Time-Saving Laundry Essentials & Tips To Simplify Your Laundry Routine
Laundry essentials for better laundry room organization, storage solutions, recipes, and time-saving laundry tips.
Laundry rooms are often forgotten when organizing our homes. Like the kitchen junk drawer, they become our homes’ catch-all room. Clothes that need mending, holiday decorations that missed the trip to the attic, store returns, school projects, things you want to donate, and the list goes on.
It’s quite common for the laundry room to be last on the list to organize or decorate. Many of us are guilty of not putting any effort into a cohesive laundry space. (I certainly was guilty of this. I waited three years after we built our dream home to get the laundry room in order.)
Here’s the thing: This room deserves as much attention and consideration as the rest of the home.
If the thought of the neighborhood touring your laundry room makes you squeamish, or you’re tired of struggling over a mountain of laundry, I’m here to help!
Laundry is, in fact, a life skill, and a functional laundry room can make all the difference.
I’ll show you how to streamline your laundry routine, with essentials for laundry room organization, recipes, storage solutions for laundry, and time-saving tips!
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Organizing Your Laundry Space
Instead of letting the laundry room become the dumping ground of your home, turn to these organization ideas. You’ll find ideas to store supplies in easy reach, cut down on clutter, and speed up your laundry routine.
Many offer a chance to add your style, creating a space that not only works for you, but is more enjoyable to be in.
Staying organized is everything – these laundry room ideas and essential storage solutions for laundry prove it!
Easy Laundry Room Organization Ideas
Laundry Storage Baskets
If you have shelves in your laundry room, put them to use! Add tall laundry room storage baskets to store laundry essentials such as a fabric shaver, iron, or handheld steamer.
I adore this set of five sturdy, natural hyacinth storage baskets with built-in handles that come in 3 sizes! With five baskets, you can fill one with microfiber cleaning cloths, reusable mop pads, light bulbs, or other household supplies.
Drying Rack and Hangers
Adding a drying rack to your space is one of the best laundry room storage ideas for small rooms. Delicates always need to be air dried to prevent shrinking or ruining certain types of fabric.
But who wants to hang wet clothes in their closet or cramp their laundry room with a huge drying rack? Each of these wall-mounted options for a laundry room drying rack takes up no floor space!
Whether you add a simple peg rack, an easy foldable laundry rack, a collapsible laundry drying rack, or an extendable drying rack, you’ll be glad you did.
Lint Remover & Bin
A lint remover brush and a little lint bin are, comically, a laundry room must-have. I’ll be the first to admit that I walked from the laundry room to the kitchen every time I emptied the dryer to toss out lint – for years! What a waste of time, Ha Ha!
Lint boxes are a great small laundry room idea, with the ability to wall hang or magnetically stick to the dryer or washing machine!
Slim Modern Lint Bin Set
This sleek, space-saving lint bin can effortlessly attach to the side of your washer or dryer, or easily mount it on a wall. (hardware and lint brush included).
Magnetic Lint Box With Lid
This lint box and brush set comes in 4 colors and can be mounted to the wall or stuck to the dryer with magnets and a lid that easily opens and closes.
Laundry Storage Bins
While storage baskets are great for organizing things we don’t reach for daily, labeled storage bins and containers are ideal for functionality.
Clear Labeled Laundry Jars
Clear laundry jars with labels come in handy for storing essentials like laundry detergent. They make it easy to see when an item is running low!
Labeled Laundry Bins
Labeled laundry storage bins help hold items such as wool dryer balls that reduce drying time and soften clothes naturally.
These laundry room storage ideas are just the beginning. Keep reading for tips, recipes, and hacks to breeze through your laundry routine!
How To Simplify Your Laundry Routine
Establishing an organized laundry room is a great place to begin. But no one wants to live with heaps of (dirty or clean) laundry piling up in their home. Not me, not you, not your neighbor.
So, skip the chaos with laundry tips, DIY recipes, and a laundry routine that fits your needs.
Start With Less
This may come as a no-brainer, but when was the last time you went through everyone’s clothes? I use the changing of the seasons to remind me to sort through our clothing. Turning to a strategy similar to the Maria Kondo method: sort clothes into 4 piles with these tips.
TIPS
- Worn Out – Holes or stains you couldn’t remove? Toss it!
- Out of Season – Keeping clothing that isn’t comfortable for the current season in your closet or dresser drawers will just end up in the laundry. So, store it.
- Donate – If an item no longer fits you or your style, or in the case of children, that won’t fit next season – donate it.
- Keep – if it doesn’t fit in the first 3 categories and you’ve worn it in the last six months, keep it.
Sort Laundry From The Start
Does dirty laundry pile up on the floor of your laundry room? (Hey, at least it’s in the right room.) It’s a good idea to have laundry hampers where you need them.
SORT LAUNDRY
If there is only one hamper for all the laundry, it will quickly fill up! Having separate hampers in main locations is an effortless way to start sorting laundry.
- Master Closet
- Kids’ Bedrooms or Closet
- Kitchen Pantry Or Under The Sink
- Kids Bathroom
- Mudroom
- Master Bath
- Laundry room
Make Sorting Easier
Using a rolling laundry hamper with multiple sections can make sorting even easier! With it you can sort each clothing hamper by warm colors, cool colors, whites, or delicates before washing in a flash.
Pre-Treat Stains
I hate to say it, but pre-treating stains as soon as possible is a must! This minimizes the need for multiple washes or excessive scrubbing. Grab my go-to natural stain remover recipe, plus the best tips for getting out even the toughest stains. (Oh, and if you have to scrub, use a soft-bristle laundry stain brush.)
Use One Simple Laundry Detergent
Yeah, yeah, I’m going to go against the grain and say you’ll save yourself the hassle and money by using one simple laundry detergent that works for every member of the family. My natural laundry detergent recipe is gentle enough to use for little ones and delicates.
Cold Water Wash
Wash EVERYTHING but sheets and towels in cold water. This reduces energy use, prevents colors from fading, and helps make clothes last longer.
Skip Fabric Softeners & Dryer Sheets
Hear me out! Keep your laundry routine simple by not using fabric softener or dryer sheets. These products are known to contain irritating chemicals and coatings that can prevent clothes from getting clean the more you use them.
Swap them for reusable wool dryer balls to soften clothes naturally, minimize wrinkles, eliminate static, and decrease drying time! If you love the smell of fresh laundry, make your own natural laundry scent booster.
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Hang Dry When Possible
Our electric company shares an annual energy review. I was shocked to learn that drying laundry was in our top 3 usages! Hang dry when possible to reduce energy waste and wear on clothing.
Tips
- Install a collapsible laundry drying rack in your laundry room to hang dry as much as you can while saving space.
- Consider line drying outdoors in warm weather with an innovative retractable clothesline!
- Use an easy handheld steamer to steam dry clothes and remove wrinkles in seconds!!
Creating A Laundry Routine
Establishing a laundry routine is the key to staying on top of it! Banish overwhelm and create a satisfying laundry schedule with these ideas.
Laundry Schedule Ideas You Can Adopt
No matter how you go about it, choosing a laundry routine can give you guidance and peace of mind.
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Now you can benefit from these laundry essentials and tips that help keep our laundry room organized and make the task much more manageable.