The Organized Laundry Room

Therapeutic chore...or unavoidable bore? Wherever you come down on laundry, there is undeniable satisfaction in making a heap of dirty things fresh and fragrant.

"A stack of clean clothes gives you a sense of being finished — for a while," says Kathryn L. Robyn, author of Spiritual Housecleaning (New Harbinger Publications, $13, www.amazon.com). "You have all your options available again."

Real Simple found the best way to set up your laundry-room space so you can get the most out of it — and maybe even find soul in the spin cycle.

On the next pages, tips for setting up the most efficient system for sorting, soaking, washing, drying, and folding.