Even the most well kept laundry can end up as a mess of stains, various cleaning products (half of which you don’t remember buying), and linens (half of which you also don’t remember buying).
This can be a little annoying if you actually want to use the dang room – and we know how much more practical laundries are when they have space.
Even the most well kept laundry can end up as a mess of stains, various cleaning products (half of which you don’t remember buying), and linens (half of which you also don’t remember buying).
This can be a little annoying if you actually want to use the dang room – and we know how much more practical laundries are when they have space. If this looks like your situation – and it really shouldn’t be if you’ve just bought your home – it’s time to let us help whip it into shape.
We’ll give a couple of tips on organisation, and a couple on storage space — they’ll both end up with your laundry looking spicker and spanner than it ever has before. Keep these things in mind even when your laundry is clean and organised, to help keep it that way!
INVENTORY
The first thing you should do? Get a notepad and a piece of paper (alternatively, notepad.exe and a keyboard). Start forming a list of everything in your cupboards, if only to figure out exactly what you have.
Sort it into headings and subheadings (you may have more or less headings depending on what you store in your laundry):
- House cleaning products,
- House cleaning implements,
- Clothes cleaning products,
- Toiletries, and
- Towels and linens.
Once you’ve done that, make a list of what you actually need in the laundry, or ever use. Anything that doesn’t make both lists might not actually be doing anything than taking up room.
Do you really that need orange and cinnamon-scented foot odour remover that a relative left over six years ago? Odds are you have a couple of items along that vein; cutting down on them keeps your laundry organised by sheer weight of having less stuff in it.
HANG IT UP
Laundries are the right sort of room to get a lot out of vertical shelving and racks. Rack up your mops and ironing board and you’ll have a lot easier access to them while saving clutter and floor space (and they won’t get the floor underneath as manky after you use them).
You can also do this for extraneous towels and shammies. Save space on the parts you actually use by hanging stuff off where you don’t!
STACK THE MACHINES
Washing machines and dryers are designed to be stacked — on top of shelves, if they’re open-top pieces, and either underneath shelving or on top of each other if they’re front access. Stacking the bulkiest pieces of your laundry against each other saves up space where you need it the most.
PRE-SORT LAUNDRY
Getting a divided hamper allows you to easily sort your clothes into lights and darks to allow easy sorting for later. This makes it easier to fill a load of washing, and means you aren’t sorting through manky old clothes at the bottom of the bag — simply up-end it and chuck it in!
HAVE A SPACE FOR LINT
Lint gets everywhere; it’s as annoying as sand and builds up over time — your appliances mulch it out, clothing accumulates it in pockets and folds, and to top it off it’s a hassle to clean. Miss even a little bit when vacuuming and it’ll stick to a mop and dirty the floor again.
Set aside a bin or hanging box to collect small tuffets of lint that accumulate before they start forming massive balls.
DIY IRONING BOARD
For spot ironing, when you just need a little crease knocked out without the hassle of getting out the gigantic ironing board, plaster some quilting cotton and batting scraps over plywood to make a quick-assemble, easy storage ironer (thanks to Buzzfeed for pointing us that fantastic tutorial).
This won’t quite do if you have to iron a huge batch, but it’s really handy to slot between shelves when you need just a little done and can’t be bothered whipping out the proper ironing board.
BUILD (OR BUY) A FOLD-OUT DRYING RACK
A drying rack saves so much space in your laundry for indoor drying. You can store it in a small cupboard or crib-space (after all, it’s just a couple of wires on a frame), and it allows you to drip dry indoors regardless of the weather.
For an alternate storage solution, you can get ceiling-hooked or mounted drying racks. You might want to make sure you’ve got a decently high roof or space at the side of the floor for this though, or you’ll end up walking through it every time you walk through.
DECANTER YOUR PRODUCTS
If you really can’t stand the sight of old cleaning products, shove them in a proper, decanted container. They won’t drop or leak with a proper valve system, and you’ll avoid the grimy residue that permeates even the most well maintained laundry cupboard. They’ll also give off a lot less of a smell, which means you won’t be experiencing chemical shock every time you need to clean the tighty-whities.
