Garage Laundry Room Ideas: Check the Garage First, Then Make It Work

Mark where the car stops, short of the machines

Fixes: a bumper in the dryer, a blocked doorWorks with any machines

A garage laundry shares its floor with a car. Pull in too far and the bumper meets the dryer; park too close and the car door blocks the washer door. Decide where the car stops before the machines go in. A parking stop (a low block the front tire rolls against) or a tennis ball hung from the ceiling on a string marks the spot.

Try this: park as usual, open the washer door all the way and set a basket in front of it. If you have to squeeze past the car, move the stop back.

Fold on the machines instead of the hood of the car

Fixes: folding on the car or the dryerSide-by-side front-loaders only

With no table in the garage, laundry gets folded on the hood or the trunk, where road dust settles. If your washer and dryer are front-loaders side by side, our laundry counter for front-load pairs turns both tops into one surface. Nothing bolts it to the machines or the wall; it sits on a rubber pad at each corner. The product page puts it this way: "Even on a spin cycle that walks the washer across the floor, the countertop stays put." If your washer walks on a sloped garage floor, level it first (see the leveling question).

Raised edges on the back and sides keep socks from dropping behind the machines onto the garage floor, and the counter covers the machine tops, so dust settles on a surface you can wipe. To clean the back of the dryer, where the Fire Administration says lint builds up, lift the counter off, then set it back.

Try this: with a shelf or a cabinet over the machines, measure up from the machine tops first: the rail needs 3.5 inches, board included, plus room for your hands. Our sizing guide shows the check.

No top to fold on? Use the workbench or a wall table

Fixes: stacked pairs and top-loadersTakes little floor

A stacked pair has no top within reach, and a top-loader's lid must open, so nothing can stay on it. A garage with a workbench already has a folding spot. Give laundry one end of the bench, wiped down and covered with a clean sheet or a smooth board, so sawdust and oil stay off clean clothes. No bench? A table that folds down from the wall or a rolling cart takes little floor (our folding station guide weighs both), or carry the basket inside to fold.

Try this: if you hunch to fold at the bench, a wall table hung at your own height may suit you better.

Give detergent its own shelf, away from car and garden jugs

Fixes: grabbing the wrong jugShelves: a separate buy

Garages hold motor oil, windshield fluid and weed killer, often in jugs close to a detergent bottle's size. Keep laundry supplies on their own shelf or in their own cabinet beside the machines, with car and garden products on another wall, so nobody grabs the wrong jug. Over a top-load washer, open the lid all the way and hang any shelf above the open lid.

Try this: if you have to step around the car or the mower to reach the detergent, move the shelf.

Get clean clothes inside before the garage dust does

Fixes: grit on clean clothesWorks with any machines

Each time the garage door opens, dust and road grit can blow in. Fold and carry clean laundry inside the same day, in a lidded basket if the garage is dusty. A door mat at the steps up to the house keeps that grit from riding inside.

Try this: sweep in front of the machines before laundry day, so a dropped sock lands somewhere clean.

Make it look like a room: a light, a mat and a finished wall

Fixes: a corner that looks like storageLights and paint: separate buys

A garage laundry looks like part of the house once it has its own light, floor and wall. Hang a light right over the machines, lay a washable mat on the concrete where you stand, and paint or panel the wall behind the machines. On a front-load pair, a counter across the tops makes the machines read as one built-in piece, like base cabinets in a kitchen.

Try this: check the corner after dark. If you cannot tell navy socks from dark gray ones at the machines, it needs its own light.