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Over the years, the laundry room has been a bit of a nomad in housing design. My friend Jennifer has a two-story house in Cincinnati with a basement. The house was built in 1968 and the laundry room is in the basement. All the bedrooms are on the second floor – two floors away! Yikes. And to describe the place where she does laundry as a room – would be generous as it appears to be haphazardly placed in an otherwise unfinished basement.

I think “stark” was how she described it.

Did the designers of the home think so little of the poor sole who’s job it was to do the families laundry? Not only is the location super inconvenient, but it is a dreadful space to spend time. Maybe the reasoning was the machines were loud and it was messy chore. I’m not buying it.

The Mudroom Laundry

Fast forward to the eighties, the popular location for the laundry room was next to the garage so it could double as a mud room. I guess the theory was that if family members were super muddy, they could deposit their dirty clothes directly into the washer before entering – and run naked through the house. Yikes again!

At some point the tether between the mud room and the laundry room was cut. Now the laundry room was free to be wherever it could best be of service. Many designers concluded the laundry room should follow the primary suite. If the primary suite is on the main floor – so is the laundry room. If the primary suite is upstairs – so was is laundry room. This makes sense.

The Connected Laundry

Cutting the travel distance from laundry to and from the primary closet makes the concept of following the primary even better. Enter the connected laundry – a door that connects the laundry to the primary closet.

I love this feature, especially because I hang up much of my laundry to dry to avoid shrinking, fading, and wrinkling. Why not hang the damp clothes in the primary closet where they are supposed to end up anyways?

But what about when the primary suite is downstairs and there are a bunch of bedrooms upstairs creating mounds of dirty laundry? While not as bad as Jennifer’s situation, it does involve multiple trips up and down the stairs to do laundry. Ah – what if you could have your cake and eat it too? If the primary suite is the only bedroom on the floor, consider adding a stackable washer and dryer in the primary closet. Hey – maybe at some point, the kids will be old enough to do their own laundry! (wishful thinking?!)

The Closet Laundry

That is exactly what we did in our lake house. It was actually Guy’s idea. He had gotten used to the laundry room adjacent to the primary suite. In this house, the laundry room was on the other side of the house. He suggested a stacked washer and dryer in the closet. I was hesitant. “We can walk across the house to the laundry room.” Thankfully, he insisted. Best thing EVER! It has changed how we do laundry.

Our previous house had his and her walk-in closet. After a period, the dirty clothes would build up in my closet – time to do laundry. The same build up was in his closet. Suddenly, laundry became a huge all day weekend chore! In our current situation, the laundry basket sits next to the washer and dryer in the closet. When it starts to get full, one of us throws a load in the washer. We end up doing loads throughout the week and laundry becomes less of an all-day consuming chore. Score one for convenience!

What if you could score for making the laundry room a pleasant space? I love the current trend in design that recognizes laundry is a major, constant task that needs to be done continuously. Let’s make it was pleasing as possible. Consider lots of countertop space for folding clothes and ample space for sorting colors prewash. And lastly, plenty of wet hanging space. Windows, artwork, and high-end finishes are welcome here.

Laundry may never be a fun chore for most of us, but that doesn’t mean the laundry room has to be an uninspired and inconvenient dark hole thrown into wherever we have the space. I believe we can and should make the laundry room a bright, cheerful, and well-placed space in the home and make homeowners’ lives a little bit easier.