Floor Plan...Laundry upstairs or downstairs??

hroyston86 · March 2014

My husband and I are trying to build a house, and are having a huge disagreement about where the laundry should be placed! I need some help...

In the floor plan, as it is right now, the laundry room is right off of the kitchen and is separate, unless we get a stackable... I would much rather it be upstairs where all of the bedrooms are. I just feel like that makes sense! Unfortunately, there is no where really to put it since it's kind of a small house. The only place I can find that it could go is in the master bedroom closet. I'm not 100% for or against that idea, but he doesn't like it. We have no children yet, but plan to in the near future. It would be many, many years, obviously, before any children we have do their own laundry, but his concern is them tramping through our bedroom and closet to get to the laundry. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

jtmh2012 · March 2014

We have ours in an upstairs hallway. We have it there because like you said, most of the laundry comes from there so it makes sense that the laundry is near there. However, if your choice is next to the kitchen or in the master bedroom, I think I'd go with the kitchen.

G2SoccerTaz · March 2014

I would go upstairs. My brother and SIL have theirs upstairs and they love it. Don't have to deal with carrying it up and down the stairs.

Do you have a bathroom upstairs? Have you thought about having it in there. The plumbing will already be there due to the toliet and sink and tub.

If it was just a single level house I would go with it off the kitchen.

lorenw14 · March 2014

It seems like the best spot to put it due to your home's layout is to put it on the same level as the kitchen. Is there a door there to hide it from the kitchen? It would be better upstairs but like your husband said you will not want your kids running in and out of your room to do Landry. Plus if you ever sell your home it will seem weird to buyers if its in the master bed room closet. My wife and I looked at house and the landry was in the master bedroom closet and we ran the other way. Either way you will be good. At least its not in the basement.

JoanE2012 · March 2014

If given the choice between downstairs next to the kitchen and the master closet, I'd definitely go for next to the kitchen. I'm fine with it as long as it's on a living level (I'd hate to go down to the basement!)

Also, how big is that closet? If you get a separate washer and dryer (I would never get a stackable, especially if you plan for kids), then that's going to take up quite a bit of room.

zzbb · March 2014

Looking at your floor plan I'd see if you can change the second upstairs bathroom to just a shower and put a stackable there...most families only need one tub and this would be an easy change to the floor plan and give you what you want.

JuneMrs · March 2014

Ours is off the master and it is an amazing location I wouldn't trade it!

ebifish · April 2014

I say in the master closet. but maybe have hookups down stairs just in case. You'll be doing laundry yourselves for the next ~10 years. maybe after the kids are doing their own laundry all the time you can have the option to move it into the area off the kitchen or into a garage.

Chailbert · April 2014

i would say downstairs, seems it keeps noise to a lower level somehow

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2014

I can see both sides, we spend a lot of time in our kitchen and it would be easy to do laundry while we're doing other things...get a load of laundry done while you're cooking dinner, great!

However, my mom has her washer upstairs with the bedrooms and it was so nice. when we were kids it was really easy to just walk laundry to the laundry room rather than having hampers in the bedrooms. and my mom does laundry while she's getting ready in the morning.

Our laundry is currently in the basement, I hate it and I wish there were a place for it upstairs.

MintWardrobe · April 2014

We had our laundry upstairs in our first house for the reasons you've mentioned.

However, we ended up hating it. It seemed like I was doing laundry while doing other things downstairs - like cooking, watching TV, or working in the study. So, I was always running upstairs to change out the laundry - back and forth.

Now that our new house has the laundry downstairs I can see where I was doing more work at the last house. Now, I can quickly change out the laundry and collect and fold it in the front dining room. Then I make one, maybe two, trips upstairs to take all the laundry up.

formerlyGDaisy09 · April 2014

Gdaisy09 said:

I can see both sides, we spend a lot of time in our kitchen and it would be easy to do laundry while we're doing other things...get a load of laundry done while you're cooking dinner, great!

However, my mom has her washer upstairs with the bedrooms and it was so nice. when we were kids it was really easy to just walk laundry to the laundry room rather than having hampers in the bedrooms. and my mom does laundry while she's getting ready in the morning.

Our laundry is currently in the basement, I hate it and I wish there were a place for it upstairs.

I should clarify here...where my mom had it upstarirs it was connected to the "bonus room" over the garage where the TV and computer are, so the whole family usually ended up there at night and it was easy to get laundry going.

and when I say upstairs in my house I mean not in the basement. we have a 1-level house with a basement. basically the laundry is as far as it could possibly be from where we do our living and it's terrible. we're planning to finish part of the basement and put a bedroom and craft room down there, hopefull if I'm doing some quilting or something it'll be less unpleasant to stay on top of the laundry.

BlueBirdMB · April 2014

Down! Washers leak sometimes when they break. Do you want to leaking into your living space or the basement? Been there done that. We have it next to the kitchen and it's perfect.

cbee817 · June 2014

BlueBirdMB said:

Down! Washers leak sometimes when they break. Do you want to leaking into your living space or the basement? Been there done that. We have it next to the kitchen and it's perfect.

This- ours is in the basement. One less thing to worry about if there is a leak or something worse. With 2 girls, we do at least 4 loads of laundry a week and it's not an issue going up and downstairs.

jexxie · June 2014

I vote downstairs!

NVMom2 · June 2014

I would prefer the laundry room upstairs, it's easier to do it on that floor since the bedrooms are that floor; however once the washer goes out and leaks water, more damage happens as water can leak inside the walls and through the ceiling.

ShellD13 · June 2014

Ours is on the second floor currently (where all of the kids bedrooms are located) once the kids all graduate we are planning to move it downstairs to a spare bathroom so that we can have one floor living for us (our master is currently on the 1st floor) but this is for our convenience and the fact that this is most likely our forever home we want to be able to live there well into our 70/80s when our own mobility might become an issue.

virginiagirl11 · July 2014

We have ours on the main floor off the garage and I really like it there. I can do loads of laundry at night while the kids are sleeping and it doesn't wake them up, and can switch loads while I'm doing things in the kitchen or watching TV in the living room. I don't mind carrying loads up a flight of stairs. I just wouldn't want our machines located in a basement.

Mom987 · July 2014

100% by the bedrooms!

Floor Plan...Laundry upstairs or downstairs??

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