wallpaper | laundry bags | hooks | floating vanity | mirror | dipped leg stool

Wanting to see how the laundry room would take shape over the course of its renovation, we waited until the cabinets and machines were in place before deciding on a laundry sorting system. For as long as I can remember doing laundry (both growing up and in my adult life), all of our clothes went into one basket. When one could no longer possibly stuff one more sock in the hamper, I’d dump everything onto the ground, and I’d make my piles – whites, darks, delicates – and throughout the course of that day, the family pets would take to those piles like a moth to a flame. (Never mind their cushy beds when they could sleep on the family’s filth!)

This time around, I wanted a true sorting system. Something that would make laundry day more efficient, would take up little to no space in our small room and be easy to use. There’s no point putting systems in place if it’s a pain to keep up, you know? In a few hours, we DIYed this simple 3 bag set up, and we have been loving it – and most importantly, using it. Plus, cute!

MATERIALS:

3 x medium canvas bags
1 pack of matte gold curtain grommets
6 x hooks
44″ of scrap wood (1″ x 5″ pine board works great!)
Handful of 2″ wood screws
Paint or stain of your choice
Wood filler
Paint or stain of your choice

TOOLS:

Sharp scissors
Measuring tape
Pencil
Putty knife
Fine sandpaper
Drill / driver
Stud finder (our favorite)
Chamfer bit (optional)

WHAT WE DID:

We wanted sturdy canvas bags that could be thrown in the wash if needed, and the medium size felt good for manageable laundry loads. I picked up the bags for a steal, but I needed a way to hang them in the laundry room. That said, the bags only took me 10 minutes to complete, thanks to these no-fancy-tools needed curtain grommets! They have little teeth on one side to hold the fabric in place, and a small template is included with the pack. Tip: Anything larger than a medium sized bag may create too much weight for these grommets. We found these bags to be a good middle – medium? – ground.

I used the top seam of the bag as my guide, and I centered the included template 4″ in from each side of the bag. After tracing all my circles, I used a pair of sharp fabric scissors to get a clean cut. Tip: It was easier to fold each circle in half before cutting, and it’s best to make your cuts on the inside of the circle. Too small is much better than too big!

The grommets snap right into place by placing the ‘prong’ side underneath the bag and clipping the ‘finish’ grommet on top. Those little teeth latch onto the fabric, but if you make a mistake, a small screwdriver on the ‘prong’ side will pop them off if needed.

While I was doing that, Scott got the hooks ready by using a piece of scrap filler from our cabinets. Earlier, I had marked the studs along our wall with tape, and he made a few measurements to determine where we’d want to secure the hook rack into the wall. Although I would have preferred the cleaner look of all the hooks hanging directly on the wall, the thought of using anchors on our precious wallpaper (and possibly messing up!) was enough to make me realize it wouldn’t be the best move. Our rack is 44″ wide, and we made 4 pilot holes total – 2 for each stud we wanted to hit. Using a chamfer bit first (below on the left) would allow our wood screws to sit below the surface of the rack.

Scott used 2″ wood screws to go through his pilot holes and directly into studs. With the rack in place, I used a putty knife to apply wood filler over the screw heads, and once it was dry, I gave it a light sanding and touched up the paint. From there, I was able to screw in our hooks! We chose these pretty cast iron hooks, and we spaced them 8″ apart on center. We left 2″ on each side of the outer hooks, which is how we landed on a 44″ width overall.

The rack sits about 38″ above the floor, a height that feels comfortable to throw in our clothes while leaving breathing room underneath. We decided on 3 bags for whites, darks and our reusable rags/mops (we use microfiber towels for cleaning as much as possible!).

The sorting bags have been a huge game changer on laundry day. Imagine that! We take each one off the hooks, dump our clothes into the washing machine, and hang it back up! I’ll throw the bags through a cycle every now and then, and they do get wrinkly after a wash and dry, but they eventually relax after being loaded up with more clothes. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we still have the cabinet fillers on our to-do, and then it’s on to the counter, sink install and Libby’s mini kitty condo. But! We’re one step closer, laundry room!

Our longtime sponsor Rejuvenation provided us with the iron hooks to complete this project. Thank you for supporting the brands that support us!