The Perfect Laundry Room





In my mind, the laundry room is in the same category as the root cellar, the pantry, the mud room, and the linen closet--often overlooked but actually the nerve center to a well-functioning home.

Rather than seeing laundry as a dreary chore to do in a dreary place, I get a kick out of dreaming up the perfect laundry room for keeping our belongings clean, mended, and organized! (Sick, I know...) 

The new house will have a laundry closet instead of an actual room. It is located off the second floor hallway and has lots of light flooding in from the adjacent sunroom windows. All my previous laundry areas have been in the basement, so I’m anxious to see how this 2nd story version will work out.   3XANPUVY95X9

Here’s my idea of what the perfect laundry room should include:

• Stacked front-loading washer and dryer; a folding table; a 10” shelf just above the table for holding detergent and bleach; and an extra deep shelf just below the ceiling to hold blankets and quilts.
• A 3-bin laundry sorter on wheels to tuck under the folding table.
• Ironing board (with a fun fabric cover!) hanging against an end wall with a wall-mounted stand for the iron. 
• A 3’-4’ long closet rod to hang damp-dried shirts and lingerie from, with hangers at the ready.
• A basket full of clothespins.
• A small dustpan and brush, hung on the wall.
• Jars for loose change, buttons, and other small items found in pockets or in the wash.
• One basket for items needing mending, and a smaller one for “odd socks.”
• A shopping bag for giveaway items (deposited after washing).
• Waste basket for dryer lint.
• “Prewash” basket containing Oxyclean, stain remover, old toothbrush and a scrub brush, bottle of water for pre-treating stains.
•  “Ironing” basket containing spray starch, a press cloth, spray bottle, lavender-scented ironing water, a cup with a spout for filling iron with water, and some iron-on hem tape. 
• A fold-away clothes rack for sweaters and delicates to hang or lay flat to dry—I’ve seen some cool vintage-looking ones in wood from Ballard Designs, but IKEA also has a simple one in metal.

What I won't have is a laundry sink. Boohoo. THAT would be the ultimate! I love the little apron-front sink shown above and in Country Home, along with several other to-die-for laundry rooms. 

   

Even the best set-up won’t be successful unless people use it, so there will have to be laundry baskets in the bathrooms and/or bedrooms to collect items for washing and an agreed-upon system of transferring those baskets to the laundry sorter. Once the wash is dried and folded (mostly by me), each person would be expected to gather their own items from the folding table and put them away neatly where they belong.

Yeah, right! Who am I kidding!? Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?