A little Friday food for thought. . . If you had the option, would you choose a huge laundry room or a huge closet?
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We’re not even talking about building a house, but I still keep a running mental list of what I would want if we were to ever build our “dream house.” Lately, I’ve been thinking about how fantastic a huge laundry room would be. Like the size-of-a-living-room big. Can you imagine? Does this make me sound super old and boring? You often hear about girls turning a guest bedroom into a glamorous dressing room/closet, but I’d choose a big, fat room to wash and fold clothes any day.
With tons of shelving and pretty baskets. . . And, a big folding table. . . And, drying rack. . . And, a TV with my DVR’d shows. . . And, maybe a lock on the door. (Yes, definitely a lock on the door.)
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It kind of makes you wonder why they ever started making laundry rooms so tiny to begin with. . . A guy’s design, for sure.
On the other hand, a huge closet wouldn’t be so bad, either. Especially if it was really clean and professionally organized. With a cute place to sit (or maybe you’re suppose to say lounge).
Architectural Digest
But, yeah, if given the choice, I’d definitely choose the big laundry room.
Which would you choose?
I would combine the two, and have one huge laundry room / family closet. My cousin did that, and she loves it. When she takes the clothes out of the dryer, they get hung up on racks right there in the laundry room. When her kids change clothes (she has 3 boys), they do it all in the laundry room, so there are never dirty clothes piled up in their rooms, and everything gets sorted right away. I think she and her husband still keep their clothes in their master closet, so maybe I would want a huge laundry room / family closet AND a nice master closet. But, think of all the storage you would gain in the kids’ rooms if they didn’t keep any clothes in there! :) Of course, I think this is perfectly suited for a family of boys. I’m sure if she had girls, it might not work quite as well. But, maybe if the laundry room had a small bathroom attached or something. Anyway… have fun dreaming. :)
I love that idea!
I love that idea too… I’d love to see this floorplan!
Love this idea, too!
My fantasy is a stylish laundry room/creative space combination. When you sew, you iron, so what could be more convenient? I find the sound of humming appliances to be very comforting. With the right organization and some self discipline, you can have a very nice master closet without it being the size of a bedroom.
Hmmm. This one is a tough one for me. We live in a cozy little 1000 sq ft house with equally cozy (SMALL) closets, but we learned to deal with that. Got creative with storage for off season clothes. It forced us to deal with a lot of clutter we accumulated, which was good. It would be nice to have all of my clothes in one spot, instead of stashed here and there. On the other hand, right now our washer is in our kitchen, and it is so not cute. I think I’d have to go with a larger laundry room, and just make it fabulous so it didn’t seem like such a chore!
-Lori
http://www.canyonid.com
Lori, we live an old, cozy home too. Washer and dryer are in the kitchen and there’s no question that I’d take the laundry room. Any size laundry room at that!!
Back in the day-no question: the ginormous closet. I loved my clothes. I had adorable weekend clothes. I had huge work wardrobe-and I had a list of outfits posted on my closet door. At the time I lived at home (because I spent my paycheck at Nordstrom) and my mother would say it was so fun to see me come in for breakfast in a cute outfit. Ha! Many years, 4 children later: lovely, large laundry room for sure-especially a space for wrapping ala Candy Spelling.
Oooh tough call! Since our laundry situation is in the garage- I’d have to go with the laundry room! It would be great to have somewhere to fold clothes that wasn’t our bed. However, it would be my dream to have a master with 2 closets so I didn’t have to share with my husband. Can I say both?!
Not having a proper laundry room or mudroom and being a farm family, I would love to have a big laundry room/mudroom combo. Take off the dirty barn clothes and put them right in the wash, have a place to fold and hang things. It would be fantastic. The big closet would be great if I had lots of designer bags and clothes, but that’s not really me these days.
Honestly? I feel like having either of those options “super sized” is a waste of valuable space. You need a closet that big? You’ve got too much stuff! A laundry room the size of a living room? You need a hobby! :)
The only room(s) in my house that I would love to see grow would be the kitchen/dining/living area be cause that’s where we actually spend our time.
