I’m not sure why laundry rooms always seem to be the random gathering place of miscellaneous stuff, but I do know that the stuff can get out of control in a hurry. Rob and I had that problem too. I spent an afternoon establishing a plan for our laundry room organization, investing in some storage bins, and making a few labels. Now every item has a home and it looks fantastic. I’m sharing how I did it, the bins I used, and even a free download for the labels that really took our laundry room organization to the next level. Come take a tour and I’ll show you it all.
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Our own laundry room isn’t really so much of a room as a place where the appliances are located in the hallway that connects the garage to the rest of our living space. It’s literally a long narrow hallway with enough space to accommodate a washer, a dryer and a small, narrow closet. It’s also the space that we store a lot of random things. Everything from toilet paper, to cleaning products, to the obligatory laundry detergent to batteries and light bulbs. This space should more accurately be named the “laundry/storage hallway”. I’m sure you can relate.
This also happened to be the very first space that I tackled after the wedding as Rob and I began to start our first home together. At the time, it was a veritable mis-match of any unwanted storage container. Brown boxes bearing messages like “old towels” in a quick scrawl from a sharpie filled the shelves and I just about lost my mind.
One trip to Target was all it took to gather the necessary supplies. I bought several white Room Essentials storage bins and got ready to organize. These bins were fantastic because they are white (which you know I love), durable, the perfect size for the shelves that were already installed in our laundry room and they didn’t have lids to worry about. Rob and I needed to be able to just reach in and grab any items from the laundry room without being slowed down by a pesky lid.
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From there, the organization commenced! This wasn’t very difficult at all. Small objects (like lint rollers and batteries) went into the the small boxes. Bigger items (or things like light bulbs that we seem to have a million of) went into the large storage bins.
As you can see, not everything goes into a bin. Rob and I leave detergents, fabric softener and a lint roller out on the shelf for easy access. Many of my clothes can’t go in the dryer, so we tuck the drying rack between the washer and laundry tub for easy storage.
Tucking all of those items away was easy, painless and completely worth the investment of some white plastic bins. I spent a few hundred dollars, but finally gained control over my laundry room!
My newly organized bins were great, but they needed to be labeled. I created a set of labels that fit with the rustic casual atmosphere of our condo. This is definitely not my handwriting – I created the labels on my computer. From there, I simply printed the desired labels in the size I needed, ran them through the laminator, trimmed them down to size and was ready to go. The labels are attached with hot glue. One small dot in each corner creates a durable bond on the plastic, but the labels pop easily off when you want to remove the labels. Just give a little tug and the glue will release from the plastic.
Trust me. I hot glue a lot of labels to plastic boxes in my kindergarten classroom.
I love how the labels look on the white boxes and they really completed the clean and simple look I was trying to achieve.
Only one space remained that still needed a little organization: the narrow closet that stood at the end of our laundry corner. The closet had one shelf at the top and that was it. The vacuum fit perfectly inside of this space and we could have easily thrown a few brooms inside, but I wanted to use the space as effectively as possible.
I bought an over-the-door shoe organizer (similar here) to hold all of our household cleaners. This got all of the random bottles out from under our kitchen and bathroom sinks and put every single bottle within easy reach.
The inside of the closet took a little more creativity. A hanging shoe organizer (similar here) was the perfect addition to the space. It holds our paper towels, a few additional cleaning supplies that didn’t fit over the door, and extra toiletries.
The vacuum tucks neatly beside it and I used zip ties to suspend a large white storage bin above the vacuum. This is where we keep all of our plastic grocery bags. We also keep a washing bin and drying rack around – just in case.
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And there you have it! Easy as pie laundry room organization!
I recently asked our Facebook followers what type of items they store in their laundry rooms. Thank you to everyone chimed in on that question. I created a set of labels as a free download and I was sure to include a label for all of those suggestions!
You can download the FREE set of Laundry Room labels – just enter your email below, then check your inbox!
The final detail our Laundry Room needed was a little wall art to make the space feel more like home. I searched everywhere for a cute laundry themed sign that would fit my personal style and not break the bank. I found this pair of stretched canvases on Amazon.
They are also available as framed art or just as prints if you prefer to do a thrifty DIY frame project with them.
Now that you’ve had a peek into our laundry room, we would love to know what this space is like in your home. Is yours a space in your basement/dungeon? Do you have a Pinterest-inspired laundry room that everyone dreams about owning one day? Is it brimming with cardboard boxes and junk like ours used to be? Are you inspired to give your laundry room a little facelift? We would love to know more about you and this space in your home – please leave a comment!
