Organizing Your Laundry Room

laundry room

This time of year, the laundry room may be getting more than usual usage. Coming home from vacation or welcoming home kids from camp with bags of dirty laundry can be overwhelming. Buying and washing new school uniforms or clothing adds to the mix.

A functional laundry room area can be as small as a closet or a full room with a closing door. It may have a stacked washer/dryer or have them side by side. If you are fortunate enough to have a large laundry room, the room may have other storage functions besides just doing the laundry. If your area has multiple functions, zone out each area where possible. My laundry room area has an area for tools, recycling, and oversized serving platters.

No matter what the size, you should have a place to put the dirty laundry you are currently washing and a place to store your laundry products. In a larger space you may store your ironing board, a drying rack, and a place to hang clothes on hangers.

Doing the laundry becomes less of a chore with a well-designed space. Keep stain removers, sponges, scrubbing brushes on a shelf or cabinet near your washing machine. If you buy your detergents in large containers, transfer some into smaller containers that are easier to handle and less likely to cause spills. Post a stain-removal chart on the wall or inside a cabinet. Have a basket or bowl for tossing in the items found in pockets, the dryer, or loose buttons.

I recommend bringing only one tub full at a time to the laundry room area. Keep the rest of the dirty clothes in the laundry baskets until you are ready to put them in the tub. This keeps piles of dirty laundry from stacking up in the area. If you know that you have time to do more than one tub of laundry, you can bring out a second tub once the first tub is in the dryer.

Once the dryer is finished, take out the clothes and fold them or hang them up as soon as possible.

A stack of colored laundry baskets can also be handy. Designate a color for each person in the family. When laundry is taken out of the dryer and folded, immediately put it in the correct basket. Each family member can pick up their baskets, put their clothes away, and return the basket. This keeps the laundry room free of stacks of clean clothing.

In order to keep the laundry room from getting overwhelming, have designated times for laundry chores instead of waiting until an item is needed.

In summary:

While having a clean and organized laundry room may not make you want to spend a lot of time there, it will make the time spent less stressful. A lot of the tasks can be scheduled and done in short bursts of time so don’t look at the area and let yourself feel overwhelmed. Just break down each project and do a bit at a time. Schedule time on your calendar weekly and yearly to keep the laundry room in shape.

If you want help or just some accountability in organizing a space in your home or working any other organizational plan either outside or inside your home, join Diane Quintana and me on our Clear Space For You clutter support group.

Jonda S. Beattie, Professional Organizer owner of Time Space Organization, and co-owner of Release, Repurpose, Reorganize. She is based in the Metro-Atlanta area. As presenter, award-winning author, as well as a retired special education teacher she uses her listening skills, problem solving skills, knowledge of different learning techniques, ADHD specialty, and paper management skills to help clients tackle the toughest organizational issues. Jonda does hands on organizing and virtual organizing. For more of Jonda’s tips connect with her on Facebook.