I think she said she was dreaming and when we dream, we’re allowed to think big!
OH DEFINITELY a bigger closet!!! I am still trying to figuire out how to make that happen in our home. xoxo
We added a 7′ x 26′ room onto our house next to the master bedroom and I put the laundry room in my closet at one end. We have five baskets on shelf over the washer/dryer to separate dirty laundry (white, light, red, dark, and filthy) and I have outgoing hampers for my kids clean clothing. When a basket is full, it goes in the washer. The kids put their dirty items down a chute from the upstairs each day. Everyone thought I was crazy to put the laundry in the closet when I planned it and everyone who sees this room wants one for themselves. Now I only have to carry the kids laundry to be put away and they will be old enough eventually to do that on their own. My jewelry, shoes and ironing board are organized in the closet as well. I am intrigued by the idea of a family closet, maybe with dressing rooms or areas nearby for private dressing (my bathroom is next door for example). What if I had made space for the kids clothes in my closet as well? It is definitely a much different idea than what most of us are doing now.
Prediction in upcoming parades of homes: Laundry rooms with gyms combined! Hop on the elliptical while watching the bachelor and washing your clothes! Amen!
Considering the fact that laundry is my least favorite chore, I’d definitely choose a large closet. :) Our house is older and a modest size, so a large closet would be dreamy. We recently combined two small hallway closets and turned it into one indoor laundry space. Now we just need to actually buy the stackable laundry units so we can use it! Ha!
When my mom built her home back in the 1970’s she opted for a three bedroom home with a giant laundry room and an attached walk in closet, instead of a four bedroom home with a smaller laundry room. The laundry room has been an impractical, wasted space that just ends up collecting crap! She wishes she had gone with the extra bedroom. On the other hand the walk in closet in the laundry room has been fantastic. It is so practical, functional, and is a great use of space! So based on her experience I would go with a smaller laundry and a huge attached closet. That’s my two cents worth!
As someone who has neither in 2 homes (one of which we designed!) I have to say laundry, hands down. I tend to wear the same rotation of clothes, so I don’t need a giant closet…. I think it helps keep my clothing purchases at bay. I had a pretty giant closet when I was a teenager, and the shoe collection I had going was out.of.con.trol. I would much rather have a big place to sort whites, darks, reds, towels, etc!
A bigger laundry room and have it also be a mudroom. Ours is super small, you can barely move when the laundry is down here being done. The family closet idea is great. With all if the snow, I would love somewhere to put he gear (same with the summer and pool towels). We also have no where to stash our stuff coming into the house and our coat closet is no where near any doors. So if I had to do it again I would do the bigger laundry/mudroom deal. I built our house but so overlooked this. Looking at a bunch of beautiful model homes that no one live in can do that to you; you overlook the practical because all you see is perfectly decorated spaces.
A dream laundry room for sure! Our whole married life until 3 years ago we always had the laundry in our basements (old houses) and now we have a first floor. Small, but so nice and convenient. I would love to have a large laundry with shelves and cabinets, large folding table with a comfy chair, and a TV too! I don’t mind doing laundry at all. I really like folding clothes–sounds kind of crazy but I do. I love to see neatly stacked clean clothes and towels. And the smell of fabric softener–love it. Even though are three children are long grown up and gone I still would choose that huge laundry room over a closet any day…
Laundry room for sure. I do want to redo our closet, but I would love a huge laundry room and craft space. That would be fabulous.
A BIG laundry room! My tiny laundry room also serves as the entryway from our garage, so the pretty hooks that I hung years ago (10 of them!) are overrun with coats and backpacks and soccer gear and grocery bags and baseball hats…, you get the picture. :) And the shoes, oh, the shoes. It just cannot be organized. I am in the process of having some carpenters come give me estimates to build a design that I’ve drawn up to hopefully maximize the efficiency of the room. I told my husband that it was worth the investment to balance out my mental health. We’ll see how it goes!
I would love a huge closet in the master bedroom with a laundry room inside! But in my 1895 Victorian home, that’s just not going to happen.
Laundry room, definitely!
Definitely a laundry room for me. Oh the ones you posted had me swooning!!
