Must-Have Laundry Room Accessories

A part of a room's design and decoration is its furniture. Living rooms need sofas and chairs, dining rooms need tables and chairs and so on. But some rooms require less of furniture and more of accessories and items. Such as the kitchen and the laundry room.

The laundry room involves handling a lot of clothes, sorting and arranging them, washing and then putting them away, either through folding or ironing. So what items should such a room possess, to manage unclean and washed clothes easily?

Dirty clothes that need to be washed, should have a point or location of collection. If you leave it up to kids, teens, or even some adults, the laundry collection point is either the floor, the bottom of the closet, or hanging dirty stuff behind the door.

Save yourself the task of searching for dirty laundry, instead place laundry baskets and hampers in each room or at a central location. Laundry bins come in different shapes and sizes, from foldable cloth or mesh bags to large wicker baskets and plastic hampers.

Laundry needs to be transported from the bin to the washer and then from the washer to the dryer or the area where you dry the clothes out. The accessory for this transporting duty is a laundry cart or trolley.

A rolling laundry cart is easy to roll around and move heavy wet laundry, taking the laundry load off your shoulders. If your laundry room is short of space, then try to get a foldable laundry caddie, so you can easily put it away.

A sorter is not an essential laundry room accessory but has gained popularity in households as it can effectively store and sort piles of laundry from various bins and hampers.

Based on the number of bins/bags (three-bin sorter, double bag sorter), you can sort out laundry into darks, whites, and delicates, or inner and outer wear, or kids and adult laundry stacks. You can opt for a wheelie sorter or a hamper stay-in-one-place sorter.

To save space, find an over-the-door rack or fix a towel bar behind the door, to dry clothes. Use walls to hang clothes by fixing an iron rod on the wall, then hang clothes on the rod using hangers. For drying small pieces of clothing like undergarments and socks, use an accessories dryer which allows you to clip small clothes onto a large frame with a hook.

Clothes should be folded as soon as they are dried. So it makes sense to have a smooth, flat surface in your laundry room, so you can quickly fold away freshly laundered clothes and sort them out. Make sure you get a folding table suitably high enough, so you avoid bending your back as you fold.

If space is a problem, then try to get a store-away folding table. An even better space-saving idea is to buy a magnetic folding board. It will stick to your washer or dryer's surface and will save your floor space, as compared to a table.

A foldable leg ironing board can be assembled, used and then folded to store away easily. You can also hang it by a hook on the wall. Check if there is a place on the board to set the hot iron when not in use. Cover the board when not in use. A wall-mounted ironing board is possible, if there is enough standing room to pull the board off the wall and use it.

If you have a folding table, get a tabletop ironing board, which is compact enough to use on the table directly. It can then be hung on the wall by a hook. For a smart and ultra-portable ironing board, opt for a magnetic foldable ironing mat. You can use it on the flat metal surface of a washing machine or dryer as it is heat-resistant.

The following list of laundry room accessories are a mixed bag of items, that every laundry room should have:

• A small wall-mounted cupboard would do for storing detergent, soap, clothespins etc. If floor space is available, opt for a little cabinet that will fit into the extra space.

• A slip-resistant mat or rug keeps your laundry room's floor clean and prevents nasty accidents. Choose rug fabrics which can be easily washed and used.
• If you have a front-load washer or dryer, then use the space on top of the machine by installing a countertop. You can place laundry supplies on it and use the space to fold clothes.

• For stitching up small tears or fixing buttons, you can keep a small sewing machine or just a sewing kit in your laundry room.
• Delicate clothes and undergarments can be destroyed or at least damaged in a vigorous washing cycle. You can use fine mesh wash bags with rustproof zips, to hold such garments in the washer.

• Keep your clothespins in one place, with a small mesh bag or clothespin bag. You can either hang up the bag on the clothesline or place it on a shelf.
• To quickly mop up soapy spills and clean up your laundry room's floor, keep a brush and dustpan or mop handy.

• Socks, gloves, mittens... these clothes come in pairs. But it is difficult to find a matching sock or glove in a pile of washed laundry. Here's where sock clips come in handy, clip together socks before washing them, to avoid losing one of a pair.
• Keep your washer and dryer safe from scratches and dust with a washable cover.

• Remove lint from your freshly-washed clothes with a lint roller. Keep one handy in your laundry room.
• For soaking or rinsing clothes before a wash, it helps to have a small sink or washtub in the laundry room. Make sure the sink can be connected to a ready water source and drain.

• Mount shelves on walls to save counter space and keep laundry supplies at easy reach. You can use small plastic boxes or containers to separate out the supplies. Hanging wire racks on the wall, is another organization idea.
• Remember to keep your laundry room kid-safe, by using childproof locks on cupboards and keeping shelves at a kid-unreachable height.

A laundry room can be a cozy and convenient hideaway, if you choose to decorate it accordingly. Aside from the standard accessories, you can add a few personal touches, like a small music system or using a decorative wallpaper on the walls.