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Small Laundry Room Ideas | Rental Laundry Room Makeover

Over the summer I participated in the FrogTape® Paintover Challenge. The goal was to makeover a space with a $1500 budget. I knew right away that I’d makeover our small laundry room. Laundry rooms with lots of space and storage are such a luxury for so many of us. Unfortunately, they can be hard to find and they are especially rare in rental homes. Instead of wishing for more space, I decided to use all of the space in our small laundry room to create a functional space that we enjoy a lot more now than we did before. In this post, you’ll see our laundry room makeover but also several small laundry room ideas that you’ll be able to replicate in your own space.

Updating a small laundry room

Small Laundry Room Makeover

Our laundry room was one of the only untouched spaces left in our rental home. It wasn’t functional, had limited storage space, and was very dark and dreary looking.  Our laundry room is connected to our garage which is the primary entrance we use for our home.

The dryer has become a drop zone for keys, sunglasses, masks, and more. It was sloppy looking and hard to keep organized. Additionally, with just one overhead cabinet, we had a lot of wasted wall space that had the potential of being really useful. We made several updates that are completely reversible but they make this space more functional and easy on the eyes.

Small Laundry Room Ideas

Painting a small laundry room

There are so many ways these small updates completely transformed this space. First, the paint – the walls were brightened up with a soft and lovely blue paint color by Sherwin Williams called Stardew. We removed the dated cabinet doors and added additional shelving with baskets for storage. Since there is no space to keep laundry baskets, we utilized the space between the washer and dryer to add a hamper that we previously didn’t have in here. These are all great small laundry room ideas – the trick with small laundry rooms is that you need to utilize as much space as possible.

Small Laundry Room Organization

Adding a Floating Shelf to a small laundry room

Let’s talk about the floating shelves. The floating shelves are simply 1×10 pieces of wood cut to fit snugly in this space. I ordered these gold brackets for the shelves. When we installed the brackets we used our favorite wall anchors to make sure they are super secure. Since the bottom shelf fits the entire width of the room, we used three brackets for that shelf. On the top shelf, we used two. Using shelving like this allowed us to create a lot more storage space.

How to organize a small laundry room

Since this is a rental space, we couldn’t remove the entire cabinet so I opted to remove the cabinet doors. They are really outdated and just taking them off updates the space exponentially. I added some full removable wallpaper to the back of the cabinet for some visual interest. I love this cheerful lemon-printed wallpaper.

Small laundry room makeover

We also added a swing arm drying rack on one wall. Again, this space is really small so using this small wall space to include a drying rack was really smart and helpful. You can’t dry a lot on here but you can hang a shirt or two or a few delicate items. I stash a full-size drying rack and ironing board on the left of the dryer between the dryer and the wall but we rarely pull that out.

Storage in a small laundry room

Since there is virtually no counter space, I mentioned that our dryer becomes the catch-all for all of our things that we want to drop as we walk in the door or grab as we are running out. I added a few little bins above the dryer on the shelf to keep those items a little more organized. We keep sunglasses, masks, sanitizer, and sunscreen in these bins.

I’m really pleased with the look and more importantly, the function, of this laundry space. Sometimes, as a renter – I forget how important it is to create a space that’s as functional as possible even if the solutions are temporary. It’s worth the effort to create function and accessibility in a space like this so that you can spend more of your energy on other things instead of constantly battling the clutter.

Some space saving small laundry room ideas

What problems can you solve?

For our laundry room, the biggest problem that needed solving was everything needed a home. I found that certain zones in our laundry room would get cluttered easily, simply because we weren’t using the space to the best of it’s ability. Little laundry rooms can still be functional spaces.

Use as much vertical space as possible

My biggest tip for getting the most out of small laundry rooms is to maximize the use of vertical space. By using all of that wall space you can minimize clutter on the surfaces and on the ground. By adding the open shelves here with baskets, I was able to store things like our iron, dryer balls, and extra rags. These are all items that would be overflowing out of the single cabinet.

In fact, use all the available space you have

I say this because I think we often forget about little nooks and crannies that for sure be great space in small rooms. We didn’t have a hamper at all in our laundry room before this makeover. When I had dirty towels from the kitchen I would just set them on top of the washer. By using the space between the washer and dry to add a hamper I now have a place to toss dirty towels and clothes without cluttering up my washer or taking them upstairs. This seems like a really simple fix to a silly problem but it has been helpful.

Install a hanging drying rack

A pull-down drying rack would be ideal in a small laundry room. We didn’t have the wall space for a pull-down drying rack so, instead, I added this swing drying arm that is a great alternative for a small laundry room. It can hold a shirt or two at a time or several delicate items. We have a standing drying rack that I use weekly for my other clothing that needs to be air-dried.

Decant items into appropriate containers

Laundry soap, fabric softener, and other laundry essentials don’t always come in the most convenient packaging. When you can, decant these items into containers that are more appropriate for your space. We use detergent pods and the container doesn’t fit properly in the cabinet. I decant the pods into the little jars I have on the shelving. It’s more easily accessible in this space and it’s prettier too. I put all of our laundry supplies in miscellaneous baskets.

Since making these changes, I look forward to laundry day (I mean every day is laundry day in our home)! Do you have any tips for creating a functional and beautiful small laundry room? I have 13 more ideas for making a small laundry room more functional if you need even more inspiration. Is there anything I didn’t touch on that you rely on in your small laundry room? I’d love to hear what’s working for you in the comments below!

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2 Comments

  1. Hi! Can you link the gold brackets you used with the 1×10 floating shelves? They look great!

    Thanks!