A Great DIY Laundry System for Small Spaces

Here's a riddle. How can you store 2 loads of dirty laundry without taking up a single foot of floor space? With my favorite laundry solution for small spaces: hanging laundry bags! Whitney Design makes a $12 cotton canvas laundry bag designed to hang on a doorknob. If you hang two bags on double hooks--one above the other--on the back of a door, you've got a great place to toss dirty laundry.
I love these bags (and I receive no compensation for saying so!) They're sturdy, affordable, easy to carry with one hand, and each bag holds a full load of laundry. The hook at the top of the bag comes in handy for hanging the bag when you're moving the clothes from the bag into the washer. The bags are sold plain, but you can easily personalize your laundry system by adding words in a fun font to the front of the bag. Here are instructions for how to create your own personalized laundry system:

Materials

• Two Whitney Design hanging laundry bags
• Two double hooks
• Screwdriver
• Computer/printer/paper
• Carbon paper
• Ballpoint pen or dull pencil
  
• Masking tape
• Black acrylic paint and/or black laundry marker
• Teeny tiny paintbrush (if using paint)

Instructions
1. Type your chosen words in a word processing program using a large font. I chose to type the words "Lights" and "Darks" using Palace Script MT font in a 200 point size.

2. Print out your words.

3. Trim paper and cut a piece of carbon paper to the same size as the trimmed paper.

4. With black part of carbon paper facing laundry bag, layer the carbon paper under the word and tape onto the front of the laundry bag. I placed mine 4.5 inches below the top edge of the bag and centered it on the front of the bag.

5. Remove bag from metal frame, and tape bag in a single layer to corner of work table so that you have a flat surface on which to work. (Photo below shows later stage after word has been painted.)

6. Use a ballpoint pen or dull pencil to trace printed letters on paper. Push down hard to make sure that the carbon paper leaves a mark on the fabric.


7. Using your teeny tiny paintbrush and black paint (or a combination of this and a laundry marker), trace your carbon letters. Allow paint to dry.

8. When paint is dry, place bags back on frames.

9. Screw double hooks onto the back of a door, one above the other (a bedroom closet door or bathroom door is a logical place, depending on where you generally get undressed). The bottom edge of the top hook in the photo is approximately 78" from the ground; the bottom edge of the bottom hook is 45" from the ground.

10. Enjoy your new pretty & functional laundry system!


This post has been linked to My Backyard Eden, We Are That Family, Today's Creative Blog, A Soft Place to Land , and Thrifty Decor Chick.