7 Cheap Ways to Upgrade Your Laundry Room

A laundry basket against a white brick wall.

The laundry room is often a neglected area of the home, a forgotten corner of the house where things tend to pile up. But your laundry room can actually be a pretty space and a high-functioning part of your house—even if you haven’t got a lot of money to spend on fixing it up. Discover seven cheap ways to upgrade your laundry room, and get a lot more out of this commonly neglected space.

1. Hang Wire Shelves

Laundry rooms have a way of collecting clutter. They turn into storage rooms for all that stuff you can't put anywhere else. And this is going to happen no matter what you do, so embrace it. Install wire shelves in your laundry room to give yourself more storage space and plenty of places to put things. Wire shelves are very cheap, and they can be put up quickly to instantly transform your space. The good thing about wire shelves is that you can also use them to hold hangers.

2. Use Paint

So maybe you can't afford to get that stainless steel washer and dryer...or could you? With stainless steel paint, no one's going to know the difference. This can instantly give your laundry room a totally high-end look at a fraction of the price. When applied correctly and evenly, stainless steel paint can look just about as good as the real thing.

3. Add a Hanger Bar

Shirts hanging on a bar to dry in a laundry room.

Make life a little easier, and put up a bar for hangers in the laundry room. All you need is an adjustable shower curtain rod. Install it anywhere you'd like to have a bar for hanging clothes, and make it a lot easier and more convenient to hang up clothing after it's been washed. Shower curtain rods are very easy to install and hold a moderate amount of weight.

4. Get Creative Under Your Cabinets

Add a little bit of extra storage to any laundry room with under-cabinet wire shelves. They're very cheap and simply designed: you simply slide them into place directly under a cabinet. These little shelves sit just under cabinets to extend your storage space. This is a great spot to keep cleaning cloths, dryer sheets, and the other odds and ends that accumulate in any laundry room.

5. Hooks

Add hooks to the walls and doors to give yourself more room. Hooks allow you to hang up shirts, socks, bras, and all kinds of clothing items and accessories, so you can use the walls to save valuable space everywhere else.

6. Use Glass Jars

Laundry room accessories including clothing pins and detergent in a glass jar.

Who says the laundry room has to be an ugly room? Instead of cardboard containers, use glass jars to hold your detergent. Fill up individual glass jars with powder, liquid detergent, or pods, and suddenly your soap is more like a display item. Add labels if needed so you remember what's in your jars. A word of caution: don't put bleach in a jar. This is a dangerous and toxic chemical, and you always want it to remain in a clearly-marked container for everyone's safety.

7. Install an Extra Ledge

Add a little extra space just for your stuff, whether it's a tablet, your phone or whatever you happen to be carrying with you to the laundry room. This is great for watching a tablet or phone while folding, and it’s nice just to have an extra space to put things down when needed. Use L brackets to put up a small shelf under a window or over one of your machines, and give yourself a convenient little spot to rest your phone as you listen to that podcast while matching socks.

Add some cheap upgrades to your laundry room and add a lot of high-functioning beauty to your space. Your laundry room can definitely become a whole lot more than the sum of its parts, and those cheap upgrades can make the room really feel a lot more high-end. Because who says you should forget about the laundry room when you can make it a great part of your home instead?