My Favorite Ways to Upgrade a Laundry Room on a Budget

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As anyone who’s ever had to schlep their dirty linens to a laundromat knows, having in-house laundry is a godsend. But the convenience of doing laundry whenever you feel like it starts to feel less convenient if you're lacking in the necessary storage, shelving, or work space. If a total laundry room renovation isn't in the budget, though, don't fret: You can upgrade your home's laundry hub with just a few relatively inexpensive additions. Combined with some fresh paint and some other low-cost improvements, you can have a more beautiful and functional laundry area on a small budget.

Use pedestal storage underneath your washer and dryer

If you’ve got a separate washer and dryer setup in your laundry area, picking up some appliance pedestals with built-in drawers is an easy way to add some useful storage. You’ll need to measure vertically in your laundry space to make sure you’ve got the required height, and you’ll probably need some help moving and lifting the appliances into place. But once that’s done, you’ll not only have a place to store all those unsightly bottles of detergent and other stuff, it will be easier to load and unload your clothes because you won’t have to bend down so far.

Add shelves behind the laundry room door

If your laundry area is its own room with a door, you can maximize your storage space by adding a slim shelving unit behind the door. It will be just deep enough to hold all your laundry materials, cleaning up the area without taking up any valuable floor space.

Install shelves over your washer and dryer

If your laundry area lacks storage, you’ve got a few options. One of the easiest things you can do is to add a countertop over your washer and dryer set. This could be as DIY as cutting a slab of wood or using a leftover remnant from a kitchen remodel, or you could purchase a topper with edge rails like this one. This instantly transforms the top of your appliances into a usable flat surface that won’t let things slide off as soon as you turn your back. If you have more vertical space and need more options, a tiered over-the-appliance shelf system is a great option, giving you multiple shelves plus hanging rods to get everything off the floor and organized.

Add a space-saving ironing center

Even if you only iron your clothes once in a while, having a real ironing board makes a huge difference, and having that ironing board conveniently located near your laundry is ideal. If you have nothing but space, you can just have a board set up, of course, but if you don’t have a ton of space, or you’re just looking to keep the place tidy, you could opt for an over-the-door ironing board or a wall-mounted version like this. The board folds up when not in use, but is always easily accessible.

If you want a fancy version, you could install the Iron-A-Way Ironing Center, which is pricey and probably requires professional installation, as it’s designed to recess into the wall and connect to the home’s power.

Try a portable sink in your laundry room

Having a utility sink in the laundry area is great—it lets you rinse out clothes, clean up detergent spills, and wet-scrub stains right there. If your laundry area isn’t plumbed, you might not relish the idea of hiring a plumber to run water and drain lines for a sink—but you don’t have to. This portable sink can give you that basic functionality without any wiring or plumbing. Just fill it with water, charge it using a USB-C cable, and place it in your laundry area to use whenever you need it.

Install a clothing drying rack

It’s a simple addition, but having a place to hang clothes to dry right there in the laundry area is a great convenience. You can buy a freestanding drying rack, of course, but as an upgrade, consider a wall-mounted option instead. This one from mDesign looks great and folds up when not in use.

Pick up some laundry detergent dispensers

Dispensing liquid detergent can get messy, and when you’re in a rush, those measurements can get sloppy, too, leaving you with insufficient detergent for the load or wasting detergent, running up your costs. This rechargeable electronic detergent dispenser fits on top of most plastic detergent bottles and dispenses precise amounts of detergent with the touch of a button. If that’s a bit too fancy for your laundry area, you could pick up a cheap dispenser cup holder like this to make it a little easier and neater to fill your detergent cups.

Add a freestanding island to your laundry room

If you need some folding and storage space in your laundry area but there’s no vertical or wall options, take some inspiration from your kitchen and bring in a freestanding island or laundry cart. This one from Kitsorack is a clothes hamper with a shelf, so you can stuff your dirty clothes in there and have your supplies stored on top, but any mobile cart or island will make your laundry area more usable.