Ditch Bulky Shelves: A Smarter, Foldable Way To Add Storage To Small Laundry Rooms

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Few people enjoy doing laundry, but even those who do will agree that working in a small, cluttered laundry room makes the chore worse. Small laundry rooms often face two main issues: lack of storage and lack of usable surfaces. Open shelving offers easily-accessible storage, but can crowd tight laundry rooms. A table for folding is pretty much out of the question in very cramped spaces. For those in search of budget-friendly small laundry room ideas, there's a solution that lets you have both: open shelving when you want it, and your space back when you need it. Folding brackets are the secret to creating flexible and practical laundry room storage.

This project from dragonlordofczar shows an excellent storage hack for your small laundry room. They use a folding bracket to create shelves that can click up into place when they need them, and fold down parallel to the wall to get them out of the way. The CLT Folding Shelf Bracket is an example of this type of bracket. This one supports up to 550 pounds, and we recommend selecting a similar heavy-duty option for laundry rooms. These types of brackets also come in various sizes, allowing you to pick a depth to suit your space. Any sturdy shelf can work for this project, and you can choose the shelf width and length depending on your available space and the bracket size. At around $30 for two shelves, the Dinzi LVJ Wall Shelves are an affordable choice.

To elevate the project even more, choose wood art panels like the Deco 79 Wood Floral Wall Decor. This type of decorative wood piece can double as wall art and shelving: wall art when the bracket is down, and a usable surface when it's up. Another option is to follow the lead of fancyfixdecor, who mounts a tabletop on the brackets instead of a shelf. This is ideal if you need a work surface more than extra storage. Lastly, another creative option is to mount an ironing board on the brackets, giving this bulky necessity a home and freeing up other storage space in the room.

Placement and layout options are plentiful with this project idea. You can squeeze a shelf or tabletop anywhere you have the wall space to do so (and have suitably-spaced studs for heavy tabletops or brackets). You can mix and match the ideas above, installing shelves up high and a fold-up table at counter-height. Add a rail along the front of an upper shelf or folding hooks along the bottom to create secure spots to hang laundry from hangers. Install shelves above your washer and dryer for holding baskets of laundry until wash day, and then you can have the satisfaction of tucking the shelves away when all the laundry is done. If you're working on a full laundry room makeover, consider some stylish ways to hide your bulky washer and dryer.