Five Ideas to Fix Up Your Laundry Room

In many homes, the laundry room is located in the dank, dark basement. For some people, the laundry room is not even a room, so much as it’s a spidery corner of lint balls and forgotten socks. This is unfortunate, because the laundry room is supposed to be a work station – a place where we can clean clothes for our family, and help laundry from accumulating into Mount Washmore.

One way to become more productive in the laundry room is to give it a little attention, design, and decoration. The more functional your laundry room, the happier you’ll be. So here are some ideas to organize your laundry room and make it a more pleasant part of the house.

Laundry Room Idea Number One: Get rid of the clutter.
Yes, you probably need those bottles of detergent and dryer sheets. You even need the bleach. But laundry rooms tend to become a dumping ground for things that don’t have a home. Hammers, sponges, old brooms and empty bottles. Get rid of it. If you haven’t used the product in more than a year, throw it out. If you’re saving old clothing in the laundry room, donate it. Get rid of as many things as you can to give yourself as much floor space as possible in your laundry room.

Laundry Room Idea Number Two: Build Up.
Laundry rooms are the perfect place to make greedy use of wall space. Build, install, or buy shelving units that get all your bottles and accessories up off the floor and out of base cabinets where they linger unnoticed and unused. Storing items in or on shelves in your laundry room will make them more visible and accessible to you when you’re working.

Laundry Room Idea Number Three: Install a laundry bar.
When clothes come out of the dryer, if you have a laundry bar in your laundry room, you can hang them right up and avoid wrinkles. If you’re not handy, or there’s no wall space on which you can conveniently attach a bar, invest in a small portable laundry center. If all else fails you can use a drying rack.

Laundry Room Idea Number Four: Redo the Flooring.
If you don’t already have a linoleum floor in your basement, consider installing one. If the expense is to great, consider installing your own vinyl tiles. With the use of peel n’ stick squares that can be purchased cheaply at your local dollar store, you can refinish your laundry room floor for less than $40. If you’re used to cement, the change in your laundry room will be dramatic. Laminate is easy to clean, won’t get your clothes dirty if you happen to drop them in the laundry room, and is an easier surface to work on. It also cuts down on spiders and dust.

Laundry Room Idea Number Five: Paint the Walls.
Even if your laundry room is in the basement, and has unfinished walls, you can still put a coat of paint on the wood, and the back of the exposed plaster board. Use old paint you’ve got leftover. It doesn’t really matter what color. The point is to seal in those dusty laundry room walls and give them a clean, washable surface.

When you’re done with these ideas, your laundry room may not look like a palace. But your laundry room will definitely be a more functional space for your family, and that’s what counts.