22 Laundry Room Organization Ideas You Can Hack at Home

The laundry room may be a largely ignored area design-wise, but when you stop and think about how much time you actually spend in there, it makes sense that you might want to level up your laundry room game. 

Sure, laundry is a total chore (literally and figuratively) — and a never-ending one at that. That being said, a well-organized laundry room that’s pleasing to the eye and efficient to work in can go a long way toward making the task a more bearable one. Without a few smart storage solutions, it can be difficult to find what you need, leaving your dryer sheets, laundry detergent, and spare socks in a constant state of constant chaos. Here are some of the best ways to turn this small, often neglected room into its very best self.

Laundry rooms are generally quite small, so there’s not usually a lot of room for floor storage. If you’re not using your walls for organization, you’re seriously missing out on a ton of untapped storage space. These solutions will help you make the most of the vertical space you do have.

An ironing board is bulky, but when you need one, you need one. In the meantime, though, you’ll need to store it. Installing robe hooks is a simple, affordable way to keep your ironing board out of the way yet accessible. Hang two at a distance that allows you to securely hang your ironing board foot from them.

Sometimes hanging clothes is a necessity, no matter how annoying it is. Instead of draping your wardrobe over every chair and surface in your home, install a handy clothing rack where you can hang delicates to dry without worrying about wrangling a folding accordion rack.

If you’re aiming to make your laundry room a place you enjoy inhabiting, you’ll probably need to put something eye-pleasing on the wall. This adorable laundry care guide is beautiful and useful, providing you with a way to interpret all those pesky symbols to ensure you never damage your clothes while washing.

Laundry rooms don’t always have the floor space to allow a traditional garbage can to fit nicely, but you definitely need a receptacle for lint and the odds and ends you may find in pockets. A wall-mounted mailbox is a laundry room organization idea that solves the problem but takes up zero room on the floor.

Those holes on the handles of your brooms and mops are useless for hanging as-is. However, adding a zip tie loop means you can hang your cleaning tools from regular hooks and get them out of the corner, off the floor, and ready for the next cleaning sesh.

Rather than hanging your ironing board, consider a unit that folds out from the wall. In addition to hiding your board, a cabinet-type ironing board unit also offers storage for small items on its built-in shelves.

When it comes time to dry your delicates, traditional racks can take up your entire laundry room floor space. A wall-mounted drying rack doesn’t take any room when folded up against the wall and pulls out just when you need it.

Whether you have built-in shelves or you’re looking to DIY a functional shelving situation, these simple shelf ideas will help you maintain a perfectly organized laundry room.   

Storing empty hangers in the closet might seem to make sense, but you really need them close at hand as you pull clothes out of the dryer. Keep hangers nearby by storing them on basic inexpensive shelf brackets without the shelf.

Once you get them folded, sheets and towels all start to look the same. And we all know the frustration of stretching out a sheet over the bed just to discover it’s a size too small. Simple labels — printed from a label maker or written by hand on washi tape — keep things organized and help maintain a place for everything, even when the sheet supply gets low.

Attaching a hanging rail to your bottom shelf looks great and is super functional. You can use it to air dry your most delicate garments or store your excess clothes hangers.

Maximize vertical space by hanging wire shelves over your laundry room door. If you want to go the extra mile like Melaine Thompson of My Sweet Savannah, paint the door with chalk paint for easy (and erasable) labeling.

Well-placed storage baskets, bins, and trays are amazing tools for organizing your laundry room. Need proof? Check out these genius ways to use storage bins.  

If you must store items on top of your washer and dryer, use a wooden tray to keep smaller items together. This is a great way to keep track of all the random things that come out of the dryer, like coins, bills, shoelaces, and buttons. 

If you’re lucky enough to have a countertop of some sort in your laundry room, tuck large baskets underneath to use as an attractive way to store dirty laundry.

Glass containers, whether large or small, are a great way to store laundry necessities like detergent, dryer sheets, and fabric softener. Here, @the_laundry_essentials_22 uses large containers for scent-boosting laundry beads. This can be an especially effective laundry room organization idea if you don’t have a closet to hide clutter. 

Dollar store baskets are great for adding order to the laundry room (or any) shelving. But things can get messy again quickly if it’s not clear what goes where. Forestall the issue by adding labels with clothespins, which can easily be switched if you decide to mix things up.

From DIY counter installations to magnetic organizers for your small laundry essentials, here are more laundry room organization ideas that make the most of a small space. 

It’s best to avoid stacking lots of different things directly on top of your washer and dryer. Between the cluttered feel and the way things can scatter during a particularly aggressive spin cycle, it’s just not the best storage option. If your washer and dryer are side by side, consider installing a slab of wood over top of them to create a makeshift countertop. 

Orphan socks can clutter a laundry room quickly and make any launderer feel like they’re losing not only their socks but also their mind. This laundry room organization idea helps you keep socks with missing matches within sight and ensure that when that wayward match shows up, it gets quickly and properly paired and back into rotation. Put a magnetic board in the laundry room and use magnetic clips to hang socks. You can also attach the magnetic clips to the appliances themselves.

Between machines, that is. Hang adhesive or magnetic hooks, shelves, or baskets in that dead space between or to the side of your appliances and use them to store scrub brushes, bags, rags, and more. If you have the room, a slim rolling cart makes exceptional use of your gaps, allowing you to store cleaning and laundry supplies so you can see (and reach) them with ease.

A rail suspended from the ceiling makes an excellent place to hang up clothes, stockpile dry clean items for the next errand run, or just store extra hangers where you need them—all without taking up any wall or floor space.

One untapped benefit of the laundry room is how your washer and dryer offer spacious magnetic surfaces, just waiting to be maximized. A magnetic rack like this one keeps laundry soap (and whatever else you reach for often) nearby and even has an integrated paper towel roller in case you’re into the idea of making your own dryer sheets.

This tip is genius. If you’re counting on household members to pitch in with laundry but worry that they’ll shrink your jeans or ruin your delicates by accidentally putting them in the dryer, dry-erase markers will save you (and them).

If you want to be ready to leave notes where they simply cannot be missed, keep a magnetic cup on the washer to hold your markers and an eraser to wipe off the notes when the laundry’s done.