Power Up Your Utility Room With Space-Saving DIY Hacks Marie Kondo Would Love
Discover simple tactics and DIY hacks, designed to transform your utility room from a soul-destroying clutter magnet, into a helpful, joy-giving space that Marie Kondo herself would applaud!
It’s the one room you’ll need for every season. When the kids get back to school with all their sports gear and uniforms - when we launch into the muck-magnet, outdoor lifestyle of summer - when we’re in the throes of spring cleaning or preparing for Christmas.
Our utility rooms may be the one room we keep hidden but it’s probably the most hardworking space in the house! If you give it the love it needs, it might change your life!
Here’s how….
Use Space Saving Foldables & Stackables
Here’s a simple rule to follow when sourcing any kind of storage receptacle or container for your utility room. Make sure they’re foldable regardless of their size.
This just means having to use less space when they’re not in use as you can easily hide them or stack these storage items out of sight
- Start with Foldable Laundry Baskets. For example, one made of a soft material like a durable canvas. Perfect when you have a busy household with more than one bathroom
- Alternatively, flexible rubber or plastic tubs that can be Folded such as our very lightweight Flexi Tub, will do the job.
- Foldable storage baskets or fabric containers are perfect as shelf organisers or for sorting any short term accumulation of clothes, equipment and gear on your counter.
- When you need something sturdier and more solid you could still save space by making sure your bulky storage units function as stackable storage boxes. Stacking helps you make use of empty floor space
- Place these on higher shelving or the tops of cabinets to extend your storage options.
Uniformity Is Easier On The Eye
Remember, you will have a neater looking space that looks less cluttered and more pleasing to the eye if you source your storage containers in the same style and colour even if you may have them in different sizes.
It’s good to stick to a theme - for example, if you may choose to use foldable baskets, bamboo, wooden or fabric boxes in different sizes - just try to keep them in the same colour.
Embrace The Vacuum (Storage)
Here’s a hack that will maximise the storage space in your utility room cupboards especially when you’re storing away seasonal soft items like blankets, outdoor gear, swim gear, or bedding.
All you need is a hoover and vacuum-pack storage bags with a handy valve for sucking out the air.
Why use it? Vacuum packed storage such as the JML Vac Pack helps you do the following:
- It triples the capacity of your storage area
- It protects items from damp, mould and moths with a waterproof seal
- It is easy to re-open or seal
- It is stackable and easy to organise in various size ranges
Multipurpose & Modular Shelving
You won’t need a diploma in carpentry or the ability to handle a saw and hammer for this.
For those of us whose building skills are more akin to Lego than woodcraft, modular shelving systems would be perfect additions to any extra wall space in your utility room. Consider the following
- Industrial strength ready racking like our Pinnacle Chrome Wire Shelving Units in stainless steel or black and timber finish.
- You can stack them to waist height and use the timber top to double up the shelving base as a worktop or bench
No Time For Shelving Installations?
Consider Shelving trolleys - another handy storage-saving hack! Perfect for the empty vacant spaces that you may have under tables or countertops or any dead spaces between your appliances.
A wire shelf trolley on casters would sit easily under a table or counter whilst also serving as a handy way to transport items to other parts of the house like Wenko Household and Bath Cart Florenz - another example of hacking into your standard bathroom accessories for handy ideas!
Tight Corners? Not A Problem!
Run out of wall space for your modular unit but have an empty awkward corner? Have a large tall cabinet with excess height and hard-to-reach back corner?
Use these bathroom accessories as a hack. Screw-in or hang wire corner baskets, the type you see hanging in showers like our Wenco Milano 2 tier Wire corner basket.
Hook It, Bag it, Hang it, See it
Hooks can be your best friend if you’re looking for ways to make every hidden vertical space work even harder in your utility room. A space organiser’s best friend!
Use them on the inside of broom cupboards and cabinet doors.
Make sure you match the hook type to the strength and relative size of your doors.
- Once you’ve got a series of hooks up, you can invest in some net or linen drawstring bags to serve as catchalls for items like clothes pegs, cleaning rags, small cleaning lotions, shoe cleaning kits etc…
- Have a sustainable mindset and go even further by recycling old clothes, plastic netting/ bags and t-shirts or ends of pillowcases into drawstring bags for suspending on those hooks.
- It really helps when you can see through the bags as well so it’s even easier to locate those bits and pieces each time.
- Don’t fancy hooks? Try magnetic strips on the inside for metallic items like tools and scissors etc
- Go one step further and hang your ironing board and iron on the wall if you can using wall brackets.
- If you have floating shelves in your utility room, add hooks underneath the lower ones to maximise your hanging options.
Shelf Bracket Hacks
Shelf brackets without the shelves can double up as excellent hooks for larger items
- Have you been wrestling with a tangled web of hangers recently? Place some shelf brackets on a blank wall near the ironing board and stack the hangers horizontally on them.
Hang a Rail
Hanging rack or rail systems open up a whole new world of storage options in your utility room
- Why not hang a rail across your ceiling or between wall panels for any leftover items that need to be put out of sight. Use it for storing hangers and as a drip-dry rail for hanging hand-washed woolens.
- Hang a wall rail above your counter like the ones you see in kitchen splash backs - but instead of suspending utensils - invest in some ready-made stainless steel S-hooks for suspending a variety of regularly used laundry items.
- You can even suspend containers and pots for holding smaller items.
Don’t forget to Label
When you’re done begin a super organiser and tidy upper, invest in a roll of water-resistant labels or a decent label maker so you save even more time by marketing the outside of your storage receptacles.
Perfect if you’ve got kids or a spouse that loves to play dumb when it comes to putting stuff away or locating things.
Shopping list
- Foldable Laundry Baskets
- Flexi Tub
- Stackable storage boxes
- Foldable fabric or basket/bamboo containers in various sizes
- JML Vac Pac
- Wenko Vacuum Cube
- Pinnacle Chrome Wire Shelving Units
- Wenko Household and Bath Cart Florenz
- Wenco Milano 2 tier Wire corner basket.
- Door hooks
- Shelf brackets
- Net bags
- Label maker
- Clothes rail rod
- Metal S Hooks
- Hanging rail system with wall brackets
Stop by our Homewares and Laundry sections to catch an overview of the supplies and brands available
Tell us how you did it!
So there you have it - loads of ways to make your Utility Room Great Again. What’s more, these simple ideas apply to your garage and attic storage scenarios just as well.