How to make the most of your laundry room, according to a professional organiser
If you’re lucky enough to have a laundry room, you’ll know it’s one of those spaces that gets messy easily. However, like with your kitchen cupboards or small bedroom, there are a few tweaks you can make to ensure it functions properly without clutter building up.
Vicky Silverthorn, professional organiser at You Need A Vicky, explains: "It's hard for this space not to become a dumping ground, but as long as you haven't crammed the space full, that's the key. A lot of the time I find there's a lot of crossover between a laundry room and a shed so, if you have things in there that could live in the shed, put them in there!"
6 laundry room ideas to create a space you want to use
1.Sort your drying solution
Nobody likes having to squeeze around bulky airers (and risk collapsing them) just to get to the cupboard or the washing machine. "Use any free wall space or the back of your door to hang drying rails," says Vicky.
"I've got a pull-down airer on my wall as there's not enough space on the floor and it's a real game-changer. You could also use these areas for hanging a broom or your ironing board."
2.Get your storage right
Vicky says that surfaces should stay as clear as possible, but there's no harm in keeping the products you use the most out on the side so you can save your cupboards for items needed less frequently.
For small rooms especially, where you may not have the luxury of an airing cupboard, she suggests installing some slatted shelves above the sink to store your laundry. "This is a really good place to keep your sheets and towels, and they're getting aired at the same time," she says. "You could also use this space to keep your ironing pile before you get onto it, too."
If you have a gap between your cupboards and the wall, utilise the space with narrow sliding organisers for extra products, a collapsible laundry basket or your ironing board.
3.Divided hampers
By using a divided hamper, you won’t waste time sorting out your dirty laundry into white and coloured piles. It’ll prevent you from throwing laundry on the floor to sort through it before putting it in the washing machine. Some laundry baskets even have three compartments, so you can dedicate a section to hand wash garments or bedding.
4.Use a collapsible laundry basket
These are a real must-have, but traditional plastic baskets are often large and bulky and won't fit in a cupboard. Collapsible options solve this problem. "I use a universal stacker to keep my tumble dryer above my washing machine and it has a pull-out shelf in between which fits this Brabantia basket perfectly," says Vicky.
5.Make your products prettier
A key point here is not to treat your laundry room like a shop — let the supermarket store the extra products, not your cupboards. This will tackle clutter and prevent them from becoming a mess; when cupboards are too full, you often can't even see what's in there.
"Don't be swayed by pretty pictures on Instagram showing cupboards with rows and rows of neat products," says Vicky. "A laundry room is a working room, so it's not efficient to fill up all the space with a mass of spares."
Once you've pared down your supplies to the essentials, you can decant them into prettier bottles or jars that'd look neat on your worktops, like Vicky suggested above, as in your cupboards.
6.Give it some character
Once you’ve tackled the above, your space should be functional, organised and tidy. But it doesn’t hurt to add some character into your newly transformed space. Some funky art prints or a pretty plant can inject some life and colour into your laundry room and make it a cheerier place to be. After all, doing the washing isn't the most exciting job in the world, so it's these little details that will make this a more enjoyable area to spend time in.
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