diff --git a/openstack/blockstorage/v1/snapshots/util.go b/openstack/blockstorage/v1/snapshots/util.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b882875
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openstack/blockstorage/v1/snapshots/util.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+package snapshots
+
+import (
+	"github.com/rackspace/gophercloud"
+)
+
+func WaitForStatus(c *gophercloud.ServiceClient, id, status string, secs int) error {
+	return gophercloud.WaitFor(secs, func() (bool, error) {
+		current, err := Get(c, id).Extract()
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		}
+
+		if current.Status == status {
+			return true, nil
+		}
+
+		return false, nil
+	})
+}
diff --git a/openstack/blockstorage/v1/volumes/util.go b/openstack/blockstorage/v1/volumes/util.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e2f16e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/openstack/blockstorage/v1/volumes/util.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+package volumes
+
+import (
+	"github.com/rackspace/gophercloud"
+)
+
+func WaitForStatus(c *gophercloud.ServiceClient, id, status string, secs int) error {
+	return gophercloud.WaitFor(secs, func() (bool, error) {
+		current, err := Get(c, id).Extract()
+		if err != nil {
+			return false, err
+		}
+
+		if current.Status == status {
+			return true, nil
+		}
+
+		return false, nil
+	})
+}
diff --git a/util.go b/util.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c424759
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package gophercloud
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"time"
+)
+
+// WaitFor polls a predicate function once per second up to secs times to wait for a certain state to arrive.
+func WaitFor(secs int, predicate func() (bool, error)) error {
+	for i := 0; i < secs; i++ {
+		time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
+
+		satisfied, err := predicate()
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if satisfied {
+			return nil
+		}
+	}
+	return fmt.Errorf("Time out in WaitFor.")
+}