Laundry Room - location

pause

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 9:13 am

If you live in a colonial style home with bedrooms upstairs and main living areas downstairs, where do you prefer your laundry room?

I could see it being practical upstairs. Kids get dressed and undressed upstairs, clothing gets put away upstairs so having a hamper right near or in the laundry room minimizes clothing travel all around the house.

I could also see it being practical downstairs. Most of the day is spent there so having laundry room easily accessible makes it easier to take care of it. While cooking supper, you don't have to run upstairs to check if the stuff in the dryer is dry and put in the next load only to run back down in time to save the supper from burning...

What do you have? What do you prefer?

amother

Rose

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 9:19 am

Mine is in the basement. We thought about moving it to the main floor, but venting to the outside would be challenging as the spot we had in mind was on an interior wall. Oh well, basement it is. It is convenient enough to the kitchen/family room "hub," so not too bad. I wouldn't want to keep running up to the bedrooms to do laundry.

sky

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 9:56 am

I have on my main floor. It is super convenient because I just go in and out to do laundry.
Cons:
- It is a pain to carry clothing up and down the stairs.
- Need to make sure have enough hangers for hanging, constantly carrying downstairs from bedrooms
- bedroom linen is easier to do if laundry room is closer to bedrooms.
- Need to make sure door is closed and mess is hidden from guests.
- Can be uncomfortable to hang personal clothing in the room.
Pros:
- Easy to take care of laundry between other tasks
- Less noise near bedrooms
- Easy to do downstairs laundry often - kitchen towels
- During the snow I keep throwing the kids wet stuff into the dryer so ready for the next outing

I think I'd rather have it upstairs.

amother

Amber

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:04 am

Upstairs, no doubt. In any case, all the dirty laundry is upstairs. And then all the clean laundry gets put away upstairs. So what's the point of having it downstairs? Just for the transfer to the drier?
If it's upstairs you will have to go up to move it to the drier, but if it's downstairs you'll be walking up and down the stairs holding huge loads of clothes. Better to do the stairs empty handed.
Ive had both ways, with laundry machine in the kitchen and with it in the main bathroom upstairs. Much better upstairs.

Rubber Ducky

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:09 am

Mine's in the basement — I get more exercise that way! Very Happy

We have bedrooms on both the 1st and 2nd floor. Given the $$ to do what I'd like, I'd rather have the washer and dryer on the main floor but near the stairs.

edited to correct spelling error

Last edited by Rubber Ducky on Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total

Miri7

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 10:11 am

A few years ago we moved into a house with the laundry room upstairs. I LOVE IT!!!!

It makes things really easy, I can step in and quickly switch loads while supervising bedtime routine or kids cleaning their rooms and there's no schlepping up and down with baskets of clean and dirty clothing.

lfab

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 11:17 am

Ours is in the basement. We rent, otherwise I would find a way to move it upstairs where the bedrooms are. Much easier that way with no shlepping up and down steps with heavy baskets of laundry.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 11:32 am

I recently moved mine from basement to first floor (though I live in a ranch so don't truly qualify to answer your question!)

The joke is that when we bought the house, W/D were in the kitchen & I moved them downstairs in order to make more kitchen space. At that point we weren't thinking so creatively, now we found room in a bathroom (though it's not the most gorgeous design, but so much easier for me.)

And - 2 guest rooms in basement so still have to do some shlepping, but I leave that for the domestic assistant.

sourstix

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 11:46 am

wow I live in a colonical and I am waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaing to get it to bedrooms floor upstairs. I am so unhappy its on main floor. I have a bedwetter and its super hard otherwise. its a reall struggle for me.

cant wait to change it. what were the owners of house thinking? why would you shlep every article of clothes linen and what not down and then up? I really would love an explaination. I spend quite a lot of time upstairs. so for me its much better upstairs.

all I do downstairs is cook and clean. so erev shabbis and yomtov it would be a challenge. but during the week its a challenge. there really is no simple anwere. only if you have bedrooms on main floor.

nyer1

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 11:50 am

ideally upstairs. I grew up with it downstairs. my aunt has a great setup... it's in the basement, but there's a laundry shoot from the upstairs straight to the basement. you literally just throw everything down, and when you get to the basement it's waiting for you to load into the machine Wink

pause

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 2:58 pm

amother wrote:

And also ironing and folding gets done during the day while you're in the main living area. So you're not running up and down all day while you're doing laundry. You are running down once with dirty laundry and running up once with clean.

pause

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 3:00 pm

nyer1 wrote:

You still have to carry the clean laundry up.

amother

Amber

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 3:09 pm

pause wrote:

I don't do any ironing. Dh is the only one whose shirts need ironing and he irons them himself, in our bedroom.
Folding is done upstairs, I have a couch in the hallway and everything gets dumped there, once every couple of days I fold. It's so much easier to fold right by the bedrooms and be able to put stuff away without trudging up the stairs.
I do a few loads every day, so I have to run up and down for the transfer, but a bit of exercise never hurt anyone. Very Happy

pause

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 3:16 pm

amother wrote:

Either way you'd be getting exercise. I was wondering which exercise people prefer. LOL

amother

Amber

Mon, Jan 25 2016, 3:19 pm

pause wrote:

Either way you'd be getting exercise. I was wondering which exercise people prefer. LOL

I prefer my exercise without weight training, AKA lugging laundry baskets up and down. Very Happy

Also when I fold, I make neat piles for each child, and it would get complicated folding downstairs and then moving these piles upstairs. I think I far prefer folding upstairs.

L K

Tue, May 03 2016, 7:56 pm

sourstix wrote:

Sourstix, I have to add to the "what were they thinking" question.

What were they thinking when putting laundry rooms between main living area and garages, when you have to carry those laundry baskets through a kitchen?! Seriously, people maneuver past stoves and counters trying not to set their laundry on fire or accidentally pull a pan full of schnitzel off the counter and into their basket! Gosh, space planners and common sense were not consulted when they built all those colonials.