Not too long ago, our laundry room flooded.
I thought it was pretty well decluttered until I had to pull everything out of the room to clean up. I needed to organize the laundry room…and quickly.
The amount of stuff in our laundry room was more than I would have guessed.
Laundry room or dumping ground?
You see, it is a larger laundry room than we have had in the past, so guess what it became? You got it, a dumping ground for all “random” items.
Our laundry room stores our Costco stockpile, many of our cleaning supplies, and of course, laundry stuff. We also keep random items in the laundry room, like coolers, extra mason jars, etc.
While we have space in the laundry room to store all these items, it was haphazardly done, and there were no signs of organization. It was time for a change!
Our laundry room isn’t pretty. It has unfinished drywall and concrete floors, but I’m going to do my best to spruce it up. If you have to pull everything out of a room, you might as well make it what you want!
Related Post: A Cleaning Schedule That Actually Works!
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How to declutter and organize your laundry room:
When you declutter your laundry room, remove the stuff that should not be stored in there.
It is ok to use your laundry room for storage if you have space, but be purposeful about it.
No dumping
Don’t let the laundry room floor space, shelves, or whatever space you have, become a dumping ground for things because you don’t know where else to put them!
I’ve been guilty of this for far too long. 🙋♀️
Find a designated place for everything currently being stored in your laundry room.
Related Post: The Flat Surface Decluttering Rule
Steps to Laundry Room Organization
Create small storage solutions
Create a laundry room organization system that makes sense.
Store like items together in baskets or together on a shelf.
I like wire baskets with handles. These make it easy to pick up and move around your supplies if needed.
For your more stationery supplies, you can use a pretty basket with a lower profile on the side walls.
If you use laundry detergent pods, super large, wide-mouth candy jars give you a pretty way to display useful products. (I don’t use the lid. Too much trouble.)
I way prefer this method to the ugly containers laundry pods come in. (You can also make your own laundry pods.)
Create a space for hanging clothes
Make creating a space for hanging clothes part of your laundry room organization project. This makes life so much easier!
If you have a closet laundry area, you can hang a wooden or plastic rod just behind the doorway, across the opening.
If you have a laundry room, there is usually space for a rod under a shelf or over the washer.
You can probably do this project for under $15 with a quick run to the hardware store.
Check out this tutorial from Sammy on State on an industrial wall mounted clothing rack that I just love!
Create a folding space
Your laundry room organization should include a folding space.
By folding the clothes as soon as they are dry, you avoid the dreaded “laundry chair” or “laundry couch”.
We proudly have a laundry couch! My husband loves to put up to four loads of laundry there when he is “helping”.
If you have a front-loading washer, install a counter over the washer and dryer.
If you have a top-loading washer, like us, you can use the washer as your folding space.
Get everyone their own laundry hamper
When we got everyone their own laundry hamper and started doing loads by the owner of the hamper, life got so much easier for us!
My husband no longer groans about separating clothes for our two little girls.
Also, we don’t sort. My mom would totally have a fit if she saw our laundry routine! Pink, whites, it all goes in together.
I occasionally wash our delicate clothes separately, but even they get dried on low!
Create a trash can/dryer lint solution
If you have room for a nice trash can in your laundry room, woohoo! We’ve always had a small laundry space, so we use a small, desktop trash can for our dryer lint.
The small trash can sits on the laundry shelf, and dryer lint goes to it. No more walking across the house to dispose of it. Such a simple solution!
Use a shelf for extra supplies
If you like to keep extra supplies in your laundry room, get yourself a shelf to store the extra items.
I bought this small wire shelf for our extra Costco canned goods that we store in the laundry room.
If you don’t have space in your laundry room, you can always build up the wall.
Install a wall shelf higher up for those every once in awhile supplies, like vacuum bags and extra light bulbs.
Here is a tutorial for building your own laundry room shelves by How to Nest for Less.
Here are some ideas to spruce up your laundry room:
We spend enough time in life doing laundry, so if you can make the space nicer, do it for yourself! Look for small things you can do to make your laundry room space more enjoyable.
A bright rug
You can put down a bright, new rug to cover up ugly, unfinished floors.
I don’t have the cash flow for a new floor, but a bright rug can turn ugly concrete into a brighter, more pleasant space.
Bright curtains
If you have a closet laundry space and 1982 folding wood doors, consider removing the doors and installing nice, thick curtains that easily slide on a curtain rod across the doorway. It can instantly spruce up an outdated room!
If you have a window in your laundry room, consider removing any blinds and hang up fun curtains. It will give your space a whole new look.
I love the curtains Tasha added to her laundry room make-over. By the way, she did this entire laundry room make-over for only $71. I think she may be my thrifty DIY hero.
A pretty new wall hanging!
I love this cute little laundry room saying, so I created a fun printable to frame and hang up in our laundry room.
You can find fun wall hangings for your laundry room, or you can print out something you love and frame it.
Laundry rooms or laundry spaces don’t have to be boring and unorganized.
With a few small, inexpensive changes, you can transform the space where we all have to spend more time than we probably like! Laundry room organization can be fun (or at least tolerable).
Related Posts:
Are You or Your Partner Clutter Blind?
Declutter to Drastically Reduce Anxiety and Stress
Newbie Decluttering Mistakes to Avoid
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Hi Brooke,
I love this step-by-step post to declutter and organize a laundry room, and set up systems that work! Two things I also like to add to a laundry room are a basket of specialty care/stain removal items, and a cute cover for my ironing board (which can become a kind of decor.)