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How To Declutter Your Messy Laundry Room: Before and After Pictures

The Messy Laundry Room Problem

Having a messy laundry room can really make your life harder when it comes to doing laundry.

Because of the mess, it takes longer to do the laundry, find the things you need for the laundry, and you may even be tripping over all the dirty laundry…which is a fall hazard!

And not only that but with kids, a busy schedule, and too many items in our homes, the laundry room can easily become a dumping ground for things that are dirty, have no home, and just need a place to reside until we figure out what to do with them.

Here are 12 FREE motivation tips just for you…so you can start cleaning TODAY!

Related Post: How To Declutter Your Home Without Guilt

Messy Laundry room

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In my own home home, I keep laundry in the laundry room, but I also hide birthday gifts there (because let’s face it, the kids are not doing any laundry), I put tools in the laundry room instead of walking them out to the garage or basement, and I keep a lot of my cleaning supplies in the laundry room.

With all of that, my messy laundry room doesn’t stand a chance.

What do you store in your laundry room?  Should it be stored there? Could you move some things out, add some containers, and clean up the space to work better for you and your family?  I think so.

But where do you start?

>>PRO TIP: Take an online organization class, like this one by Hilary Erikson of the Pulling Curls Website, to level up your home and life organization.

Before and After Pictures: Laundry Room Organization Ideas

Gather and Flourish

Many times in before and after pictures you will see people stacking their washer and dryer in order to find more space in a small room.  But in this laundry room, they actually unstacked the washer and dryer so they could add cabinets and a nice counter for folding and other work.  They also added a tension rod for hanging clothing that cannot be folded.



Home Made Lovely

Shannon at Home Made Lovely, did a fantastic job taking her once dark, dreary and cluttered laundry room, and making it light, airy, and organized. As you can see from the pictures below, her space is not large, but with a little creativity she was able to make the space more useful. Some great feature of this space are the shelves she installed in the recess, the skirt around the base of the sink, and that fabulous faucet that allows for better utilization of the area. Now her laundry room clutter is organized and beautiful.


Related Post: 10 Things You Should Take Off Your Countertops To Declutter Your Space For Good

Kippy At Home

Kippi from Kippy At Home claims to do everything better at home. And after seeing her laundry room makeover, I would have to agree. In the pictures below, you can see her before and after pictures.

Before, her paint color was drab and the room was overrun with clutter and disorganization. But after her makeover, the room is bright and organized. She used white paint to brighten the space, and a natural colored wood to break up the white and bring in some contrast.

As for organization, the white cabinets do wonders for hiding clutter in your laundry room. And the super cute baskets on the shelves contain the clutter while looking streamlined and pretty.


Making Manzanita

Chelsea and Logan at Making Manzanita are not only making manzanita! In these pictures, they are making a better looking laundry room too. The one thing they did in this laundry room to help control their clutter is build a cabinet under the sink. By adding this extra storage space, they have somewhere to store the things they need to use in the laundry room without it becoming cluttered.


Sugar and Cloth

Not everyone has the money to go out and buy a new washer and dryer.  But if you do, this many be a great solution for you. In this before and after picture, they went from a top loading washing machine to a front loader, allowing them to add a shelf on top.  Like the last picture, they also added a cabinet and a tension rod as a storage and hanging solution. The plus to this washer and dryer combo may not just be that they are front loaders, but also that they have storage drawers underneath to house many items needed for the laundry.


Click Here for more laundry hanging ideas:


Four Generations One Roof

This tiny little closet laundry room got a makeover just by adding some extra shelving and a roller cart.  Many times, a messy laundry room can be cleaned up that easily.


All Things Heart And Home

The laundry room in this picture simply added a shelf above their top loader and a nice middle console for storage. These are great shelves if you like the idea of shelves in your laundry room.

Buy these shelves to get this look.


Maggie May’s

So many before and after round up posts show actual laundry rooms.  But I can remember being at my old house and the laundry area being in the basement.  This was a great picture of how you can create a more pleasant and functional space in your basement or even your garage.  They painted everything they could white to brighten the space, added shelves for storage, a small console table for folding, and cute baskets like these for laundry.  Then they threw in a nice rug so they are not standing on the cold concrete floor.


Buy these cute baskets to get the look.


