These 5 buys for your utility room are the ultimate organisation hacks for a September reset

Options for every budget, whether you want to spend £5 or £100

Blue utility room with peg rail
(Image credit: Future PLC)

Utility rooms are one of the rooms in your home where organisation is key. In an area where practicality comes first, making sure it's neat and tidy and everything is stored to perfection will make your life ten times easier. These 5 budget utility room buys will make that happen.

When it comes to looking for utility room storage solutions, it can be tempting to go for the aesthetically-pleasing choices that will give you the dream Instagram-ready set-up. But often times these might not actually be the best option for your space and will result in much more time needed to keep your utility organised on a daily and weekly basis.

Let's face it, none of us have time to dedicate part of our weekend to constantly sorting and tidying our utilities. Storage solutions that actually make life easier and work for our daily lives are key, and making sure they're affordable is even more important. A utility isn't front and centre in your home, so saving that money for more aesthetic home updates will make more sense. We've rounded up 5 of our favourite budget utility room buys that get the Ideal Home stamp of approval, ready just in time for your September back-to-school reset.

1. Make laundry day easy

Green utility room with silver washing machine

(Image credit: Future PLC/Rachel Smith)

The Joseph Joseph laundry basket is an Ideal Home team favourite. It's hard to go wrong with any Joseph Joseph picks to organise your small utility room or kitchen (we recently spotted Ruth Langsford's kitted-out sink), but this will make laundry days considerably simpler.

With 90L of space, you won't have to worry about your laundry basket getting full too quickly. When it comes to taking your laundry from the bedroom to the utility, you can simply lift out the section you need (light or dark) and carry it downstairs. It keeps the different loads organised and will save your back when carting it to the washing machine. Dare we say revolutionary?

2. Transform your broom storage

Neutral utility room, grey storage cupboard, storing vintage retro ironing board and cleaning accessories, hooks with various brushes, feather duster, dustpan and brush

(Image credit: Future PLC/Jon Day)

A utility room is the perfect place to store larger cleaning items that don't really have a spot anywhere else in the home. Whether that's a broom, duster or even your vacuum cleaner, finding a way to organise them will make your home feel much tidier.

While a full-length cupboard is the dream, if you aren't renovating your utility room and still want a way to store them then a broom-mop wall holder will be a great budget utility room fix.

3. Create an aesthetically-pleasing space

Utility room, butler belfast sink, storage shelves, assorted storage jars storing wooden dolly pegs and cleaning products

(Image credit: Future PLC)

One of the most budget-friendly utility room buys that makes the biggest difference are jar labels. If you want your utility room to look pretty as well as be super organised then decanting cleaning products into jars will be the simple trick you need.

Getting rid of unsightly packaging and instead filling your shelves with aesthetically pleasing glass jars will give you that perfect farmhouse look. Adding handwritten labels will be the finishing touch while also making it easy to see what's inside.

4. Keep things hidden with baskets

Armac Martin pink utility room

(Image credit: Armac Martin)

Angela Scanlon recently gave us the best pantry organisation hack which involved using wooden crates as storage bins instead of individually decanting every item, saving you so much time when it comes to restocking.

We love this idea for your utility room too - whether it's for extra microfiber cloths, additional coffee pods or even laundry pods, your utility room will automatically look neater with baskets filling the shelves.

5. Create extra storage with a trolley

Exposed whitewashed brickwork of kitchen with large black and white checked floor tiles looking through doorway to breakfast bar and stools

(Image credit: Future PLC/Fiona Walker-Arnott)

If a full utility room renovation isn't within budget but you still need a quick fix for adding lots of storage, then a trolley is the way to go.

Moveable trolleys are one of our favourite organisation hacks for small spaces. They allow flexibility on where they're placed so that you can move between your utility room and kitchen with ease. We love using these for cleaning products as you can push it around the downstairs of your home without needing to do multiple trips to pick things up. Your cleaning routine is about to get so much smoother.

FAQs

How should you organise a utility room?

Organising a utility room can be tricky. They're notoriously small spaces yet they're a room that we rely so heavily on to house extra kitchen and cleaning essentials, as well as our laundry. In short, a lot is going on in a utility room so there's no shame if yours doesn't look Instagram-ready. But if you want to make it a bit easier to navigate them these organisation rules will help.

'Organising a utility room efficiently can make tasks easier and keep the space functional. If your space is organised, the cleaning of your utility room will be so much easier. These are my tips to help you organise your utility room effectively,' explains Gervaise Ovin, professional cleaner at Wecasa.

'Divide the utility room into zones based on the type of items stored or the tasks performed. For example, have a laundry zone, a cleaning supplies zone, and an ironing storage zone,' she continues.

'Then, maximise storage by making use of the walls and ceiling by incorporating hanging space and shelves. Level up your wall shelves by choosing ones with built-in towel bars for example and install a hanging airer. Use hooks or pegboards to hang mops, ironing boards and brooms on the walls.'

Which utility room life-saver are you going to be hitting 'buy' on?

Holly Cockburn
Content Editor

After starting out her journey at Future as a Features Editor on Top Ten Reviews, Holly is now a Content Editor at Ideal Home, writing about the best interior ideas and news. At Top Ten Reviews, she focussed on TikTok viral cleaning hacks as well as how to take care of investment purchases such as lawn mowers, washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Prior to this, Holly was apart of the editorial team at Howdens which sparked her interest in interior design, and more specifically, kitchens (Shaker is her favourite!).