DIY A Budget-Friendly Laundry Sorter With This IKEA Hack

Having a well-organized laundry room is a big game-changer for your laundry routine, alleviating stress and creating a more attractive space. Unfortunately, buying storage furniture and other laundry room accessories can start to get a little expensive. Most people need relatively big storage spaces to sort through all the laundry that a household produces, as clothes and linens can pile up quickly. If you want to revamp your laundry room on a budget, you'll need to get creative and make your own solutions. This is where IKEA's side tables can come in handy and save you money.

One of the best storage items to have in a laundry room is a laundry sorter, which is a shelf or cabinet where you can arrange multiple laundry baskets. It's a convenient item, but this type of furniture piece is rarely budget-friendly. For an easy and cheap way to get a laundry sorter, skip the fancy furniture in favor of a few inexpensive IKEA side tables, specifically the LACK ones that cost about $15 each and come in three colors: black-brown, white, and white oak.

TikTok user @keeksdiary shares a clever hack for making a laundry sorter without spending a fortune on a new furniture piece. It starts with four identical LACK side tables from IKEA. Stack the tables to form a two-by-two grid (since they're all the same size, they should balance easily). If you're worried about them toppling over, try attaching them together with gorilla glue. The result is a grid of shelves that's perfect for storing laundry baskets, which can easily slide in and out of their makeshift compartments.

Each shelf has the approximate dimensions of 21 inches long by 21 inches wide by 17 inches tall. This is the perfect shelf size for storing a laundry basket, considering that a typical horizontal-style basket is slightly smaller than this. After creating your shelves, you can slide laundry baskets into each open space, allowing for easy sorting. You can also use the surface area of the top two tables to store an additional basket or other laundry supplies, such as detergent or mesh bags for delicates. Having a well-organized space will feel upscale, and thanks to simple projects like this, you can create a functional laundry room without going over budget.