Live The Fancy Life

Here, it looks like this laundry room just needed a little brightening and storage.  They painted lighter brighter colors. It looks like they may have replaced the floor, but a budget friendly option would be to just paint the floor a lighter color or add a light rug.  Then, they added storage cabinets and a countertop on the opposite side of the room.



I love Decoration

What a sweet little makeover.  They brightened up the space with a cheerful color and then added extra shelving for storage and beachy decorations.



4 Men 1 Lady

Another dungeon laundry room makeover!  Again, she brightened the space with white paint, added some nice flooring that is probably not as cold as the concrete, and added shelves above for storage.


Buy this rug to re-create this space:


The Kim Six Fix

This laundry room became more functional by removing the doors of the back cabinets and turning the cabinets into open shelving for beautifully colored laundry baskets and laundry sorting.  They also added a shelf above the washer and dryer and added baskets for some pretty storage.


How To Declutter A Messy Laundry Room

With all of the things that are getting thrown into your laundry room, the best thing you can do is start by decluttering it. 

By decluttering your messy laundry room, you are going to move out all of the unwanted items in that space so you can focus on storing the items that are actually supposed to be in your laundry room.

Here are some decluttering steps to help you out:

Step 1:  Decide what should be stored in the laundry room.  Here are some examples of items that should be kept in your laundry room are:

  • Detergent
  • Fabric Softener
  • Dryer balls
  • Vinegar
  • Stain removers
  • Fels naptha
  • Baking soda
  • Oxi clean
  • Toothbrush (for scrubbing out stains)
  • Dirty laundry
  • Laundry Baskets

Step 2:  Go through the items in the laundry room and get rid of what does not belong there. Decide if the items need to be moved to a different location, donated, or thrown away.

Step 3:  If you have the extra space, decide if there is anything else you want to store in the laundry room (such as cleaning products or a wall-mount broom holder).

Cleaning a Dirty Utility Room or Laundry Room

Once you have decluttered the messy laundry room, the next step would be to clean it. 

Once the mess in your laundry room is completely decluttered and you have cleaned the space, then it is time to organize.

How do you organize a messy laundry room?

So telling you exactly how to organize your laundry room is probably not going to help you much. 

Why? Well, organization is not ‘One Size Fits All’. There are many questions that come into play when making a decision about how to organize an already messy laundry room.  Such as:

  • Do you want open shelving or cabinets you can close? 
  • Do you want to use bins and baskets or just set things on the shelves for easy access? 
  • Do you have wall space where you can hang hooks or a drying rack?
  • Do you have the room for a clothing rod or clothing line?

All of these questions will have to be answered by you, but I can definitely give you some great ideas to get you started.

How do I keep my laundry room clean?

Just remember, that when you get your space organized it will stay cleaner because 1) you don’t have as many things in it, and 2) you have a place to store the items that belong there.

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How To Hang a Shelf:

How Do You Organize Your Washing?

While we are on the subject of messy laundry rooms, this may be a good time to also talk about how to organize your washing, or dirty laundry.

I like to have 3 baskets in my laundry for dirty laundry.  I label them ‘Lights’, ‘Darks’, and ‘Brights’.

All of the clothing in ‘Lights’ is of light colors, like light grey, pastels, white, and tan.  They all get washed in warm to hot water.

The clothing in the ‘Darks’ consists of dark saturated colors like black, navy, dark grey, brown and they get washed in cold.

The ‘Brights’ consist of bright pink, red, and orange. These clothes get washed on cold also.

Where should you put a laundry basket in your house?

Considering every person in your home is creating laundry, the best place for a laundry basket is in each room.  The basket does not have to be large, but it should be in a visible space for kids so they can easily drop their clothing in it and not on the floor.

We use mesh laundry baskets for clothes hampers in our house so they are lightweight which makes it easy for the kids to help out on laundry day.

What type of flooring is best for a laundry room?

The best type of flooring in a laundry room is flooring that is easy to clean, is durable, and can get wet.  Then, because you are spending a lot of time in the laundry room on your feet, I would recommend a nice rug or an anti-fatique cushioned floor mat.

I hope this post really helps you declutter your messy laundry room and I would really love to both hear and see how your organization is going so please leave a comment below!

Click here to read 5 Super Easy Steps For Getting Organized

Click here to read How To Clean When You Are Crippled By The Mess

Julie
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