With preschool and primary school-age kids, I struggle to organize their clothes.  I thought about taking a picture of the laundry room floor before I cleared it up, but nobody would believe it was really that bad so I am sparing you the image.  Suffice it to say, I was repeatedly heard to say to the family: “Stop standing on the clothes.”  And: “Keep digging.  It’s gotta be in there somewhere.”

What I needed, I decided, was hanging up space in the laundry room itself.  Then I could hang everything up that needed to be hung up and then pull it off to be ironed as needed.

Not wanting to buy a rolling rack or sacrifice the floor space for one either, I made a simple wall-mounted clothes rack that stays right in the laundry room where I need it.

It was really easy to build, and cheap, especially given that I already had all the materials on hand.

It’s basically just a shelf, or an abbreviated shelf, with a hanging rod attached underneath. I’m sure there is some hardware you can buy for that, but I made it myself with a few inches of 2×2 and a metal rod I had laying around.

Materials Needed:

From left: 1 in. metal or wooden rod, short length of 2×2, two lengths of 1×2, three metal shelf brackets.  In place of the two 1×2’s, you can also use a single board and make a shelf, but I went the “on hand” route and used the 2 narrow boards.

You will also need the necessary fasteners, i.e. bolts and nuts or wood screws, wood glue, and paint (optional).

Tools: Hand saw, drill, 1 in. hole saw or 1 in. spade bit

Here’s what the bracket assembly will look like:

To get started, measure your wall where you want the rack to go.  Use this length as the cutting length for the two 1×2 boards.  Cut them both to the same length.  If you are using a single board, cut it this same length.

The shelf brackets I used are longer along one side.  I attached the 2×2’s to the longer length to give me more depth for hanging and storage above, but you can also choose to place your boards along the shorter length.

Screw one board to the brackets at the tip end of each of the three brackets and the other board to the center of the brackets.  Place one bracket at each end and one in the center for support.

Cut three segments of 2×2, each 2 1/2 in. long.  Drill a 1 in. hole, 1/2 in. from one end of each segment.  This is where the closet rod will go.

Attach the segments of 2×2, one at each end and one in the middle, to the underside of the 1×2 at the tip end of the bracket.  Use glue and long screws, screwed in through the 1×2 and into the 2×2.  Make sure the 2×2 segment is oriented so the end with the hole in it is furthest from the 1×2 to give your clothes hangers plenty of room to hook over the rod.

As mentioned, if you want to give the “shelf” above more stability and the ability to hold smaller items, you can attach a solid board to the 1×2’s or additional 1×2 slats.  This is what that assembly would look like:

I was just going for fast and cheap, so I left it as it was.  It is still able to store large boxes and laundry baskets as is.

Also optional, you can sand and paint it to give it a more finished look.  Otherwise, simply attach it to your wall, using heavy duty wall anchors appropriate to your wall surface.  A level is an easy way to make sure your rack is, well, level.

My laundry room has been so much easier to keep tidy since I have a place to put hanging up clothes.  I don’t know what I did without it.