My Laundry Room: The Good, the Bad, and My Wish List

My laundry room is a working space. It doesn't look like those seen in magazine spreads, featuring images of gorgeous rooms to be shown off to guests. Nonetheless, I'm extremely grateful to have a laundry room. For the eight years that we lived in rentals, I hauled our laundry to a nearby laundromat on a twice-a-week basis, even with all of our babies in cloth diapers. So, to even have a spot in the house where a washer and dryer could be hooked up is fantastic. I'll tell you a little more about my laundry room, some of the frugal things that transpire in there, and what I'd like to change about it.

The Good

My laundry room is between the kitchen and the garage, which makes it easily accessible for my work.

The laundry room also has a half-bath attached which is primarily used for visitors. 

I think the previous owners used these hooks on the wall for jackets, hats and scarves. We use them for a variety of hanging needs -- hanging some of our laundry to dry, the occasional umbrella, and to hang a couple of bags to hold dirty rags and used latex gloves until I can wash a load.

About the latex gloves -- we're continuing to wear gloves when we go out to get necessities, unload the trunk of groceries from curbside pick-ups, travel on public transportation, work in-person for my daughters, as well as when cleaning the house. I bought 2 boxes of gloves in the spring. When I realized how quickly we were going through them all, I began washing them after each wearing. 

After we use a pair of gloves, we put them in the bag on the wall hook along with the cleaning rags. Rags and gloves get washed in hot water together. The gloves are pulled out of the washer and placed on top of the dryer to air dry, while the rags dry in the dryer. After the gloves have dried, I put them in a jar labeled "clean gloves" which normally is kept on a stand by the door. We don't want to use up supply that is needed by health care workers, so are willing to wash, dry, and reuse the gloves that we did buy. Wearing gloves may seem like overkill, but no one really knows how the new variants are more contagious, just that they are. Our family chooses to be more cautious.

Our washer and dryer are 26 year-old Maytags, made back when Maytags really were Maytags. Who remembers the lonely Maytag repairman? The guy was lonely because he was rarely called out for repairs. My husband has done the very few repairs that have been necessary. We intend to keep these running for as long as possible. 

There's a 5-inch gap between the two units. Not terribly attractive, but this is where we stash the tabletop ironing board, a sweater drying rack, a broom, and the Swiffer mop. I'm trying to make use of the available space.

There are two jugs of laundry detergent/soap kept on the dryer. The smaller one (yellow cap) is commercial detergent that my daughter bought in order to keep her newest white t-shirt white. The larger one is full of homemade soap. I melt a bar of ivory soap in a pot of water on the stove, then I thin with lots of water and add a small amount of commercial detergent or liquid dish soap to boost cleaning effectiveness. (We acquired a bunch of samples of fragrance-free detergent last year. I add 2 sample packs to each bottle of melted soap.) My husband says he prefers the homemade soap mixture. I prefer it on towels, sheets, underwear, socks, and t-shirts. It keeps those items super soft. I should mention, we have soft water here. I suspect that melted bar soap would not clean as well in hard water.

This is one of two laundry racks. We keep the other in a corner of the kitchen for drying sweaters, large plastic bags, and tablecloths. In summer, I use both of the racks to dry additional items in the sun on the deck.

The cabinet in the laundry room is an all-purpose cleaning supply and household stuff cabinet. 

These are our cleaning rags. They include worn clothing items, old bathroom and kitchen towels, and a couple of microfiber towels. I don't bother to fold them simply because I'd rather do other things with my time. I just stuff them into the space -- it works for us.

As you can see, I have an assortment of cleaning supplies, from bars of soap, hand sanitizers and rubbing alcohol, to Mrs. Meyer's sprays, bath and tile sprays, sponges, and jugs of bleach.

On the bottom shelf is a rubbermaid container used for making bleach wipes for wiping the knobs and switches in our house. There's a pair of heavy duty gloves sitting on top of the container for wearing when using the bleach wipes. 

The previous owners had painted the laundry room blue. About a dozen years ago, I painted the walls pale yellow and trim white. With so many of our days feeling dark to me in the PNW, I thought pale yellow would feel like the sun was shining, even when it's not.

The Bad

The laundry room is small and doesn't have a door to close off its noise from the rest of the house.

The access to the powder room is through the laundry room.

The only counter area for folding clean laundry is on top of the washer and dryer. And clean, dry laundry often sits in a basket on the floor for days before any of it is folded.

There's no space for a sorting area, so we keep our dirty laundry in other spots in the house. But maybe that's a good thing, as guests have to go through the laundry room to access the half-bath.

It needs something to liven it up.

I need to organize the cabinet space better. The second to the bottom shelf has cans of paint, car stuff, and other items that could really be stored elsewhere. I just need to do the work.

My Wish List

I'd like to add some shelves or a cabinet on the wall above the dryer. Any suggestions?

I'd also like a larger window above the washer. The current window is small and a bit high on the wall.

And I'd like a better storage place for the mop and broom, perhaps on the inside of the door of the tall cabinet.

Obviously, I'd love a larger laundry room, with space for a waist-high countertop and a bench to sit and take off shoes or boots. But that's much more than is possible, given our space.

Tell me about your laundry space -- the good, the bad, and your wish list.