How to Organize Your Laundry Room

Organization can play a huge role in how you come to enjoy a chore or activity. Overall, an organized space can make you more productive, making the task go by quickly. Before long, you may even find that you enjoy the organization and take a certain pleasure in completing the task at hand.

Learn how to organize your laundry room with practical solutions and laundry accessories so you can actually look forward to this simple household chore.

Laundry rooms are usually tucked away in a shallow closet or in a tight space, which can make the organization a bit tricky. So your first step in organizing your laundry room is to make the most use of space so you can have a place to store household cleaners, detergent, hang clothes and fold laundry.

To give your laundry room extra space, install cabinets and countertops. The empty wall space above your washer and dryer could always use a cabinet or an open shelf. Plus, adding cabinets can free up the top of the appliances to be able to do tasks like fold towels or spray a stain.

The advantage of cabinets is that they can hide away bottles of detergent and other clutter. However, some homeowners prefer the more open utilitarian style of a laundry room, keeping detergents in glass containers and dryer sheets and accessories in little rustic baskets. Keep in mind that open shelves can collect more dust, so while it can make a charming display, it may present more work for you in the long run.

Oftentimes, a dryer vent can get in the way of a cabinet or shelf, but you can cut out a clearance and insert a galvanized duct liner to prevent heat buildup inside and keep stored items cool and lint-free.

If you don't have much square footage in your laundry room, consider a washer and dryer stacking kit, or if you're in the market for new appliances, consider saving room with a stacked washer dryer unit.

Often overlooked, don't forget to take advantage of over-the-door organizers. There is a countless variety to choose from, such as hanging racks to keep bottles to combo racks for your iron and ironing board.

For gentle delicate loads and hang dry only garments, a drying rack or clothes rack is a convenient laundry room accessory to have. It can save your decent cotton button-downs from shrinking and let your undergarments air dry. A drying rack can also come in handy as a place to hang pressed shirts while you're ironing.

It can be something as DIY as a tension rod between two walls of a closet, or a wall-mounted drying rack that extends in and out from the wall. You could also mount a closet rod or a bath towel holder on the underside of the new cabinets.

Many laundry rooms have wasted space between or next to their units. You probably know this crevasse all too well, having to have fished out a sock or two. Fortunately, there are many narrow carts available that can slip into this skinny space. These carts also have fixed caster wheels that allow you to roll it in and out, retrieving and tucking away detergents and supplies.

If your laundry room has a utility sink, make sure to organize this area as well. Utility sinks come in handy for a lot of things–from bathing the pet to rinsing off muddy shoes. So make sure to add a nearby shelf for pet shampoo, heavy-duty scrub brushes and other items you may need. Avoid leaving wet sponges around and instead let them dry properly in a sieve.

Many utility sinks also have an empty space beneath where many homeowners tend to keep a trash bin for lint. However, should you need to mop the area, keep it relatively clutter-free.

As mentioned, you could keep your ironing board and iron behind your laundry room door, attached to an over-the-door rack or even a simple coat hook. However, if you frequently use these items, it will save time to keep them out permanently. Keep in mind, too, that there are more options than your standard folding ironing board. You also can find wall-mounted and in-wall ironing centers that fold back up when not in use, as well as large ironing board carts with wheels.

Keep a lint basket nearby that you can throw the lint into without having to carry it all the way back to the kitchen or nearest bathroom.

If you find yourself always looking up how to remove a certain stain, save yourself some time and hang a stain chart for quick reference, tackling it ASAP. Before the stain sets, take the clothing or tablecloth to the laundry room and perform the procedures on your stain first-aid chart.