Do you need a laundry room?

[Jason]

Hidden laundry in the kitchen area

When we renovated our 1950s house, we removed the laundry to give us a large open plan family room and added a European-style laundry inside some cupboards next to the kitchen. 

A decade later we are more than happy with our decision, although we do sometimes wish our washing machine was quieter, and that we didn't have to fill the study with clothes horses in winter.

Do you need a dedicated laundry room?

Let us know your thoughts in the discussion below. 

Jason

[BremerBabe]

As a couple without kids we dont need a dedicated laundry but my sister with two small toddlers definitely does as washing is a daily task

[DarrenS]

We have two children under four and washing is a daily event in our house. Despite having a dryer and a clothesline outside, we still seem to have clothes horses everywhere, particularly in winter. Needless to say we're currently planning a dedicated laundry room!

[Jason]

Thanks for joining in the discussion and welcome to Workshop @BremerBabe. It's great to have you join the community. I hope you find plenty of new ideas, inspiration and information here. Please post again soon.

Jason

[Alicia]

I don't think they are necessary. I would much rather have more living room or a second bathroom than a room I am never going to spend time in. I would much rather have something compact and stylish like this:

[Andadams]

We personally prefer to have a dedicated laundry room. It’s not a large room by any means, and only holds a laundry sink, washing machine and full length cupboard. But it at least it offers an area to have clothes soaking and a sink to clean the grubby things.

When we were looking at houses there was a place we really liked but the deal breaker to us was the laundry was a cupboard with no sink. I guess it really comes down with what your preference and needs are.

[KingStreetReno]

I would LOVE a laundry room, but space is an issue in my narrow Victorian home.

Laundries need to be a minimum of around 1.6m wide and 3m long. Washing machines are 600mm - 700mm deep + you need walking space and room to open cupboard doors.

I am putting in a euro laundry (the same layout as @Alicia posted above).

[Gordo]

Laundry rooms are wonderful things to have. But you do not need them, especially if there's space for a clothes washer in the kitchen or bath. In the U.S., most homes have basements, which solves the laundry problem nicely. I've always wondered why Australians don't include basements in their homes. We're big on basement car parks in Oz, even in small town house developments, but we rarely build them for human use. I loved having a basement as a kid. It was like a giant in-house shed, with tonnes of storage, a workshop, spacious laundry, and even room for model railroading, table tennis and occasional Nerf gun wars.

[Jason]

Thanks for joining in the discussion @Gordo. Did you grow up in the States? Your old basement sounds like kid paradise!

Let me also extend a very warm welcome to Workshop. It's great to have you join the community. I trust you find the site to be informative and offer plenty of new ideas. Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site.

Jason

[Andy_Mann]

I'm with Alicia on this, her pic is perfect, that is if you need a dryer, but doing away with one altogether would be a lot smarter.

We're deadset against dryers now, as we had a Miele condensor dryer, which suddenly decided not to start. A cheerful technician rocked up to check it out, said it was the logic board, the part cost $1400, then $300 for labour (with no guarantee that it would fix it). His advice was for us to trash it, & get a new one for $2000.

I grew up in a family of 3 kids, & Mum got by without a dryer, same goes for my wife, who was 1 of 4 kids, again no dryer.

Our advice would be to get a Hills FD45604 Narrow space folding clothesline, or similar, & fit a 3x5m all weather waterproof sail ($115 delivered on eBay) above it. I installed ours on our Western wall, which serves to also shade that (hottest) wall in summer.

BTW, front loading washers rule.

Learn from our mistakes/progress, save a lot of money, & the planet too.