How to Organize a Small Laundry Room Around Laundry Day

Give each laundry task a home

When you're reaching for supplies at different points in a load, one general storage spot can leave you searching. We'd organize around where you use things first, because putting supplies beside their task can cut that searching and may save time on laundry day.

Start by assigning jobs to your available space. Look at unused vertical areas for storage, then consider which horizontal surfaces could support folding and where sorted laundry could go. This gives you a reason to choose each shelf, bag or surface before you fill the room with organizers.

Your arrangement should suit your household's laundry habits. Think of the choices below as a room plan you can adapt: a place for supplies, a way to separate clothes, somewhere to air-dry and a surface for folding. Each choice should help you do a particular job.

Keep supplies beside the job

Put detergent and bleach near the washer, and dryer sheets near the dryer. That point-of-use arrangement is the practical core of Whirlpool's laundry workflow advice (opens in a new tab): keep the item close to the job that calls for it.

If bottles and other essentials create more visual clutter than you'd like, a cabinet gives them an enclosed home. Detergent, fabric softener and stain remover can share that storage space. Choose its role around the supplies you need to keep together, while keeping their point of use in mind.

The packaging you buy also affects how much storage you need. Compact detergent bottles are an option when bulky bottles take up too much room. Consider that choice alongside your shelf or cabinet plan, since the container itself is part of what you're making space for.

For questions that come up while handling clothes, hang a basic laundry guide and a stain-treatment guide nearby. Those references can help adults and children learning laundry basics, giving shared laundry work a useful reference spot.

Use the wall space for the things you store

Look above the washer and dryer, then at any unused alcove or corner. Shelves in those locations can hold detergent, laundry boosters, stain fighters and other essentials. In a laundry closet, the area above the appliances is a useful place to consider for that supply storage.

Choose the wall storage by what it needs to hold. Bottles and laundry products suit shelves; a pegboard with hooks and baskets gives mops, an iron and other laundry gear a home when you don't have a closet. These options serve different items, so you can choose the one that answers your actual storage need.

For baskets, another option is an angled shelf above the machines with a lip that holds them in place. That arrangement can get dirty clothes off the floor and support sorting. Keep the lip as part of the choice, since it's the feature that holds the baskets on the angled surface.

The door and appliance gap offer other options

A door rack can give an iron, detergent or other supplies a home. If you'd prefer to leave the door itself free of a rack, consider shallow shelving on the wall behind it for items such as fabric softener and dryer sheets.

Where there's space between your washer and dryer, a shelving unit can hold the things you need to finish a load. You can choose a stationary unit or one on wheels. This option depends on having an available gap between the appliances.

Use the location to guide the choice: the door offers rack storage, the wall behind it offers shallow shelving, and an available appliance gap offers a place for a separate unit. Pick the spot that puts your supplies near their work, instead of treating every possible storage location as something you need to fill.

Let the laundry arrive already sorted

Use multiple hampers or baskets to separate clothes as they collect. You can divide lights from darks, then separate delicates or other fabric types to suit your laundry. Presorting lets those containers do part of the organizing before you're ready to wash.

When several baskets won't fit, choose hanging bags labeled darks, whites and colors (opens in a new tab). That gives the categories a place without needing multiple baskets and can reduce clutter. The labels also help everyone in the household sort their own clothes.

Decide between those options based on the room you have for collecting laundry. Baskets and hampers provide separate containers for your chosen categories; hanging bags offer the alternative when basket space is the sticking point. Give each category a clear destination so the sorting system is ready when clothes arrive.

Make room for clothes that air-dry

If an outdoor clothesline isn't an option, give air-drying an indoor home with a hanging drying rack, bar or retractable clothesline. Choosing a dedicated hanging spot lets you account for drying as part of the room's arrangement.

When floor clutter is your main concern, consider a clothing rod. It can take up less space than a clothes drying rack and help keep drying gear off the floor. Some clothing rods retract when you're finished, so choose a retractable version if that feature matters to your layout.

If you have cabinet or drawer space available, a pull-out or fold-down drying rack is another option with built-in storage. The useful distinction is where the drying setup lives between uses: hanging in its assigned spot, retracting, or folding back into cabinetry. Choose the arrangement that fits the space you can give it.

Save a flat surface for handling clothes

Repurpose a small table or assign another available flat surface to folding. A wall-mounted desk is another possible folding surface. Start with the flat space you can give this job, so folding has a destination within your room plan.

That surface can also serve for mending if that's part of your laundry routine. If you already have a countertop, it can provide room to spread out garments and look for stains before washing. Give the surface a working purpose when deciding how much of it to use for storage.

In a shared laundry space, curtains are an option for separating task areas or concealing appliances. They can help define places for preparation, washing, line drying or mending. Choose that separation where it helps you give each activity a recognizable place.

A cart can come out only when you need it

Choose a mobile laundry cart if you want baskets or cleaning supplies to come out for laundry day and go away afterward. Its useful feature is movement: you can bring the things it holds into the working area when chores begin.

Decide what the cart will carry and where you'll store it between uses as part of the room plan. It can serve as basket storage or supply storage, depending on which job you need it to do. When laundry chores are finished, roll it back into its storage spot out of sight.