Where IS the best place for the laundry room?
As a designer, I am constantly thinking through how people want to live and how they actually live. When new trends come into view, I look at them through the lens of practicality and wonder if the new solution is really the best one - or just a passing phase.
The one thing that I find the most puzzling is the location of the laundry room. In the eight years I’ve been doing interior design, the “ideal” location of the laundry room has shifted from the master closet, to the second floor by the bedrooms, to having a set on each floor of a family home. And although I’m sure there is a best option for each individual home, I want to open this discussion and get your insight.
When we moved into a new construction home in 2015, the laundry room was on the second floor by the bedrooms. I was very excited about this and the idea of no longer having to run to the creepy basement to do laundry. In my mind it seemed like it was going to be so convenient to empty dirty clothes bins with the laundry room so close to the bedrooms and I was sure our clothes would be in a constant cycle of clean.
But I was wrong. I found it challenging to keep laundry going because I was most often on the main level of the home - cooking, hanging in the living room with the family, outside, or in the office working. I was rarely on the second floor except when it was evening and I was getting ready for bed - too tired to be thinking about laundry. There were times I would get the laundry started upstairs and then head downstairs and get distracted, forgetting the laundry was started, leading to sour towels and clothes.
Can any of you relate?
When I was renovating my personal home in 2021/2022 - I deconstructed every room of the house in an effort to redefine the modern home layout while pushing past the way we have done things for decades. And because of having experienced a second floor laundry room and not loving it like I thought I would, I decided to put the laundry room on the main floor - in the center of the house - where I would be spending most of my time. I turned our old galley kitchen into the laundry room and I must say I love it. The room is a workhouse and I love how conveniently located it is making it easy to throw in a quick load of laundry while I’m cooking or watching a movie.
Growing up, our laundry room was off of the kitchen, in a closet with double bifold doors. There was a laundry shoot in a cabinet in my parents bathroom that went straight into the laundry room from the second floor. My mom was doing laundry constantly and I have vivid memories of her folding clothes on the kitchen table.
I think if a home has a social hang upstairs like a den or playroom - then it might make sense to have the laundry on the second floor. And oftentimes with older homes we are limited on space and so we feel lucky to just have laundry that isn’t in a garage or basement.
So instead of thinking, “let’s put the laundry as close to the dirty clothes as possible”, I think about where does someone want to be DOING the laundry? How can we make it a pleasant experience? How can we make it convenient for the person doing it?
Where do YOU prefer the laundry room be located?
XX
Carly
Great question! I love you take on this.