Vertical Storage for a Small Laundry Room: Using Wall Height

A small laundry room rarely has spare floor, but it almost always has spare height. Laundry room vertical storage means treating the wall from the baseboard to the ceiling as usable space, and deciding on purpose what lives at each level.

The key is that height is not all equally useful. What you can reach without bending or stretching is prime space; the rest suits things you seldom need. Planning in three bands keeps heavy items low, daily items in the middle and light items high.

Think in three bands

Low: floor to hip

This band takes the bulky and heavy things that should never be lifted from overhead. Hampers and sorting bins go here, along with a slim rolling cart and heavy non-hazardous items such as bulk paper goods. Keep the floor in front of the machines open so their doors swing freely.

Middle: hip to eye level

This is the working band. Everything handled with every load belongs here: the folding surface, the hooks for hangers and mesh bags, the lint roller, the bin for lint. If you can reach it without a step stool and without bending, it should be earning its place daily.

High: above eye level to the ceiling

The top band is for things used rarely and things that weigh little: back-stock, seasonal linens, spare pillows and light bulky items in lidded bins. It is also the right height for a locked or latched cabinet for laundry products, which stay in their original labeled containers, out of reach and out of sight of children and pets.

Ways to climb the wall

Several kinds of storage add height without adding footprint. Most small rooms combine two or three of them.

• Shelves to the ceiling. Add a second and third shelf above the first, spaced to fit what each will hold. The top one can sit close to the ceiling for flat, light items.
• Tall narrow units. A slim tower uses a strip of floor beside a machine or behind the door and turns it into several shelves.
• A second hanging rod. Shirts need only half the height of a full-length rod, so two short rods, one above the other, double the hanging space.
• Over-door racks. The back of the door can carry hooks, a rack for an ironing board or pockets for accessories. Check that the door still closes and that nothing hits the wall or a machine behind it.
• A rail system with hooks at several heights. Vertical tracks let shelves, hooks and baskets move as your needs change; see the guide to laundry room wall storage for the options.
• A ceiling-mounted drying rack. A rack that lowers for loading and rises out of the way uses air space nothing else can. It must be fixed into the ceiling structure exactly as its instructions state.
• Stackable bins. Bins with front openings build a column on a shelf or the floor, so you can reach the lower ones without unstacking.
• A pegboard panel. One panel can hold a wall’s worth of small tools at any height; setting one up is covered in the laundry room pegboard guide.

The space above the machines

The wall over the washer and dryer is often the largest empty area in the room, and the most tempting. It is also the area with the most restrictions.

The wall around the machines carries the water valves, hoses, the power connection and the dryer vent connection. Keep that area and the vent path free, and follow the appliance manual for the space required above and around each machine. A top-loader’s lid has to open fully under anything you put above it.

Shelves, cabinets and rods over the machines each have their own considerations, which are worked through in the guide to storage above the washer and dryer.

What should never go up high

Height multiplies the consequences of a slip. A simple rule covers most cases: nothing heavy overhead.

• Heavy bulk items go in the low band, even if a high shelf is empty.
• Open containers of loose items spill when tilted. Up high, use light bins with lids and handles.
• Glass and other breakables stay at or below eye level.
• Anything used weekly will tempt you to stretch or climb. Bring it down to the middle band.

Laundry products are the deliberate exception to “low is for heavy”. They go high for the sake of children and pets, but inside a cabinet with a door, in quantities you can lift down comfortably, and within the cabinet’s stated load rating. Large refill-size containers that are awkward to lift from a height need a different latched cabinet lower down.

Safe access to the top band

Storage you cannot reach safely is not really storage. Plan the access along with the shelves.

• Keep a stable step stool in the room, folded on a hook or beside a unit, so it is always the easiest option.
• Never stand on a washer, a dryer, a shelf or a counter to reach something.
• Choose lidded, light bins with a handle on the front, so you can pull one toward you with one hand while holding on with the other.
• Tag the front of every high bin. If you cannot see inside from the floor, you should not have to bring it down to find out.

Fix it properly and secure tall furniture

Vertical storage puts more load on walls and makes furniture taller, so the fixing matters more than in a low layout.

Every wall-mounted shelf, rail, rod and rack comes with fixing instructions for particular wall types and a stated load rating. Follow both, and remember that liquids and wet laundry are heavy. Check for pipes and cables before drilling, because laundry walls often contain both, and ask a professional when unsure.

Tall freestanding furniture must be secured against tipping. Use the restraint supplied with the unit, or an anti-tip kit, and follow its instructions for your wall. Load tall units from the bottom up, with the lightest things on top.