organize with hanging laundry bags

You may have seen posts on hanging laundry bags. And certainly you’ve read articles on organizing. But I promise you that my suggestion on how to organize with these clever bags is one idea you’ve probably never even thought of… unless you own an elevator. But keep reading – I promise that even if your home doesn’t have an elevator, this idea will spur you to think of lots of ingenious ways to organize with hanging laundry bags in your own home. 

I live in an urban neighborhood in Cincinnati. Many homes are built on tiny plots of land but have 4 stories – and, you guessed it, an elevator. If you’ve ever tried to clean a 4-story home, you know how exhausting it can be just putting items away – returning dishes to the kitchen, transporting dirty clothes to the laundry room. You get the idea. So here’s my solution – a clever alternative to those odd-shaped stair step baskets used to catch items belonging to another floor. And this idea is way cuter!

First, a disclosure. I do not use my elevator daily. However, I do use it for hauling groceries and it definitely comes in handy when housecleaning. I usually toss all items belonging on different floors onto the elevator floor, but I’ve racked my brain on a more space-efficient system.  My solution? Hanging laundry baskets.

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supplies needed:

• hanging laundry baskets
• fabric paint
• stencils
• stencil brush

step 1 – design

My initial thought for these hanging totes was to use natural colored canvas bags and stencil each one with an single oversized number in black, giving them a homespun French market flavor. I only needed bags for my three main floors, not the ground floor. However, I had trouble finding number stencils large enough, so I changed gears. Then I spotted these hanging bags online and it solved two problems – they came in white or black (I thought the black would feel more modern) and they saved me the trouble of sewing my own canvas bags (my original plan). Win/win!  

step 2 – stencil

First, I inserted a piece of foam board into the canvas bag to prevent paint from seeping through. Next I placed the bag on my ironing board, keeping the foam board directly under the bag front.

I remembered I had a beautiful mandala stencil from Stencil Revolution that I’d used for a previous project. I began with bag #1. I taped the stencil down with painter’s tape then lightly painted part of the stencil. Once the paint dried, I removed the stencil then repeated the process with the number stencil.

Using the same mandala stencil, I configurated each bag a bit differently.

step 3 – hang

Once the paint dries, hang the bag for use. It may not be in your private elevator, but I bet you’ll have lots of other areas in need of some clever organization.

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