Useful Small Laundry Room Organization Ideas

A few years ago, we made it more functional. You can read about how we built the laundry room cabinets here. However, the style and organization were pretty basic.

Poor thing.

No more neglecting her! Today, I am offering an overview of all of the small laundry room organization ideas that we have utilized in this laundry room and others. If you are interested in my process for organizing a room, you can read my post about how I organize a room in one day and make it last.

What Should Go in a Laundry Room?

A laundry room should have more than just laundry supplies, but it should NOT be a catchall storage space for everything else that doesn’t have a home. Here are some ideas for items that may be ideal to store in a small laundry room:

• Laundry detergent
• Stain removers
• Dryer balls or dryer sheets
• Fabric softener
• Drying rack
• Laundry baskets
• Iron
• Ironing board
• Clothespins
• Lint rollers
• Broom and dustpan
• Trash can
• Bath towels
• Beach towels
• Cleaning rags
• Cleaning supplies
• House Lightbulbs
• Extra products (bulk paper towels, toilet paper)

Refresh Your Space

In my experience, making a space pretty motivates organization. I know it sounds strange, but a makeover makes you want to maintain it even more!

Even just a good cleanout is one of the most effective ways to get motivated. When you pair certain decorations and practical storage solutions, they make a space a pleasure to work in.

The very first thing I did was repaint all of the room and pick out some coordinating floral wallpaper. The wallpaper is all the heart emojis! I think it alone made this a very beautiful laundry room, but maybe I am biased!

Wallpaper Tip: Did you know you can custom-size wallpaper patterns?! It is made to order so they can reduce the pattern size to fit your purpose! I was concerned the flowers would be too big for between shelves that we reduced the pattern scale by 50%. Etsy is a great place for this sort of thing.

Add Cabinets or Shelves or Both

Cabinets and shelves are the perfect solution to fully use your vertical wall space no matter how your small your space. I decided to add some shelving and a cabinet above the washing machine and dryer to replace the wire shelving rack. This made for more smart storage solutions.

See my post on how to add a cabinet and shelving to your small laundry room for a guide!

This also freed up floor space and gave easy access to all of the laundry room essentials without clutter. I now have a dedicated place for everything in the laundry room.

If you have a front-loading washer and dryer, you could lay a board over top for folding clothes and it makes the space look very modern and neat.

For a stackable set, some of them have a pull out tray option for the stacking kit.

Baskets and Bins

One of the best tricks to making a space organized and efficient looking is to hide the supplies and create a little bit of decoration.

For us, the backup detergents are in the wicker baskets and canisters on the shelves. The drawers between the washer and dryer have our hand towels, Norwex cleaning cloths, and dustpan in them.

Organized Cabinets

We made use of every inch for storage and made sure the available space was thoughtfully used. The cabinet is where we hide most of the laundry essentials and small items.

Dirty Laundry Storage

In our laundry room, we built shelves in the laundry closet organization here. I store my laundry hampers and dirty clothes here to keep it easy to store until wash day.

However, you don’t need a closet at all to create space for dirty laundry. A few other ideas I have used in the past:

• Utilize an adjustable shelf rack like this to store laundry baskets off the floor.
• Purchase a deep armoire or tall cabinet to put baskets in.
• Vertical Canvas Laundry bag sorters that can fold away when not in use.

Hanging Laundry Ideas

For delicates, that cannot be put in the dryer, I have a few ideas for wet clothes that I have used in other laundry room configurations:

• Hooks on the Wall – I can put shirts on a hanger for drying. You can use single hooks or a line of hooks like a coat rack.
• A Bar under shelves – screw a towel bar to the underside of shelves as a hanging rod. Having hanging clothes in plain sight might also encourage you to put them away sooner!
• Add a row of pegs – Similar to hooks, this makes use of wasted space and is a charming way to decorate your laundry area.
• A fold-out laundry hanger on the wall – Anything that folds away when not in use is a great space saver!
• Door organizers – Don’t underestimate the power of making use of your laundry room door for storage. While you can’t open the door while in use, it can be hung on an open door.
• A rolling cart – This one folds away when not in use, which is a nice space saver for sorting laundry, and you can hang some laundry off the sides to dry.

Iron Storage Ideas for Small Spaces

Truthfully, we store our ironing board in another closet because my husband does the ironing usually while watching TV. However, there are generally 3 space saving options for storing an ironing board:

• Behind the Door. This handy storage unit has a place for the iron so it won’t fall, but it doesn’t fit well if the wall is right behind the door.
• Wall Mounted Ironing Board Storage. My mother loves this folding wall storage. There is a good amount of storage space in this cabinet and the ironing board folds away to hide when not in use.
• Portable Ironing Blanket. I used to use this in my dorm room on the floor with a piece of plywood behind it and it really worked.
• Leaning it Up against a Wall. This definitely works best in a small crevice like a space between the cabinets and wall.
• An Ironing Board Closet Hook. If you hang your board against a wall or in a closet, you can hang it up with a handy hook. For walls, make sure to put a good-sized bolt deep in a stud to support the weight.

Room Decor Sources

I often get asked about the sources of certain things for this laundry room, so here is a handy list:

• Wall Color: Behr Flannel Gray
• Wallpaper (we reduced the print size 50% for no additional cost)
• Baskets on Shelf
• Large Basket
• Cabinet Drawer Organizer between W&D (similar)
• Rug – purchased at HomeGoods
• Canisters (I spray painted them in Peacock Blue)
• Glass Penny Jar