Go Vertical

• Laundry rooms are generally small, and there is never enough storage space in the house for cleaning, craft and seasonal supplies. Exercise vertical options to optimize the use of space in your laundry room. New appliances are not cheap, but if replacing your old washer and dryer is on your agenda, stack models rather than placing them side by side; for only a small additional expenditure, you'll gain significant floor space. Otherwise think about front-loading models, and set a salvaged smooth interior door over the top of them for an instant craft or laundry sorting surface. A pine plank shelf mounted on L-brackets around the top of the walls encircling the room creates storage for little-used or seasonal items. Nail a piece of molding to the ceiling in front of the shelf, and staple a valence of fabric to it to keep off dust and cover the clutter.
  
  

Light It up

• Lights are a quick way to brighten up your laundry room on very little cash. Motion-activated wireless LED lights will come on when you enter the room and make finding what you're looking for easier. Push-on LED lights are also cheap at any chain hardware store. These lights can be mounted anywhere by simple peel-and-stick adhesive on the back, so you can put them under shelves and inside laundry room cabinets. Other cheap space-saving lighting ideas include creating a border around the ceiling or along shelf edges with several strings of bright-colored or white Christmas lights hung on cup hooks.
  
  

Declutter With Curtains

• Visual clutter makes laundry rooms seem smaller. Bright-colored fabric provides inexpensive visual relief. Staple a floor-length piece of fabric to the ceiling as a curtain to disguise a water heater or shelving unit, or replace a closet door with a cloth curtain to avoid losing the floor space required to swing the door open. Staple fabric to the underside of a wide board mounted on L-brackets to create a hiding spot for a trashcan or the hamper. Warm up a plastic utility sink with a fabric sink skirt. Use remnants of awning or sail-maker's fabric for superior mildew resistance.
  
  

Built-in Function

• Put your laundry room walls to work with some dirt-cheap functional additions. Mount a large frame of 1-inch thick pine boards to your wall studs with screws, and nail pegboard to the pine boards to hang unit shelving, baskets, hand tools and craft supplies. Use thicker mounting boards, and put one side of the pegboard on hinges to cover over areas of protruding pipes or your fuse box. Build a space-efficient flat drying rack from dowels stuck into holes drilled in small pine boards. Fasten the bottom edge to a board on the wall with a pair of hinges, and connect the top to another board on the wall with small gate latches. Connect a length of string or chain between the top board and the top of the rack so that it can tilt out from the wall when you release the latches.