The first step in organizing your laundry room is to determine its purpose. Obviously the main function of the laundry room is for washing and drying clothes, but your laundry room might also be a mud room/ bathroom/ storage closet/ garage / pantry.
After you’ve determined what needs to go in your laundry room you’re ready to get started.
Here is my laundry photo from last week, I’ve highlighted some of the things that don’t belong in my laundry room.
Take everything out of the laundry room that isn’t supposed to be stored there and put it where it belongs. It is important that you actually put away these items, because if you don’t they will end up back in your laundry room in a few short days or weeks.
After you’ve taken care of the excess it’s time to clean your laundry room!
Have you ever moved your washer or dryer just a few inches out of place? It is usually filthy. Wipe down appliances, mop the floors and thoroughly clean out your dryer’s lint filter. If you have a lot of stuff in the laundry room you’ll want to wipe it down too because it will probably have a thin layer of dirt/ lint on it.
After you laundry room is clean it’s time to organize what’s left in your laundry room. Lately I’ve been using Pinterest to find ideas for storage and organization in specific rooms.
I love this simple wire shelving unit for storage and organization. I’ve seen these at Target, Walmart, and Ikea, they are inexpensive and can work in a variety of spaces.
While many of the ideas on Pinterest are not realistic for my budget or space, you will find some and definitely be inspired.
A few things I recommend having in the laundry room are:
- Waste Basket - For lint disposal as well as all those treasures we find in our kids’ pockets.
- Small Container – Keep small change, lego pieces, receipts and pocket treasures you don’t want to throw away in this container and empty it on a regular basis.
- Wet Bin - I use a dish pan (about $1 at Walmart) for wet items so they don’t lay on top of the dirty clothes.
- Mesh bag - These are necessary for delicate items and are also great for washing baby items too!
- Drying rack or bar- If there is any place to put a drying bar or rack in your laundry room I highly recommend it. This makes hanging delicate items so simple.
- Clothespins - Clothespins can do so many things, even if I never hung out one piece of laundry I would have them in my house because I use them all the time.
- Detergent, stain remover, and other products used for getting things clean.
Those are just the basic laundry items I keep in my laundry room. After you’ve gathered your basic items organize them in your room in a way that works best for you. All these great ideas are wonderful, but if they don’t work for you, they don’t work!
I’ll be back next week to show you my finished and organized laundry room and share a few more tips!
If you want to try ARM & HAMMER Plus OxiClean Power Gel Laundry Detergent you can grab this printable coupon on the Arm & Hammer website.
This is a sponsored post for Church & Dwight Co., Inc, the maker of ARM & HAMMER branded products, who is compensating me to try different products. Be sure and head over to The Switch & Save Challenge for the chance to win $25,000.
photo credit: Google
i am in envy of your LR! and omg, I love teh way that 2nd pic is organized. ours LR is a walk thru to the garage. It is just wide enough for the dryer on the left and the washer on the R. but yes. TOO many things that don’t belong in there….
Oops. The Switch & Save Challenge is a non-working link.
Love the wire shelf organizer.
we store our trash can, broom, moms and such in the laundry room i need to put in a rack to hang all of them on…they just rest in the corner and fall all over themselves! lol and i want to put up a wire shelf that has the ability to hang clothes on…it would allow me to fold clothes in the laundry room instead of out on the kitchen table or living room floor
But this all costs money…that i would rather be spending on something else right now. LOL so maybe i will ask for these things for Christmas – I always ask for super practical things 
For those that need help storing mops, brooms, etc: go to a home improvement store and have them cut a big round piece of white PVC pipe for you. A few feet is all you need. It’s heavy enough not to fall over. This works for tools in the garage as well.
Toni, Costco (here locally) carries wire shelves just like this but so much cheaper than Target and Lowes.
Awesome! That is good to know.
My post about laundry for a large family (originally written when we still had 10 kids at home) is here: http://comewearymoms.blogspot.com/2011/02/mt-washmore-laundry-for-large-family.html
Laundry is a constant challenge here which is why I call it Mt. Washmore and Mt. Neverest!
Thanks for doing this blog!
PS. Our laundry room is also a storage room, office and entry way. There is a picture of it in this post on household organization from a few years ago. http://virginiaknowles.blogspot.com/2008/09/place-for-everything.html
Thanks for this timely post! I am having a quick coffee break before I tackle the giant task of organizing the laundry room. I have the ice cream maker and some winter pajamas on the floor. It is high time! Thanks for the inspiration!