Next to the kitchen, what is one of the most highly used rooms in your home? If you said the laundry room you would be right. No sooner do you have all of the laundry washed, dried, ironed and put away than you see another stack starting. When homes are designed the laundry room is not always the most thought out room in the house. Sometimes you will find washer and dryers stuck in closets or in remote locations in the home like the basement.
Be practical when you decide to build your laundry station. If possible, try not to locate your laundry room in a busy, high traffic area of your home. You do not want to step over laundry baskets when going from room to room. It would be a good idea to have this area located near the largest source of dirty clothes. If you home is big enough you could possibly place this in a separate room near the master bedroom. That would make it very convenient to take bed linens to the washer and you would not have to carry heavy baskets very far.
Try to keep your laundry area away from your kitchen. You don’t want grease or food to come in contact with your nice clean laundered clothes. Laundry rooms produce dust, lint, high amounts of humidity and vapors from your cleaners. You don’t want any of this to come into contact with your food preparation.
If you are enclosing your appliances in a closet, make sure you leave enough room in front of your appliances to open the doors. You should provide at least forty-eight inches so you can open the doors with ease. Even if your appliances are not enclosed, you need to make sure people can move around them with ease.
If space is a problem, stackable washer/dryers are available. They will save you a lot of floor space but you will lose the countertop space for your work area. The countertop is a nice space to hold clothes as you are removing them from the dryer and folding them.
You may want to install shelves above the washer and dryer for detergent, fabric softeners, etc. This will help keep you laundry room organized.
If you have room, a drying bar would be a nice option to add to your laundry room. A retractable clothes line would also be another option to consider for your room. A sink in your laundry room would be nice for hand washables.
A built in ironing board is a very nice feature also, especially if space is an issue. You can pull them down when you need it, or you can have it out of sight when not in use. If you decide to install one, allow enough space for traffic.
Be sure to choose proper lighting for your new work area, whether it be in a closet or a room.
A little forethought and planning for your laundry station will save you a lot of anguish later. Be sure to take the time to design a station around your lifestyle.
