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.
Last year we started making the kids, (8,6 & 4) put away all their laundry. They each have big laundry bags that hang on hooks behind the door in my tiny laundry room. I fill the bags & they put the laundry away. (Not perfectly, but much better than I expected.) My 4 yr old does her socks, underwear & pj’s & I help with the rest. Wondering if I should have my 8 yo start running the washer & dryer?
Jody @ apinchofcharacter.com
Jody–That sounds great. I bet your 8 yo would love it. Kudos to you!
What a great, simple idea! Thank you for that. I like your Girl Scout Law posted on the wall behind, lol. 🙂 Good to have reminders.
A friend mentioned to me once that “if they can run the Nintendo, they can run the washing machine,” and I thought to myself – holy cow! She’s right! My son was 10 at the time, so he was a little older, but he launders all his own laundry. He has a dirty hamper in his room, and takes clothes out to wash, dry and then return them clean & folded to his room. He doesn’t sort lights & darks, but nearly everything he owns is dark (!), so who cares? At 12, he’s a bit of a slacker, but there’s nothing like nothing to wear to motivate a kid to do his chores!
My daughter is almost 9, and she puts away her own, but I still wash it. Many of her things need to be treated specially, since they have paint, rhinestones, trims and are made of non-dryable materials. Teaching the kids which things can go in the dryer is more difficult. That’s this year’s task. 🙂
Great rack – good suggestion!!
I was commenting to say the same thing Sunshine said. LOVE the GS law on the wall. Wish I had thought of doing that project with my troop….
Great use of unused Vertical Space… We have clothes drying rack to utilise the heat from the boiler. The kits cost us about… £20.00 and the timber slats maybe £4.00 each so for under £40.00 our clothes dry quite fast, even on dreary rainy cold days like today. Again, brilliant thinking! Thanks for sharing how to do it.
David Trees–I like your rack over the boiler. Sounds perfect.
Just thot I’d throw in my 2 cents worth. My kids are adults now, with kiddos of their own. But when my oldest first moved out of state to college he called me to thank me for teaching him to do his laundry. He said none of the boys in his dorm had a clue what to do. My kids were pigs. I had become tired of washing clothes, folding them only to find them on the floor of their room with the dirty stuff. Infuriated me!! Problem solved. Once girls were important, their clothes became important too. It all works out in the wash. 🙂 So Jody, absolutely teach those kiddos to wash their own clothes. The benefits are endless!!
I would believe you! My laundry is in the basement and I know the clothes are somehow multiplying themselves. I walk down and scream at least once a day. @Jody I tried to make, encourage, pribe and scare them in to putting away their clean clothes but I find the 9 yr old boys clean and still folded clothes on the floor of the basement. I now have a portable chest of drawers and a rack down there to hang and or put the clean in the drawers. Oh and if I’m missing baskets it’s because they still have clean folded clothes in them. Now that I have the soap and more business the 2 older children must do their laundry or they do without.