Easy Tips to Organize the Laundry Room

The laundry area can be a functional AND organized space. Whether it be a closet, an extension off another room or an actual laundry room – check out these ideas to make a simple, streamlined and beautiful space to do the laundry by using these easy tips to organize the laundry room!

Step 1: Take everything out that isn’t for laundry, ironing or mending.

Before our big renovation, the laundry room was a catchall between the garage and the house. Now that everything is organized and redecorated, I refuse to let it get this way again. It looked awful.

Everything in your home needs to have a designated spot.

If possible, my biggest advice for organizing your home is to have designated spaces for EVERYTHING. A dining room is for eating and gathering around the table. The kitchen is for making and serving food. Likewise, the laundry room should be utilized for cleaning and maintaining clothes, towels and bedding. In other words, this should not be a dumping ground for anything non laundry related. This is not a place for random stuff such as sports equipment and craft supplies. (Side note: If you have to keep this stuff in this area, mainstream it by putting everything not for laundry in a separate basket or cabinet.) My laundry area used to be a catch all and it made me hate to even go in there, let alone want to do laundry. Streamlining this space has made me feel more organized and simplified my laundry process even more.

Since I brought that up….

How do you keep your laundry process organized, and caught up?

It’s one of my daily tasks that keep the dirty clothes off the floors and my mind at ease. Read this post for some helpful tips!

Back to what I was saying….

The first goal: Go through EVERYTHING in the laundry space. Pull out everything that isn’t laundry related. Make a discard pile to toss. Make another pile for donating. The things you are keeping need allocated to a new spot pertaining to that item. (Example: Coats in a closet, soccer cleats in the garage, canned goods in the pantry.)

Organizing your laundry space, whether it be a room or closet, can help set better laundry routines in motion.

Step 2: Pare down the laundry essentials. Only keep what you use.

Here are the only things I keep in my laundry room:

• Laundry pods
• Scent booster or fabric softener
• Wool dryer balls or dryer sheets
• Stain remover
• Soap/bleach for whites
• Laundry hamper
• Iron
• Ironing mat
• Ironing spray
• Tabletop sewing machine and accessories
• Sewing kit

Only laundry related items.

Make a list of what you need for laundry room/space inventory.

The second goal: Keep no more than 2 of each laundry item you need, unless you have enough storage. Know how much space you have and only buy what can fit in this space. This eliminates having to store laundry related supplies elsewhere. This needs to be a major goal.

There are a few extra things I keep in the laundry room to help minimize laundry clutter:

1. A cute jar for collecting loose change that you find in pockets or laying around the house. I let this fill up, then cash it in and use it for something special.
2. A trash bin for lint and dryer sheets. I honestly have my kitchen garbage right outside the laundry room, so I don’t have a trash bin in my laundry room, but if this isn’t the case for you, you’ll need one.
3. Basket or mesh bag for stray socks. I do laundry daily, but every once in a while I still get a stray sock. If you have a pile of unmatched items right now, go through them. Find pairs and put them where they belong.

Step 3: Decide where everything is going to go.

When doing laundry, everything you use in a typical load needs to be at arm’s reach of the washer and dryer. Put items in order of how you use them. I keep this very simple. My shelf above my washer and dryer only have what I use with each load of laundry: Washer pods, scent booster and wool dryer balls. Instead of putting the store containers on the shelf, I made them pretty by using clear glass jars from Walmart. For convenience, I found some slightly smaller 1/2 gallon glass storage canisters on Amazon. The ones I have are really too big. I also keep potted greenery there and my fancy change jar.

Extra detergent, stain remover and whitening powder is kept put away for when I need them, which now has a home under the utility sink. This way they are in close reach, but not in view since they aren’t the prettiest to look at.

I didn’t want the under sink area to be overfilled (which leads to losing things or not knowing what you have). To avoid this, I installed a cabinet for ironing and mending. I had a very specific use for this cabinet, which is a must when you design any space. Know exactly what you are putting in the space and exactly how you want it to be stored.

In this cabinet I put the following:

• Tabletop sewing machine
• Sewing kit
• Basket for miscellaneous smaller items such as my pedal for the sewing machine, scissors, and instruction manual
• Iron (I bought an iron with a retractable cord for easier storage)
• Ironing mat

Goal #3: Decide what you use, get rid of what you don’t. Only have enough supply that you can store in your laundry space or in another dedicated space, if need be. This allows you to know what you have, how much, and is accessible for a quick grab mid laundry cycle.

I use the following things to save space:

Magnetic Ironing mat: I chose against an ironing board as I only iron things a few times a year. (I have a fluff cycle on my dryer that saves me so much ironing) The iron mat can be folded up and put in the basket when not used, which saves me a ton of space. It’s also great for traveling.

You could also use a wall-mounted ironing board, if you are ironing larger things such as tablecloths and curtains.

Brother Lightweight Tabletop Sewing Machine: I do a good deal of sewing. I love that I can simply carry this by the handle out to my table, do my project, and put it away again, out of sight.

Sewing kit: Rather than the traditional box or basket, I made my sewing kit out of an old kitchen spice rack. Everything stays organized in the spice jars and it looks adorable. I can just spin it around in the cabinet to find what I need for a quick grab. The clear jars also make it super easy to find what I am looking for.

Wall mounted folding laundry table: Need a space to fold laundry? A wall mounted folding table is a great space saver, or put a shelf over your washer and dryer, if they are both front loading.

Step 4: Make the space pretty. Pretty elements don’t have to be pricey.

I had paint leftover from another project that I used in this smaller room. I wasn’t sure about gray wallpaper with the beige-toned paint, but it came off looking great. The peel-and-stick wallpaper was also leftover from my entry way from Target. I decided to only do the top half of that wall as the bottom half of the wall was not going to be seen anyway. It worked out great and I had the perfect amount.

The shelf: Floating shelves can be costly, so I decided to make my own. I used a 6 x 10 pine board from the hardware store, stained it and attached it to the wall with metal floating shelf brackets from Amazon. This DIY shelf made a long pretty shelf that was way less than what I looked for online and saved me over $100.

We went all out by replacing the old floor with new tile. I picked a longer tile to offset the smaller size of the room. The dark gray color contrasted against the light walls beautifully and brought out the black tones in my farmhouse decorations.

Here’s another look at the before and after.

Goal #4: Look at Pinterest or your favorite magazines or blogs for inspiration on how to decorate your laundry space on a budget. Remember, little things can make a huge impact.

If you don’t have the budget (or willpower) to undergo a laundry room renovation right away, don’t stress. Just by using these easy tips to organize the laundry room, simply organizing by knowing what stays in the laundry room and streamlining the clutter in this space will make a HUGE difference.

You can save all this info for later on Pinterest!

From my home to yours,