Laundry Room Ideas for an Overloaded Home

Raise your hand if you're desperate for some clever laundry organisation ideas.

If you think about it, as housewives we spend half our time in the kitchen preparing meals and probably just as much time busy with laundry. Yet most people put a great deal of thought, time and money into a functional kitchen, and far less into a laundry room or system.

Find your own system first

Some do bulk laundry on one or two days a week; others do a load or two a day. Some prefer all the hampers in one central place with designated areas for whites, darks and colours. Others find it unreasonable for dirty laundry to travel that far, and prefer the higher chance of laundry actually hitting the hamper by keeping one in each room.

Once you know your own laundry habits and beliefs, you can work out what laundry room or area you need.

Are you using what you have?

If you have a laundry room or a מסתור כביסה, count yourself lucky. But are you using it to the maximum?

I met a client who was the lucky owner of a מסתור כביסה, yet laundry was still drying all over the house and the dirty laundry was disorganised. By asking the right questions, brainstorming and taking measurements, I created a workable space for her: dirty laundry baskets on wheels, a folding area above the washer and dryer, a system for returning clean laundry, and provision for hanging outdoors as well as above the washer and dryer in winter.

Look what we gain by putting washer and dryer side by side — it creates space for hanging clothing above them. We also created outdoor washing lines outside a window that until then had simply not been used.

Three practical fixes

Give the laundry room a second door. The standard Israeli laundry room is often off the bathroom, together with the boiler. So the problem occurs: "Knock, knock — when will you be out? I need to get to the laundry." A laundry room off a bathroom always needs another entrance.

Raise the machines. Do you bend down to put cakes in the oven? Assuming a built-in oven, you don't. So think about a built-in washer and dryer, with the baskets resting on a pull-out shelf, so you do your laundry at eye level.

Use hall space. For those without a laundry room — how about taking some hall space for your laundry needs? Look how well used this hall space is on Rechov Ezras Torah: all the hamper systems, the piles to be folded hidden behind the triss, and the built-in ironing board at just the right height. Who wouldn't want to get the laundry done when it's all on a silver platter?

And one for everyone

You're living in Israel. You have a big heavy mamad door that's useless. You don't have a place for your laundry racks when they're not in use.

So: those heavy white metal doors can be the perfect place for those racks. Place the racks behind the door, attach a metal hook to the wall and a thin metal chain (available at Tambur) to the door handle, and your racks are safe and out of the way.

You're welcome.