6 Clever Laundry Basket Storage Ideas
Make laundry less of a chore by using these tips to store your baskets out of sight.
Doing laundry can feel like an endless task. However, there are moments of reprieve between loads of clothes, sheets, and towels. Perhaps you’ve mastered the art of concealing your laundry room behind a door or it’s tucked away in a closet so it's out of sight, out of mind. But if the hampers and baskets of dirty items are scattered throughout the house, you still have an obvious reminder of the daunting chore.
Luckily, there are simple ways to disguise your laundry baskets, allowing you to keep things tidy and avoid visual clutter. Use our best laundry basket storage ideas in your household to get organized between wash days.
1. Conceal in a Cabinet
One of the best ways to camouflage baskets is by using cabinets in your laundry room. If you’re designing a laundry room from scratch, consider asking your contractor to include this with the design. Otherwise, if you’re the handy type, you can tackle this DIY project with an existing cabinet. A hidden hamper (or hampers if you want to assign one per family member or to better sort your stuff) slides out from the cabinet or tilts towards you when you open it. Think of this similar to a garbage can that’s tucked away in a kitchen cabinet, except for your dirty T-shirts in lieu of trash.
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2. Hide in Plain Sight
If you like the idea of secret laundry basket storage but currently have no plans to remodel, look for a piece of furniture to hide your hamper instead. These freestanding cabinets can be as wide or tall as needed or as space allows. Find one in a style and size that works for your space while considering the number of hampers you'll need to incorporate. Some smaller, narrow units can fit in a bathroom but only include a single hidden basket. Others are larger and come with two or three compartments, making a hallway an option for storage. Use the surface to place decorative items and guests will be none the wiser.
3. Use a Central Cubby Hub
While not as concealed, this method for laundry basket storage corrals all hampers in the house to keep them tidy. Use existing open shelves, whether within your laundry room or a separate storage piece such as a bookcase, and take measurements of the height, width, and depth. Find baskets that fit the dimensions and tuck them onto the shelves. Place a label on each basket so there’s no question as to whose hamper is whose or which one is for towels as opposed to sheets. If the hampers are fabric, use a clip-on label or consider getting them monogrammed. Plastic baskets can be marked with basic label tape or, if you swap them around, simply label the shelf itself.
Marty Baldwin
4. Opt for a Pop-Up
A collapsible container is an easy and inexpensive way to maximize space. This laundry basket storage idea is best used to transport clothes or linens from the dryer or drying rack to your closets or dressers. Say you’ve implemented a hidden hamper system, and now you need a way to get clean items back to their home without fuss. A pop-up laundry basket does the job and folds down when not in use. Slide it under the bed, in a closet, or on a laundry room shelf.
You can also find upright versions with handles and wheels. Roll the cart to the bedroom, collapse it when you’ve taken everything out, then slide it back into the sliver of space between the washing machine and the wall.
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5. Roll It Away
A basket on wheels can make doing laundry a bit less tedious. Find a few hampers with casters and glide them under a countertop or into closets. If your laundry room has a folding table, this would be the perfect spot to line them up while keeping floor space clear. Or leave a little room at the base of a closet to roll one in and out when it’s laundry day. Have kids who don’t always put their dirty socks in the hamper? Make a game out of it, letting them toss items in like shooting a ball into a hoop.
6. Elevate Your Machines
Putting your washer and dryer on a pedestal provides additional storage space beneath to install pull-out drawers. Adding a laundry basket or hamper underneath is another genius way to maximize space. Not only will you reduce the number of steps you have to take to pop things in the wash, but transferring them from the washer to the dryer requires less bending since the machines can be installed at arm’s reach.