Laundry Room Folding Ideas

Folding laundry helps to prevent wrinkles and makes clothes easier to fit in drawers. This is a dreaded task for many who simply put clean laundry in a basket with the promise of folding it later. Wrinkles form when unfolded laundry is but in a basket, because the hot fabric cools in the wrinkled form. Folding the items in the laundry room as they come out of the dryer helps keep laundry neat and organized. Does this Spark an idea?

Folding Table or Counter

Having a folding table or counter in the laundry room increases the chances that laundry will be folded as it comes out of the dryer. Clothes and other fabrics can be laid on the work surface to make it easier to fold them neatly. The table also provides a place to sort folded items while you finish folding the rest of the laundry in the basket. A table that drops down and folds up on the wall is the ideal solution for small laundry rooms that don't have enough floor space for a standing table. If a table or counter are out of the question, the top of the dryer can be used as a folding surface instead.

Folding Assistants

Folded laundry fits better in drawers and on shelves when folded exactly the same each time, a difficult feat for even the most skilled laundress. Simple household objects and special folding-assistant devices are often used to help with this problem. A standard-sized cutting board can fold a towel perfectly every time. Place the board centered on the towel and fold the long ends over the board one end at a time. Slip the board out and fold in half one more time to achieve a perfectly folded towel. The FlipFold folding tool is a board that can help to fold many garments. The item is placed on a board with three hinged pieces; each piece is closed and opened one at a time to fold the garment.

Individual Bins

Keeping individual laundry bins in the laundry room helps to cut down on having to refold clothes, because family members don't have to dig through one basket to find their clothes. A simple shelf in a corner of the room or under the counter can be designed with individual compartments for each member of the family. Extra bins for kitchen and bathroom laundry can also be added. As the laundry is folded, put each person's laundry in the corresponding bin. Kids can be responsible for retrieving their own bin, putting their clothes away and returning the bin to the correct cubby. The random stacks of folded laundry and ransacked laundry baskets will be a thing of the past.

Folding Laundry Baskets

Make the most out of a small laundry room space with a folding laundry basket. Unlike plastic baskets that can be stacked together and still take up a lot of room, these baskets are made of nylon that can be folded to compact sizes. Several of these baskets may be able to fit in the gap between your washer and dryer. When the baskets are unfolded, they have a sturdy structure that holds shape as you put clothes inside; there is nothing worse than trying to put clean clothes in a collapsing basket. Look for these in the laundry aisle where regular laundry baskets are sold.