Laundry Room Buying Guide

For most people, laundry day is a bad day. It means dirty clothes are threatening to take over your bedroom. It means spending hours doing a reviled chore. It means wondering if your clothes will come out of the process looking okay. Worse, it means wearing your least favorite outfit because it's the only thing that's clean. The key to making laundry day easier is having the right tools to get the job done. You'll want to consider which types of clothing you wear most as you choose laundry supplies. If you rarely wear anything besides T-shirts, you may not need a pressing iron. If you leave the house in a suit five days out of the week, a clothes steamer or iron should be high on your list of laundry room supplies. Many people find that garment steamers do much of the work irons do, so you may be able to choose one or the other.

Laundry Room Essentials:

1. Hampers: Start the laundry process by being organized with a hamper or clothes basket. When you have a laundry hamper, you can always put your dirty clothes in one place; no more piles on the floor, on the chair or on the exercise equipment. Invest in two or three hampers so you can presort your clothes and save time on laundry day. Use one clothes basket for whites (to be washed in hot water), one for colors (to be washed in warm water) and one for darks and delicates (to be washed in cold water). With presorted laundry, you won't have to think twice about how to wash your clothes.

2. Garment steamers: Garment steamers are a quick, gentle way to remove wrinkles from clothing. You can even use clothes steamers on household fabrics, such as curtains, tablecloths, slipcovers and more. Simply fill the water chamber, let the garment steamer heat up and wave the steam over the wrinkled items. A clothes steamer can also make clothes feel fresher when they don't quite need to be washed. Maybe you've been saving out-of-season clothes at the back of your closet, only to pull them out and see that they look a bit droopy. A garment steamer will perk them up with a little blast of steam. A travel garment steamer will reduce the wrinkles that result from folding clothing into luggage. Garment steamers are usually about the same size as irons, but they reduce wrinkles faster than irons and freshen clothes, too.

3. Pressing irons: When you need a crisp crease, nothing beats steam irons for giving your clothes that pressed look. Steam irons don't need too many features to be helpful, and even the least expensive irons cover your basic needs: adjustable temperature, a nonstick soleplate and the ability to use steam. Other features on irons are available to suit your preferences, such as ergonomic handles, lightweight designs, self-winding cords or an automatic shut-off. The more you iron, the more you'll appreciate the extra features. Don't forget to pick up an ironing board, too.

4. Garment racks and hangers: When you're done ironing your laundry, hang your clothes on a convenient garment rack. Keep a clothes rack in your laundry room so you can hang clothes straight from the dryer, preventing many wrinkles before they start. A garment rack added to your bedroom can make up for a lack of closet space, or if you need to store out-of-season clothes, you can put a clothes rack in your basement or attic. Many garment racks and drying racks are collapsible for easy storage, so you can add or remove this mobile closet space as you need. Don't forget hangers for both drying racks and closets; special suit hangers and clips keep your suit jackets, pants and skirts looking nice, while cascading hangers have the option of hanging vertically to save you precious closet space.

5. Lint shavers: Lint shavers keep your clothes looking new after wearing and washing has left pills on your clothes. "Pilling" is what happens to older clothes and upholstery when small balls called "pills" form on the fabric. A lint shaver trims the pills off, making the fabric look smooth and new again. Soft clothing items, especially sweaters, are susceptible to pilling, no matter how careful you are about doing laundry. With a lint roller and a little time, you can keep your wardrobe looking great. Most clothes shavers cost far less than replacing a pilled item of clothing. Every laundry room should include lint rollers, and you may also want to keep a clothes shaver at work or in your car for last-minute touch ups.

Tips:

1. Make laundry day even easier by getting your clothes laundry-ready before you put them in the hamper. Turn items that may fade inside out. Unroll any cuffs, check that all pockets are empty, zip up zippers and button those buttons, since clothes will retain their shape better when washed the way you wear them.

2. If you need to iron many items, start with the ones that need to be ironed on a lower temperature, such as silks. Then increase the heat and move up to the heavy cotton items. If you use a spray starch while ironing, let the product soak into the clothes for a moment before touching the iron to the clothing. Ironing right after spraying will cause build-up on the iron's soleplate.