For those of you lucky enough to have your laundry NOT in the basement . . .
We just moved into a home with the laundry in the hall on the second floor behind folding doors. In our old home I had a laundry room near the kitchen that was large enough for a small utility tub and I could put up a drying rack if needed.
We will be doing some renovations to this house and I am trying to decide whether to move the W/D to a small room off the kitchen. Here’s my pros/cons, but I am curious what I might be overlooking:
SECOND FLOOR: It’s so easy to just get the dirty laundry from the bedroom to wash. No stairs. On the con side, there is no place to sort it or put up a drying rack. So I end up dumping out the hamper, pulling the clothes to be washed right there in the hallway, then putting the rest of the dirty clothes back. I put up a drying rack in our bedroom which is a little unsightly but no one really sees it.
FIRST FLOOR: I could add a utility tub and probably some cabinets to store detergents, the iron etc and room for a drying rack. But the con is dragging the laundry down the stairs and back.
Could you put some sort of hampers or sorting system in an upstairs bathroom so you can sort, take a few steps down the hall to the machine? To me, having it on the same floor as your closet/dressing area is ideal. As far as a drying rack is there a spare closet on the second floor for that AND sorting hampers?
I’ve never had laundry on the same floor as the bedrooms, but I spent many years with the laundry behind folding doors and my current house has a laundry room that has a sink and storage area. I much, much prefer the latter. I think it’s worth bringing the laundry to the first floor to have that extra storage and work area. It’s not as much hassle as the basement and it’s easy to do laundry while you are doing other things like cooking or watching tv.
I have a laundry closet across from our master bedroom in my current house. We talked about adding a “proper” laundry room with a utility sink and storage when we finish the basement but I can’t see myself wanting to go down two flights of stairs with the laundry now that I’ve gotten used to it across the hall.
I will say that I rearrange my laundry closet and it works much better for me now. I stacked the washer and dryer, and have a four bin sorter on wheels adjacent to it. I also installed a short tension rod to hang clothes. I miss having the sink but not enough to move the laundry away from the bedrooms.
I have a main floor combo laundry/mud room with a utility sink, space for drying & ironing, and some cabinets and drawers for detergents, vacuum attachments, etc. I love it. Wet/muddy stuff goes straight into the wash instead of through the house. I would rather not haul laundry to the main floor, but I would rather haul to my current setup than just have the W&D in a closet with none of the other amenities.
We actually downsized from a three to a one story and I love having the laundry on the same floor. I have a sink in the laundry room, but very rarely use it. Have never used a drying rack. If I can’t machine dry, I don’t buy!
I am only upstairs at night, so I wouldn’t like having laundry upstairs. I like it on the main floor so it’s convenient to toss loads in whenever I have a chance.
First floor every day. I spend most of my time on the first floor, I sleep in my bedroom, I don’t hang out there. First floor, easy to change loads, fold laundry. If it was in the second, I’d be running up and down the stairs. Easier to bring it down once and up once.
Also easier to put a load in without disturbing people sleeping. I like a proper laundry room with a tub.
My sil had your set up. She had kids and no dedicated space to fold and had piles of laundry in the hallway all the time. She had kids at home so a lot of laundry. She finally took over what was an exercise room off the bedroom (basically a sitting room) and made that the laundry room.
20+ years ago when our younger selves were house hunting we saw a few homes with laundry upstairs near the bedroom and said “Eww. Why would we want that?”
Fast forward to current times, and my wife and I often say “wish we had that ”.
I’ve never had a second floor laundry room. Mine is on the main floor but it is tiny. But it does have a sink that never gets used. The cat boxes are in front of it. And between that and the washer/dryer is one of those tension strings to line dry stuff. I usually only dry my pants so that’s fine most of the time. In the hallway outside, we have about a dozen hooks and on the door is this thing that will extend out to hang more stuff. And I have a drying rack I can pull out into the hall if I need it.
Carrying the laundry was more of a pain when the kids were home. But by middle/high school they were in charge of carrying it upstairs for me a lot of the time. Laundry for two people is a piece of cake.
I love having laundry on second floor. I argued with my architect about having it right in the master closet (I wanted it there, he didn’t) and we compromised by putting a sliding door in between. Ideally I wanted a central “master closet” for all bedrooms, with a laundry island in the center, so clothes never had to leave that room except on our bodies when being worn…the idea was that “closet doors” open into that room. But he said it would never resell. Every time I take laundry around the wall separating the laundry room from kid 2’s room I think “I was right” but I digress…
We don’t have a sink or tub in the laundry room but kid bathroom is right across the hall and has both (plus shower, so tub is mainly used for laundry reasons now). We do have a closet unit in the laundry room (rods, shelves, no door), an IKEA hanging rack, and a table that holds the sewing machine and has room for missing sock box etc. okay this is TMI but I just love thinking about this kind of organization and optimization!
Our laundry room is off the kitchen and part of the furnace room. Very simple in an old house that will turn 100 next year. Our bedroom is on the second floor. When we move in retirement , i want two things- a one story, or at least a master bedroom and bath on the first floor if there is a second story, and a washer/dryer on the first level as we age. I haven’t ironed in years or used a drying rack or laundry tub so I don’t need much. Working washer and dryer will do it for me.
I love my laundry room on the first floor! While I hate carrying it up and down, I would hate going up and down to swap loads around even more. I also live in an area where “mud” is a season and so is winter. It is so much easier to take off dirty work clothes or wet snow clothes and just toss them in to wash or dry without tracking through the whole house.
My current room is nice and bright but small. My next house will have a similar setup but with a utility sink!
When we were looking to move to a bigger home back in NY, most laundry was in the basement but many newer homes were starting to put them in the kitchen. That seemed handier to me (though more of a perk than a hard requirement). Husband claimed it ought to be a non-factor. I said, “Fine - if you pick up laundry duty I don’t care where the washer/dryer are”. All of the sudden it was a factor
We’ve had a laundry closet on 2nd floor near master bedroom for almost 30 years. LOVE it. In master bedroom, I have a lot of space so have a big covered hamper plus a small open round basket for underwear/socks.
The 2nd floor laundry is not without its compromises. If I want to air dry items, I put a folding rack up in the hall (which is quite large but open to downstairs). Also I have slight worries about water leakage - we did upgrade to braided metal hoses after hearing about cheap rubber hoses having a tendency to disintegrate and leak. We also turn off the water to the washer when we go on vacation.
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