Clever Ideas to Make the Most of a Small Laundry Room

We’ve all seen them: the big, dreamy laundry rooms with room for multiple machines and all the layout space you could ever dream of. Sadly, the average laundry room is a little more modest: a small space, a corner of the mudroom, maybe even a closet. The good news is that, even if you’re dealing with a very small laundry space, there are ways you can fit in all the functionality of a much larger room. All it takes is a little ingenuity. Here are seven smart solutions.

What’s better than a plain old ironing board? An ironing board that folds out from the wall, to save you the trouble of having to take it out and set it up every time you need to iron. There are plenty of wall-mounted options available, but this setup, from John Hall Custom Homes, is particularly nice: the ironing board hides in a cabinet when not in use, and the cabinet is deep enough to store the ironing board and other laundry necessities (including the iron itself, which plugs into an outlet inside the cabinet).

Even in a very small laundry space, built-in storage can be a real lifesaver. It’s only about a foot wide, but this narrow shelf, spotted in a laundry room makeover on Houzz is big enough to provide storage for all your laundry room essentials. (In the foreground, what looks like a shoe cabinet from IKEA provides even more small-space storage.)

Having space to fold all those lovely clean clothes is a definite perk in a laundry room, and a possibility even for quite a small space. A countertop built over the washer and dryer, like this one from Bre Purposed, will serve the double function of providing a place to fold laundry, and keeping socks from disappearing behind the machines.

Even if your laundry space doesn’t allow room for a table for folding, you can build in a pullout folding board, like this one in a narrow laundry space by Marsh & Clark Design.

Another option for a space-challenged laundry room is a sink, like this one from Houzz, with a cover that makes the sink area part of the countertop when not in use.

In a small space, it can be difficult to find a spot to hang up delicate clothes that need to air dry. Instead of taking over your shower, try a wall-mounted drying rack, like this one spotted on Chatelaine, that folds out of the way when not in use. You can find a DIY version from Centsational Girl.

Whether your hamper lives in the laundry room (to throw clothes directly into) or migrates there when it’s laundry time, you may find it worthwhile to provide a designated parking space for it, which is a great way to save floor space while you’re working. This laundry room from Style at Home has a countertop that stretches over the hamper, for even more space for folding and stacking clean clothes.