25 Inexpensive Laundry Room Updates You Can DIY

Tips for the Perfect Laundry Room

This laundry room has several clever tips you can put to work in your own laundry area. In this space, we placed laundry baskets on open shelves to keep the baskets off the floor. Or make runners for the baskets to slide on by modifying the wooden tracks. You can also make fun cabinet door pulls from clothespins attached to ó-in. lengths of wooden dowel. These concealed kitchen storage tips will help you free up space in your kitchen, too.

DIY Washboard Memo Station and Cupboard

Use this DIY vintage washboard memo station project as your one stop shop before you leave the house and customize it to fit your specific needs. This project would also look great in a laundry room as a clever storage solution. This is the best laundry trick you’ve never heard of.

Create an Ironing Center

To keep your ironing gear handy but out from underfoot, make this simple ironing center in a couple of hours. All you need is a 10-ft. 1×8, a 2-ft. piece of 1×6 for the shelves and a pair of hooks to hang your ironing board. Here are 10 laundry mistakes you didn’t know you were making.

Instant Drying Rack

Does your family have a lot of clothes that cannot be put in the drier? Even those collapsible drying racks with several bars for draping wet clothes still aren’t enough for big laundry days. To fix your air-drying space shortage:

1. Grab a 1×2 board from your scrap stash in the garage
2. Trim it to fit across a few joists overhead in your basement laundry room.
3. Tack it in place with a heavy-duty nail in each joist.
4. Then you can air-dry several more pieces of clothing using hangers!

A Well Lit Space

Mount battery-operated under-cabinet puck lights to brighten up your work area. Speaking of brightening, this product will whiten your clothes without using bleach!

Skinny Laundry Room Cart

A lot of laundry rooms have a narrow wasted space either next to or between the washing machine and dryer, and it’s usually a hideout for socks and lint. To take advantage of this space, build a simple plywood laundry room cart on fixed casters to hold detergents and other laundry supplies. Fill it with the 5 safest laundry detergents you can buy.

Write Notes on the Washer

Stop shrinking your sweaters! When you put a load of clothes into your washing machine, use a dry-erase marker to note on the lid which items should not go into the dryer. That way, whoever switches the load from the washing machine to the dryer will know which items to leave out for line drying. The enamel finish on most washing machine lids is similar to a whiteboard, and dry-erase markers can be removed easily with a dry paper towel. Here are 20 other uses for those dryer sheets.

Up and Out of the Way

Hang an ironing board on double coat hooks from the hardware store. This will keep this otherwise in the way tool up and out of the way. Simply hang the double coat hooks wherever you have space in your laundry room. Did you know you can use your ironing board in the kitchen, too?

DIY Washer Pedestal

Pedestals for front-loading washing machines and dryers can cost hundreds. Save your money—you can build your own bases from standard lumber in an hour. Here’s how to build these pedestals.

Cardboard Box Bag Dispenser

Need a way to store all of those plastic bags you get from most stores? Here’s an idea: Straighten them out and stack them into an organized pile. Then place the pile in a small cardboard box. Cut a hole in the box so you can pull out one bag at a time as you need it. This plastic bag dispenser would be handy in the basement or wherever you keep your cat’s litter box or near your dog’s leash. Then you’ll have a stash of bags ready when it’s time to clean up after your pet. Use this laundry trick to remove pet hair from your clothes and bedding.

Pretty and Practical Box Shelves

These simple box shelves work equally well in a formal setting and a utilitarian room, like the laundry or garage. They offer an unlimited number of uses and arrangements. Hang some above the washer and dryer to store detergent, dryer sheets and other laundry room necessities without taking up any valuable floor space. These are the 50 best storage containers to get your house in order.

Paint Stick to Clean Lint Buildup

Even if you empty your dryer’s lint trap before each load, chances are there is still lint buildup around the area that could potentially cause a fire. So it’s important to deep clean the area once in a while, and this handy hint will get the job done. Wrap a clean rag around one end of a paint stir stick. Remove the lint trap and clean out the area with the rag-covered stick. To help the lint stick to the rag, dampen it with water first. Plus, check out these other dryer lint cleaning tips.

