Would you like to see a quick half-done before and after? I’m in the process of renovating our laundry room. It’s an extension of the master bathroom remodel that we finished a few months ago. I’ve been wanting to put shelves above the washer and dryer. The first step was to paint the walls back there … but I couldn’t paint the whole laundry room because the other half of the room doesn’t have finished drywall. One thing at a time. So here’s the washer and dryer area before.
And here it is after / now. It’s not really done. I need to go through some of this stuff with Jason and decide what we can get rid of an what can more to the shed because I was hoping to store some other things on these shelves and they’re already full! We probably have 15 gallon cans of paint, most of which have less than a quart of paint. I’m not sure we really need to keep all that…
I have lofty dreams of storing a tub of fabric and my sewing machine in here as well as our games and a box or two of hats and gloves. Hmm … stay tuned.
myMCMlife.com 
Hmmm, you might NEED a loft to store all of that in there!
You have made your items more accessible, but I have a suggestion. Why not get some attractive baskets (perhaps white fabric lined ones) to place your items in. Right now it looks very cluttered. If you had say, all of your small paint cans in one basket they would be hidden from view, but still accessible. You could do that with all of your items, sorting them into different baskets. Then have the baskets neatly lined up on the shelves. I think it would be real cute that way. Here are some I found on line for ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/Badger-Basket-Three-Set-Blue/dp/B000FRCRW2/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1290612418&sr=8-32
http://www.amazon.com/Guidecraft-Classic-White-Baskets-Set/dp/B0036IH0FQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1290612362&sr=8-5
http://www.target.com/s?keywords=wicke+basket&searchNodeID=1038590&ref=sr_bx_1_1&x=0&y=0
Thanks, Sue! Good suggestion. Initially I was thinking of cute boxes to put my sewing fabric, hats & gloves, and out of season clothes on the shelves. Then all the tools and paint and junk took up all my space! Thanks for the links – I’ll definitely consider these when I sort and eliminate some of this stuff to make it more neat and organized.