Organizing the Laundry Room

**beks37** · 05-23-2010, 03:28 PM

My laundry room is just off the living room and kitchen. It is probably the one place in my house that is very cluttered and dis-organized! I have great floor to ceiling shelves and cabinets that store all my pantry items, cleaners, tools, and miscellaneous stuff. My sister is having a garage sale in about a month, so I am going to sort out stuff for that.

**Michelle** · 05-23-2010, 06:04 PM

I *wish* I had a laundry room LOL...my laundry "area" is in the basement and basically consists of a folding table, and a small shelving unit

**jas** · 05-23-2010, 06:20 PM

My laundry area is in the garage. Just a spot carved out for the washer and dryer. I have to say though that now that we took the old kitchen cabinets out my dh put them up over the washer dryer area. It used to be just shelves and they always just looked junky. Now it looks way better everything is behind the doors. I tell you what if we ever go to dish rags or rags in general as a currency we'd have it made.

Have fun getting everything in order. You have great space to work with.

**AmyBoz** · 05-23-2010, 09:18 PM

Good luck! Mine is organized, but so far, it hasn't helped me get that laundry done!

**mndtrp** · 05-24-2010, 10:22 PM

We have the detergent and fabric softener sitting on top of the dryer. Clothes are kept in hampers until washed, and get put away after being washed, so they're never in the way.

**Judi Dial** · 05-25-2010, 12:20 AM

I have a laundry room, but the laundry, like almost everything else around here is behind. I don't have anywhere near the storage you do, but there's only 2 of us, so that helps. Some of my stockpile is in my laundry room.

Some things that have helped: I got 2 rectangular coated metal baskets from Lowe's. They carry a load of dirty stuff and a load plus of folded clean stuff. They also stack when empty, which helps a lot!

We finally got the laundry soap right next to the washer (it's on a shelf over the washer/dryer).

I have an old bicycle basket hanging on the wall, all the unmatched socks get pitched in there.

That's what we've done that works.

What doesn't work is that we don't do enough laundry, don't do it consistently enough, and we have a problem with clothes hanging around (so to speak) when they're out of season, as we have no "good" place to put the 2nd wardrobe. Like you, we're working on it!

I hope something in here will help or lead you to a solution of your own --

Judi

**AnW819** · 05-25-2010, 01:27 AM

Wow, what a nice laundry room you have!! I love it!!!

**monkeywrangler71** · 05-25-2010, 10:03 AM

You have great space, it's big and bright. Ours is a dark little room in the basement with a tiny window and dark fake wood panelling. We have a rolling hamper for sorting laundry and a rolling rack for hanging shirts, but no shelves so the detergent has to sit on the dryer. There is a closet where I used to keep my food stockpile until we got mice.

One thing I like to do when I have shelves with odd-sized things that don't line up easily (like cleaning supplies) is to put them in bins. I have a bunch of plastic baskets that I bought at the dollar store and I just group like things together in a basket and label the front. You can write on a piece of masking tape, or directly on to the basket with a dry erase marker. It makes it easier to find what I'm looking for - especially small items which tend to get lost behind the bigger things, and it also takes up less space as things aren't spread out so much.

**Libby** · 05-25-2010, 02:55 PM

Wow look at all the space you have! And its bright!!

Our laundry room is in the basement but it also shares the room with the furnace and deep freezer.

We have two straight shelves that go above the washer which house various cleaning supplies and current laundry items - detergent, stain remval, dryel kit, dishsoap and Mr Clean, Vim, Windex, Bounce dryer sheets etc etc

A bookshelf frame (no shelves in it) mounted above the dryer - holds the TP stash (the 40 roll pkgs aren't easy to store lol)

And lastly beside the door is another bookshelf (w/3 shelves in) that houses the stockpile of laundry detergent, dishsoap as well as boxed tissues. Also home to the epsom salt stockpile and iron its supplies.

I try to keep only the things we use in there and stockpiled...I'd rather have 10 bottles of laundry detergent vs 4 diff brands that I didn't like or 1/2 empty bottles of things. By narrowing it down to preferred items you lose the clutter of failed bottles of stuff.

beks - you going to post an 'after' pic as well?

**beks37** · 05-25-2010, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by Libby

beks - you going to post an 'after' pic as well?

Yes, I will be posting after pictures, but probably not for awhile! It's going to take me awhile to sort through everything!

As a side note, I took the pictures on Sunday and that's our laundry day, otherwise we normally have no laundry sitting around in the basket or on the floor. I also don't have a table or surface in or near the laundry room, so I use the top of the washer and dryer to fold clothes on. Also, when the shirts come out of the dryer, they are put on hangers on the bar across the back of the room. Very handy.