laundry. It would help me so much. But it doesn't sound like that's the case with you. My thoughts, FWIW: 1-we would lose the shoe and dog feeding area Wouldn't lose it all with the stacked unit. Not sure you'd totally lose it anyway with some modification though. 2-not really any room to separate dirty clothes This could be a bit of an issue but a small wall hanging sorter might take care of it too. Or using hampers. 3-no rod to hang clean clothes as they come out of dryer Fold down rod or rod hung from ceiling? 4-the area would seem cramped "Seem" or "be"? That's two different questions 5-not sure about electric dryer- do they work as good as gas? Yes, as addressed before. We've lived with the current configuration for as long as we've lived here (13 years) Sounds like it works for you, but... BUT--I don't like doing laundry sometimes and I wonder if moving it up from unfinished basement would make it more enjoyable? Again, is it the darkness? The steps? What is it that bothers you? Darkness can be addressed with simple lights. Maybe a fresh coat of paint? A chair and a TV? Also, the clean clothes in the basement often don't make it up to the bedrooms so the kids run downstairs every morning to grab something. Well, if you don't finish laundry down there, it's not likely you'll finish it upstairs unless something else changes. Maybe you need to put shelves/drawers in the basement to store the clothes? Then just go there for your clothes. Or have the kids bring all of it up and put it away rather than one at a time? There's a number of issues here. I don't think a new location will resolve the underlying issues. If it's working, stay with it and work on improving it. Although again a stacked unit might be a possibility. Would you put clothes away if they were on the main floor? Can the dog eat somewhere else? Do you have that many shoes that you need a special room filled with them? Maybe check out some design magazines or something at the library and some organizing ideas. Might be helpful. I know this is an old thread but might still apply. I'm curious what happened.

We're planning a closet -- typical hall closet size -- that'll have a lock instead of a doorknob; thus, it'll be accessible only to me and my husband. This closet'll have shelves top to bottom, and maybe basket type shelves on the inside of the door for bows, ribbons and so forth. The closet will serve a couple purposes: - gun safe - purchased-ahead gifts - gift wrap - a small amount of cash that we keep on hand As for buying ahead, I do pretty well with it. It's rare that I buy something that just sits around forever and ends up at Goodwill. When I wrap things, I just do basic wrap and use a sticky note to remind me what the item is. I add the bow at the last minute so that I can stack boxes without messing up th wrappers. I like the idea of putting your gift wrap items near the dining room. Practical and efficient.

Thanks for all the great ideas and resources! As with many projects, I think I need to think more about this. Right now Christmas wrapping paper is stored in a plastic upright bin, and holiday ribbon, labels, tape and sharpies are in one of those stackable set of small bins that latch together. Holiday gift bags, boxes, envelopes, and miscellaneous supplies like gift card boxes are in a separate bin. Holiday bows in their own box. All that is stored in my loft , each box numbered according to my master list of holiday supplies, taken down each holiday season and returned after the holidays are over for another year of storage. Birthday and general wrapping paper consists of a few rolls that are stacked/shoved into a corner of my bedroom closet. I've got birthday/general bows, boxes, bags, etc. stored in an under bed bin in the same room. Since I am the last woman in America still sending holiday cards ;), those are stored right now in a drawer of my filing cabinet in our home office. Random birthday, sympathy, get well etc. card are in an accordion folder stuck in a corner of the same drawer. Tape and scissors are in various drawers in my kitchen and home office. need to give some thought to how and what exactly I want to organize in this new space. Hadn't really considered whether paper should be displayed on dowels or tucked into drawers, or whether a hutch and a flat table are a good combination etc. Had no idea Home Depot carried a Martha Stewart gift wrap storage line. Thinking maybe IKEA would be a resource since they seem to have a lot of modular storage type pieces. So this will be a fun mental puzzle with a decorating slant--hurray!