Bright Ideas for Organizing Your Laundry Room

With a plan, a pegboard and a few space-saving tricks, these bright ideas will turn a laundry room into a homey organized hub for washing up.

Simple Hack to Make Any Rug Extra Comfortable

Want to make any rug feel extra plush and luxurious? Add a layer of carpet padding underneath your rug—it’s thicker and cheaper than a typical rug pad. The next time you wash and fold that pile of clothes, your feet will thank you. Check out these home decor trends you’ll probably see this year.

Organize Cleaning Supplies

It can be difficult to keep spray bottles, laundry detergent and other cleaning supplies from falling over and making a mess under your kitchen sink. To keep your cleaning supplies upright, hang them from a short tension rod inside your cabinet. Another clever idea is to slide a paper towel roll through the tension rod for easy access. Here are 21 Container Store products that professional organizers use in their own home.

Behind-the-Door Shelves

The space behind a door is a storage spot that’s often overlooked. Build a set of shallow shelves and mount it to the wall behind your laundry room door for some clever small room organization space. The materials are inexpensive. Here’s how to build these behind-the-door shelves.

A Laundry Workbench

This sturdy workbench is not just for carpentry—it’s also perfect as a potting bench or laundry room table. If you want a surface that’s easy to clean and protects against spills, apply two coats of polyurethane varnish to the top and the shelves. We used a water-based finish that dried quickly and was hard as nails by the next day.

Say Goodbye to Wrinkles

Ditch the time-consuming iron or handheld steamer to get wrinkles out of a shirt or slacks. Throw a few ice cubes or a wet washcloth in the dryer with your wrinkled clothes. As the ice melts and the water turns to steam, it will remove the wrinkles. This trick isn’t as effective with heavier clothing but is a miracle for lighter fabrics. The best part is that you don’t have to set the dryer for longer than 10 minutes for it to work. However, make sure you never put these 14 things in your dryer.

Above Units Clothes Storage

Folding hanger rods collapse against the wall when they’re not in use, saving valuable space in tiny rooms. They’re great for wet clothes and sporting gear. The Arrow Hanger single- and double-hanger versions shown are available on Amazon.

Quick Drying Laundry Hack

Waiting for clothes to dry is annoying, especially if you’re in a hurry. A solution is to throw in a dry towel with the rest of the wet laundry to speed up the process. Or, you could use one of these 9 ways to dry clothes without a dryer.

Homemade Laundry Detergent that Actually Works

Making homemade laundry detergent can help save you money, not to mention you can eliminate harmful ingredients that can hurt the environment and cause skin irritation. Plus, once you have the ingredients on hand, it’s easy to make. Here’s how to make this DIY laundry detergent.

Slide Out Laundry Hamper

Keep your dirty clothes off the floor with this slide-out laundry hamper! Simply use a garbage cabinet rollout system and replace the trash bin with a laundry bag. Check out these 11 brilliant cleaning tips we learned from grandma.

Convert an Unfinished Laundry Area Into a Laundry Room

Create a fresh, clean workspace in your laundry room. We walk you through the toughest part—reworking the plumbing and adding the new sink. Follow these how-to photos and instructions to turn your unfinished laundry area into a finished laundry room that’ll better meet your needs. This is the best way to keep your towels fresh and fluffy.

Stop Losing Socks

Stuff a strip of foam pipe insulation into the space between your washer and dryer or along the wall. That way, socks can’t slip into the abyss. Here are some of the top cleaning products of the year.

Drying Rack for Delicates

When its arms are open, this compact drying rack looks a little like an octopus! The top hook goes over a shower curtain rod and the clips hold light items. When everything’s dry, fold it up and you can use it as a regular hanger. Get this drying rack on Amazon.

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Elizabeth Flaherty