There is no limit to what to store in the laundry room and what the most efficient way of using it looks like for you. However, certain laundry room essentials are best kept in the laundry room for ease of access.
You can use this list as a head start and add and subtract some tools and items as they prove to be necessary. Moreover, organizing the room is almost as important as what you have in it. So, keep reading to find out all of the best tips and tricks.
Things to Store in a Laundry Room
A well-organized laundry room will help you keep your house tidy and clean. Moreover, you can boost your productivity in your house by keeping your required items readily accessible in your laundry room. Here are the basic items that you can keep in your laundry room:
- Laundry Supplies
First and foremost, when asked what to store in the laundry room, the obvious answer is laundry detergent. Keep all the rest of your laundry supplies there, not only detergent. This might be softeners, stain removers, dryer sheets, and whatever else you use.
You can decant these supplies into better-looking jars or other containers. Furthermore, you can use baskets or decorative trays to organize these jars and containers for maximum effect and place them on shelves close to your washer and dryer.
Otherwise, you can conveniently organize them in cabinets or other free-standing units.
- Ironing board, iron, steamer
Ironing is one of the most universally disliked chores. Therefore, everything that can make ironing an easier process is much appreciated. Having all of the necessary tools in one place is undoubtedly a plus. Hanging some hooks can aid in the steaming process.
Alternatively, if you have the space, you can install a clothing hanger rod to hang clothes to steam or hang them after they are ironed so they don’t get wrinkled again.
If you don’t like full-sized ironing boards and think they take up too much space, you can opt for a wall-mounted ironing board. They take up less space and are easier to set up and put away.
- Drying rack
Certain fabrics lose their shape or get damaged if put into dryers. Thus, they need to be left to air dry. For such clothing items having drying racks is a must. A foldable drying rack will allow you to use the space more efficiently.
Moreover, installing pull-out drying racks for the clothes that need to be laid to air dry will save so much space. If you have a sink in your laundry room, you can install a clothing rod above it for drip-drying your clothes.
- Hampers
If you have one big hamper that houses all the dirty clothes, you know how long it takes to separate them into categories during the wash day. So why not do the separating beforehand?
Having a few hampers allocated for different types of clothes will make the process much smoother, as all you will need to do is take the hamper and put all of the clothes into the machine. How many hampers you have and categorizing them will heavily depend on your clothes and how you like to wash them.
However, if you don’t have a preference, having one for lights, one for darks, and one for delicate clothes is a good starting point. In time, you might also need a hamper for clothes that need to be hand washed or go to the dry cleaner.
You might prefer wearing dark colors only; then, you won’t need a hamper for lights. Tailor it to fit your needs.
- Linens, towels, blankets
If you don’t have the space for a linen closet elsewhere in your house, your laundry room is a great option. You can put extra linens, blankets, towels, pillowcases, and other textile items in one place.
Furthermore, organizing them by category and putting them into baskets will make them look appealing and aesthetic. Alternatively, you can use a cabinet with drawers for laundry room storage and label them so that it is even easier to locate precisely what you are looking for.
Having a separate linen closet will help keep the contents of it clean and fresh for when you need to use them.
- Cleaning supplies
Another option for what to store in the laundry room is cleaning tools and supplies.
Your laundry room is the perfect space to store all of your mops, dustpans, brooms, vacuums, or other tools. A pantry-style cabinet is ideal for keeping these long and thin objects, making the room look cleaner and more organized.
Furthermore, you can store other cleaning supplies such as extra paper towels, soap, glass cleaner, or other all-purpose cleaners.
You can view your laundry room not only as a laundry room but the hub of all of the cleaning and chores of the house. Similar to how you would store all of the non-refrigerated food items in your pantry, you can use your laundry room to store all of your extra cleaning items too.
Tips and Tricks for Laundry Rooms
What to store in your laundry room is only one-half of your laundry room organization. There is also the question of how to keep those items. Here are some tips to make your laundry room more functional and organized:
- Stack washer and dryer
Stacking your washer and dryer can be a great space saver, especially if you have a small laundry room. You can use the space that would otherwise be allocated to your dryer to install more cabinets or a sink.
Although having your washer and dryer machines placed next to each other is also very practical as it provides countertop space, some rooms may not be big enough to house that.
If you were to stack your washer and dryer vertically, you could use the extra space to have a cabinet, sink, or other necessities.
- Use vertical space, install upper cabinets
You don’t have to limit yourself to either the bottom or full-size cabinets. Often the best use of the space is to have lower and upper cabinets as this option provides lower cabinets for easy access, countertop space, and upper cabinets for items that get less use.
Furthermore, you can install full-size pantry-style cabinets for cleaning tools that need more space, such as mops and dustpans.
- Use shelving
Using open shelving can make the space much more useful. You can store the stuff that is in constant use in the laundry room, such as laundry detergent and fabric softener, on open shelves, thus making them easily reachable.
Moreover, you can also take advantage of this as a decorating opportunity. As mentioned before, you can use jars and other holders to display these items in a better-looking way than the original containers they come in.
- Have a clothing rack
Having a clothing rack can be of use in multiple different ways in the laundry room. First of all, it can be a place for you to hang the ironed clothes until you can hand them in the respective closets. Furthermore, you can use it to steam clothes too.
Another use of it is to hang the clothes that need to air dry. You can choose a free-standing clothing rack with wheels for easy transportation.
On the other hand, you can install one on top of the lower cabinets or the sink to take up less space. However, don’t forget that you may need to sacrifice some upper cabinets to make that happen. Overall the choice depends on how much room you can spare for it.
- Put a sink
A sink is an obvious choice for any laundry room. You can use it to hand wash extremely delicate clothing, you can use it for stain removal, and to wash off the excess sauce you have spilled on your shirt before you throw it in the washing machine.
When laundry is involved, a sink will be necessary for some part of the process sooner or later. It is much handier to have it close by rather than going to your bathroom to use the sink every time.
Conclusion
All in all, the endless possibilities of what you can store in your laundry room, how you can organize it, and how to optimize its efficiency. Furthermore, it heavily depends on your specific needs and how much room you can spare.
Therefore, when designing a laundry room, it is best to look at your space and conditions and choose the options that fit them the closest.
Furthermore, as you use and spend time in your laundry room, you will understand what works and what doesn’t even more. So you can move things around and find better fits for specific items as time goes on. Therefore, don’t make this organization process a stressful one.
On the contrary, the goal is to make this often disliked chore as smooth and stress-free as possible!
