Staging a Laundry Room

When staging a home, utilitarian areas like a laundry room are often overlooked in favor of staging more ‘glamorous’ rooms like the kitchen.

But they shouldn’t be.

Putting in effort when staging a laundry room is a great opportunity to romance the buyer further by giving them a sense that even the worst chores are enjoyable in this immaculately clean and organized home.

Why bother Staging the Laundry?

The laundry is one of those areas of the house that can easily be ignored when staging. After all, not many people want to spend time there.

But the truth is, most people visit the laundry at least once a day. And when they do visit, it is often begrudgingly to do a chore they don’t always enjoy.

With a bit of home staging magic, you can stage any laundry room to make this chore a little more pleasant. Not all laundry has to be messy, damp, smelly areas where the family throws their dirty clothes.

Steps for Staging a Laundry Room

Step 1: Cleaning

As with the rest of the house, cleaning is the first and most important thing you can do.

This is beyond a quick wipe down, or even a clean preparing for a visit from your mother-in-law.

Start by removing everything from the cabinets and shelves and wiping them down inside and out.

Pull out the washer and dryer from the wall, remove all the old lint, lost socks, and old dryer sheets.

Wipe down the walls and clean out the dryer vent before putting the appliances back in place.

Be sure to dust all the walls in the space, laundry rooms tend to be extra dusty due to all the lint.

Next scrub your appliances, magic erasers work wonders getting those unsightly black marks off the finish.

Then dust the baseboard and sweep and mop your floors.

Now look around, does anything need touch up paint or repairs done? Now is the time to take care of those chores.

Step 2: Organizing

Giving potential buyers a sense of calm is partially accomplished through organization.

Go through the items you removed from the shelves and cabinets, keeping only the essentials such as laundry detergent and softener or dryer sheets, and an ironing board.

If this is where you store your cleaning supplies, keep only a few and make sure they are in attractive containers. For example, laundry detergent can be transferred to a glass drink dispenser with a spout. Dryer sheets can be removed from the box and stored in a small basket. Household cleaning products can be put in neatly labelled glass spray bottles and stored in a pretty cleaning caddy. The ironing board should be covered in a cute fabric, and either stored away or hung from pretty hooks on a convenient wall space.

If this is a large laundry area, leave an attractive (empty) laundry basket in the space.

Step 3: Decorating

Now that the space is immaculately clean and ruthlessly organized it’s time to bring in the décor.

The beautified supplies are already part of the décor. If there is lots of storage space left, you can add other laundry items like scent booster beads, borax, and laundry pods in glass containers to the shelves or cabinets.

However, do not fill up the space. You want the feeling that there is more than enough storage space without it feeling sparse and empty.

A cute laundry themed sign hung on an open wall space, a simple rug, and a cute bottle of hand soap by the sink and the laundry room is staged.

Step 4: Creative Staging

Sometimes laundry areas are in out-of-the-way corners like a basement or a garage.

Often, they don’t have cabinets, shelves, or a way to organize necessary items. In cases like this, creative staging is the answer.

Bringing in shelves or cabinets is great, but sometimes the area is not conducive to larger furniture pieces.

A very small portable kitchen island or a couple of cute rolling carts or even a small table can be solutions to such logistical problems and bring the sense of a dedicated and organized laundry area to an otherwise awkward space.

Staging a small laundry room doesn’t need to be stressful – there are hundreds of ideas and inspiration photos available online.

Step 5: Ambiance

Very few people enjoy doing laundry. However, a sparkling clean, beautifully organized and simply decorated utility room gives a sense of romance that maybe the dreaded chore won’t be so bad in such fantastic space.

And who doesn’t want to live in a house where the laundry practically does itself?