The best laundry organizer will provide room to sort the different types of clothing and materials used daily in a household or business. These items typically feature between three and five bins to allow fabrics to be sorted according to cloth content and/or color. The bins should be made of fabric, rather than plastic, and can be suspended from a rolling assembly structure to increase the ease of use.
A laundry organizer should eliminate clutter in the utility room, and allow the user to move clothing and other fabrics through the washing process quickly and efficiently. This type of product is different from a laundry hamper. Hampers may be used to hold clothing temporarily until they can be transferred to the organizer. A hamper is typically one single bin, often featuring a lid, and is generally kept in a bedroom, bathroom, or closet.
Laundry should be separated into fabric and color types before placing it into the washer. Most homes need a wash cycle for dark fabrics and light fabrics. Towels must generally be washed apart from clothing because the heavy weight of wet terry cloth when tumbled with clothing fabrics, like cotton and linen, can damage them. A basic laundry organizer will offer three separate bins in one unit for these three common loads. Clothing and towels may be sorted into each bin and then loaded individually into the washing machine.
A large laundry organizer will provide five bins for sorting instead of three. Some homes may also require a wash load for delicate fabrics and denim materials as well. Delicate fabrics may be silks, rayons, and linen clothes which must be line dried and ironed, while denim materials, similar to terry cloth, can damage cotton and delicates, and tend to bleed onto other fabrics during the washing process. The additional two bins should be smaller than the three primary bins to accommodate these materials, because there are usually fewer delicates that go through a regular household's laundry.
The organizer may be stationary or part of a rolling cart. Rolling units are typically made of a plastic assembly from which individual bags are hung on the interior. Fabrics may be sorted into each bag accordingly. Some units allow bags to be removed or disconnected from the larger assembly and rolled individually to the washing machine. These carts are often used by businesses which may wash several tons of laundry each day, such as restaurants and hotels.
Cloth bags are often preferable to plastic bins because they may be cleaned easily. Fabrics are typically soiled when placed into a laundry bag, and the dirt, debris, and odor of dirty clothing and towels tend to remain in the interior of the bin. Plastic bins tend to hold these odors and transfer them to the other items in the bin. Fabric bins can be removed and placed in the washer with the clothing regularly so that they remain fresh and clean.
The term laundry organizer may also be applied to ironing board racks. These racks are designed to be mounted onto the wall or the back of the utility room door, and feature two prongs from which to hang a full sized ironing board. They often include a top basket which can hold the iron, starch, and water bottle that are commonly used while performing this task.