As our population climbs, so too do our houses as more and more skyscraper apartment complexes reshape our city skylines.
With a trend towards smaller living spaces and the growing popularity of tiny homes, the average floorplan is changing and adapting to modern space (and economic) constraints.
One of the most interesting — and some would say ingenious — modern trends is doing away with the traditional laundry room and finding alternative spaces to store the washing machine and dryer.
This trend means freeing up valuable space in your home but can come at a cost to convenience.
Squeezing your washing machine in a cupboard may be a space savvy idea but scrapping the laundry room means not having the luxury of space for soaking and scrubbing clothes and storing away unsightly mops, buckets and cleaning goods.
So before you start measuring up your linen cupboard, think about the practicalities of removing your home’s laundry room.
Consider where you will store cleaning products, where you will wash the dog (if you normally use the laundry tub) and the practicality of loading and unloading clothes into a washing machine in other areas of the house.
Also think about the noise machines make and whether this will become a nuisance if placed in an area near the living room or bedrooms.
Vented clothes dryers pump moisture into the surrounding air so they require good ventilation and cannot be stored in an enclosed space. Heat pump condenser dryers are a better option as they require less ventilation and are more energy efficient.
If that hasn’t talked you out of ridding yourself of your laundry room, here are some quirky ideas for cleverly storing your washing machine and dryer.
Linen cupboard
Stacking your machines in the linen cupboard is a great way of keeping things in the one place. Dirty washing can be go straight from the washing bag into the machine and dryer then towels and sheets can be folded and put straight back into the cupboard.
Source: Sweeten
It’s also an aesthetically neat way of storing the machines out of sight — you will, however, need a generous sized linen cupboard and it could turn into a logistical nightmare to organise water supply and drainage.
Kitchen
Consider channeling the British and storing your washing machine in the kitchen. You can hide it away in a cupboard or just embrace the white goodness.
Some states, however, have restrictions on the installation of washing machines in areas of food preparation so it’s best to get some advice in this space before making plans.
Source: Sweeten
Bathroom
Why not have your washing machine and dryer in a room that is tiled and already designed for cleaning?
This one is probably the most user-friendly option as machine noise would be contained to an enclosed room and the bathroom is generally located further away from living spaces than the kitchen.
Bathrooms also generally have good ventilation so this would make it an ideal machine location if you have a vented dryer that puts moisture into the air.
Source: Katrina Chambers
