In many Austin and San Antonio homes, the laundry room is the one space no one really planned. It was sized to fit a washer and dryer, given a single wire shelf, and then left to collect whatever the rest of the house had no place for, from detergent and dryer sheets to the vacuum and the pet food. Most small laundry rooms are not actually too small, though. They are under-organized, and with a thoughtful plan, you can store more in the same few square feet and finish the room as carefully as the rest of your home.
As the busy season approaches, guest towels, extra sheets, and wrapping paper all need somewhere to go, and it is easier to sort that out before family visits than while they are staying with you. Here are the small space laundry room storage ideas we plan with in homes across Central Texas, along with a few signs that you have outgrown your current layout.
Signs You Have Outgrown Your Laundry Room Layout
If you recognize two or three of these, your laundry room is ready for a real plan rather than another round of bins and baskets.
- You fold clothes on top of the dryer or carry baskets to the kitchen table, because there is no clear surface in the room.
- Cleaning supplies sit on the floor or under the kitchen sink, because the laundry room ran out of shelf space long ago.
- There is one shelf above your washer and dryer, or nothing at all, and the wall up to the ceiling goes unused.
- Clothes that need to hang dry end up draped over chairs and doorframes, because there is no rod to hang them on.
- The room has become a drop zone for anything without a home, and you close the door when guests come over.
Vertical Storage Ideas for a Small Laundry Room
In a small laundry room, much of the storage you need is above eye level. With cabinets mounted over the washer and dryer, you have space for detergent and stain removers, and extending that storage toward the ceiling you have a place for things you reach for less often, such as seasonal linens. Our designers can also add a custom shelf directly above the appliances, where you can set down a basket in the middle of a load.
If the room has space for it, a hanging rod beneath the upper cabinets lets you move shirts straight from the dryer to a hanger. On a narrow wall beside the machines, you can mount a slim track with hooks and hang a freshly ironed outfit or a drying rack without giving up floor space.
Custom Cabinetry Designed Around the Room You Have
Standard cabinets come in set widths, and in a tight laundry room the leftover gaps on either side are often where storage goes missing. Custom cabinetry is designed to the measurements of your room, so our designers can plan wall-to-wall storage that uses the full width of the space.
A tall cabinet with adjustable shelving is one of the more practical additions to a small space laundry room, because you can keep the broom, the mop, cleaning supplies, and tools behind a closed door. You can sort small items into drawers, separate lights and darks in hampers, and fold an ironing board away. Because the cabinetry is made for your home, you also choose the finish and hardware, so you can finish the laundry room as carefully as any other room.
If you are already picturing what you could store in your laundry room, our designers would be glad to walk you through the options. Visit our Austin or San Antonio showroom, or schedule a design consultation, and we will measure your space and plan it around the way you actually use it.
Planning a Folding Station in a Small Space
With a dedicated folding surface, you can handle laundry from start to finish in one room. Depending on your machines and the layout of the room, a custom-sized countertop gives you somewhere to sort, fold, and stack without carrying baskets through the house, with drawers or cabinets underneath to keep the surface clear. You can put that same counter to extra use in November and December as an impromptu gift-wrapping station, with paper, ribbon, and tape stored in the drawers below until the gifts are under the tree.
Planning Your Laundry Room as a Utility Area
In many homes, the laundry room is also the mudroom, the pantry overflow, or the path in from the garage. Too often, utility spaces are added during a home’s construction without the design attention given to the kitchen or the primary bath, which is why they are so often treated as leftover space. When you plan your small laundry room as a working utility area, you can account for everything you bring through it, from hooks near the garage door for bags and leashes to closed storage for pet supplies and extra linen storage for the guest towels that come out when family visits.
This approach is especially helpful if you have recently downsized or relocated, whether to a condo downtown or to a newer home in one of the growing suburbs around Austin or San Antonio, and your new laundry room is smaller than the one you left behind. Many newer homes across Central Texas are built with compact utility rooms, so planning that space carefully makes a real difference.
Comparing Small Laundry Room Storage Options
| Storage option | What you can keep there | A good fit when |
| Upper cabinets above the washer and dryer | Detergent, stain removers, dryer sheets | The wall above your machines is empty |
| Tall cabinet with adjustable shelving | Broom, mop, cleaning supplies, tools | Supplies are scattered through the house |
| Drawers below a counter | Clothespins, sewing kits, small supplies | Small items get lost in bins |
| Tilt-out or slide-out hampers | Sorted laundry before wash day | Baskets crowd the floor |
| Pull-out ironing board | Ironing board, stored out of the way | You have no room to leave a board up |
| Hanging rod | Hang-dry and freshly ironed clothing | Clothes end up on chairs and doorframes |
| Custom countertop | Folding, sorting, gift wrapping | You fold on the dryer or the kitchen table |
How We Design a Laundry Room Around You
Every laundry room we design starts with a conversation about how you use it, whether that first meeting happens in our Austin or San Antonio showroom or in your home. Your designer will measure the space, plan around how you use the room, and walk you through cabinet, drawer, hamper, and finish options in real time, so you can see how each choice fits the room. Once our installation team has finished, we make sure everything operates the way it should and leave your space as clean as it was when we started. More Space Place is a locally owned, woman-owned company that has served Central Texas homeowners for more than twenty years, and it shows in the quality of our work and the 5-star reviews we consistently receive.
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Laundry Room Storage
Q: Which storage ideas make sense in a tight laundry room?
A: Vertical storage is a strong place to start in a small laundry room, beginning with cabinets or shelving above the washer and dryer. From there, you can add a tall cabinet for cleaning supplies, drawers for small items, a hanging rod, and a custom countertop for folding, so you store more without giving up floor space.
Q: Can I add storage to my laundry room without a renovation?
A: In many cases, yes. Custom cabinetry, shelving, hampers, and countertops are designed around the room as it is today, so you can gain storage without moving walls. Your designer will review the space during the consultation and let you know what is possible in the room.
Q: How long does installation take?
A: Your laundry room storage is made to order for your space. Once your pieces are ready, installation is often completed in one to two days, depending on the scope of the project, and your designer will walk you through the timeline before anything is ordered.
Q: Do you design laundry rooms in both Austin and San Antonio?
A: Yes. We have showrooms in Austin and San Antonio, and our designers work with homeowners throughout Central Texas, from the Hill Country and the I-35 corridor down to San Antonio.
Plan Your Laundry Room for the Season Ahead
You do not have to accept a small laundry room as the place where everything without a home ends up. With vertical storage, cabinetry designed for your exact space, and a folding surface planned around your routine, you can use every part of the room with the same ease you expect from the rest of your home. Visit our Austin or San Antonio showroom, or schedule a design consultation, and our designers will help you plan a laundry room that is ready for the busy season ahead.
Austin Showroom: 2438 W. Anderson Ln. Suite C7, Austin, TX 78757 | (512) 419-7911
San Antonio Showroom: 930 Proton Rd. Ste 306, San Antonio, TX 78258 | (210) 840-6648
