If you have a washer and dryer in a closet, rather than a more spacious laundry room, then you know that it can be hard to organize this space to fit everything you need.
A while back, I gave my laundry closet a major makeover, and while some of the big DIY projects are the first to catch you eye – like the green cabinets above the washer and dryer – this space is actually full of quick and easy organizing hacks that you can complete in about five minutes each.
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1. TRANSFER DETERGENT INTO CLEAR LAUNDRY ROOM CANISTERS
I transferred my laundry detergent pods and my OxiClean powder into two large, glass canisters {and added washi tape detail to each}. Not only do these canisters add a little style to the laundry room, they also allow me to see when I am running low and need to add these laundry necessities to my shopping list.
I made sure to place these canisters in the far back corner of the deep countertop, far out of reach of little hands!
2. Use a Pretty Basket as a Laundry Room Lint Bin
Since our laundry closet doesn’t allow space for a garbage can on the floor, I used to pile lint up on the counter before finally carrying it all to a trash can elsewhere in the house. When planning our laundry room makeover last fall, I came up with a more function {and more stylish} solution.
I found a black and white striped, lidded jute basket that I was totally smitten with, and I realized it would be a perfect as a lint collector. Now I just fill up the basket each time I do a load of laundry, and then empty the lint to the bathroom trash down the hall when the basket fills up.
3. ADD A TOWEL RAIL FOR HANGING CLOTHES
Before our recent laundry closet makeover, I had a clothing rod high up in the back, left corner of the closet, but I’m short and I couldn’t easy reach that rod, so it rarely got used. I wanted to find a better solution {one that my short self could reach}, so I opted to add four bar towel holder to the inside of one of the closet doors.
Not only does this towel rack on the door work great for hanging up clothes as I take them out of the dryer, and the four bars also work well for items that need to hang to dry. I was able to get rid of my bulky, folding drying rack, and now when I have a shirt that needs to line dry, I can just drape it over one of the rods of the towel rack.
4. KEEP EXTRA HANGERS IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM
This one isn’t so much an organizing “hack” – but it’s one of my favorite laundry room organizing products, nonetheless, and it’s so inexpensive! I keep a plastic hanger stacker on the laundry room countertop and fill it up with the empty hangers out of our closet so that I always have plenty of hangers on hand for clothes coming out of the dryer.
5. USE LIDDED JARS FOR SPARE BUTTONS & MENDING
All of those spare buttons and little packets of thread that come with new clothes can be hard to keep track of. I like to use inexpensive lidded glass jars to corral these small items, as well as other mending related supplies, like scissors, thread, needles, and pins.
I also use four more of these same lidded glass jars to contain small laundry supplies. You can read all about what I keep in the other jars in this detailed laundry closet organizing post, and you can get the DIY details of the black and white stripes that I added to the jar lids in this post.
To maximize storage space in our small laundry closet, I installed an Elfa mounting rail from to the back of one of the doors, and attached three Elfa Utility Large/Deep Baskets. Four of the lidded jars fit perfect in each basket, and I use the top basket {out of reach of the kids} for bottles of stain removers and sprays.
6. USE A BABY WIPES CASE TO STORE DRYER SHEETS
The baskets on the back of the laundry room door have plenty of room for most of my laundry/cleaning products, but I had to get creative when it came to my dryer sheets. The box that they come in was too big to fit in the baskets, so I searched around the house for a smaller container that I could transfer some of the dryer sheets into for easy access. I came up with a travel sized Huggies baby wipes case from the nursery that is perfect for the job!
This case holds quite a few dryer sheets at a time, and I can just flip open the lid and pull them out one at a time. I keep the larger box of fabric softener sheets in the linen closet, and just refill this handy plastic case as needed. Here are some similar refillable cases…only prettier.
7. COLLAPSIBLE LAUNDRY BASKETS TAKE UP LESS SPACE
Laundry baskets can take up so much room between use, so I got rid of all of my bulky plastic baskets, and replaced them all with the collapsible mesh laundry baskets. I keep a couple of these baskets in our master bedroom closet {tucked behind our hamper} to make it quick and easy to carry clothes down to the laundry closet, and I stash another couple in the space between the washer and the wall in the laundry closet, ready for use to carry clean clothes to the appropriate rooms.
These collapsible laundry baskets are plenty to big to hold an entire large load of laundry, and they pack a whole lot of function into very little storage space!