I don’t have enough clothes, shoes, purses for a big closet and I hate clothes shopping!
I walk around all day singing “all I do is laundry!!” It’s my little theme song :) So clearly I would take that master bedroom-sized laundry room!
Hi Emily,
Of course you’d choose the laundry room. You have 5 kids! I’d choose it too, and I only have one, and he’s 26. I don’t have enough clothes to fill a mammoth closet, but I do like the idea of combining the two.
Happy folding!
Ursula
Personally I would take a larger closet. Right now my husband and I have separate closets and still overflow into both guest bedroom closets. I think everyone could use extra room for “off season” clothing, coats, purses, and shoes. (OH the shoes!:) In the blink of an eye your children will grow up and move away. That huge laundry room will not get as much use when it’s just two people at home so it’s kind of wasted space. A big closet would be useful whether you have a large family or if you’re empty nesters.
I think I’d go with a little of column a and a little of column b. I don’t fold laundry in my laundry room or have any space to hang dry in it. I’d add a little space there and then double my closet size. I live in a 1k sq ft house that has a good 200 sq ft taken up by the “furnace” room I’m not allowed to access. My closets are abysmally small.
Hmmmm. That’s a toughie! I would love to have a nicer laundry room. Maybe even one with multiple machines to do the wash more quickly (although then I’d have double to fold and put away). But probably yes to a bigger laundry room, rather than a big, room-sized closet.
give me the laundry room any day. mine was made back in the day of teeny tiny.
Well, I wouldn’t mind a closet that was a little bigger than mine now, but I don’t want a huge one. A huge one means I would accumulate way too much stuff or hang on to stuff for way longer than I needed to. But (and disclaimer- we don’t have kids yet) I usually fold laundry in front of the TV anyway so I don’t mind not having a big laundry room.
Laundry room all the way. That is where our clothes spend most of the time anyway. . . I’m terrible at keeping up on the laundry. I have 4 kids. You would think I would have learned by now. I do like the idea of a laundry room/ family closet. I’m trying to figure out how we could fit that into our renovation.
Hands down a bigger closet. As long as I have a laundry room big enough to fold and a little storage…I’m good. Of coarse I only have one kid left at home.
I would definitely choose a larger laundry room. My laundry room is between the kitchen and garage in my three-year-old home. The doors to each touch if they are both open. I do have a sink, a small cupboard on top and down, with a counter running the length of one wall. However, without a mudroom (in the country?!?), the counter just becomes a dumping ground as well as a place to store dog treats, cat food, etc. My ironing board is in my master bathroom closet. If I want to hang anything to dry? Upstairs to the bonus room (aka guest/play/man room) I go. My husband is also making cigar box guitars out of my laundry room (as it’s close to the garage for his saw), so it’s difficult to step around to do laundry on weekends. And even though ND winters are usually cold, I’ve basically forbidden anyone from coming through the laundry room from the garage anymore because why would I want to step on dirt, melting snow, and yuck to clean clothes? But if I really wanted to dream. . .I think I’d want two washers and two dryers. . . That’s what my MIL had while raising 8 children. Love your blog! Thanks!
100 percent BIG laundry room! I have a Pinterest board entitled “laundry room envy”!
A laundry room. I’ve had them in the basement, big but hate having to carry laundry up and down the stairs, in the garage, and the one I have now (and the one before) are in a small room you walk through to get to the garage. At least it’s close to the bedrooms.
I have 4 kids, so bigger laundry room for sure – enough space for a folding table, drying rack, ironing board, etc. I don’t’ have enough clothes to fill up a mammoth closet & how much time would you really spend in your closet anyway? The closet/laundry room idea is not bad though. My small laundry room has piles for all the kids right now…on top of the dryer!
This past summer, we took advantage of unused attic space over the garage and added onto our master closet. It is now about 3 times larger than it was originally. Because of the weird angles int he walls and roofline, we did not gain much hanging space at all. What we did gain was a wall about 6 1/2 feet tall (roofline) that we put floor to ceiling slanted shelves on for shoes as well as a space for my ironing board to stay up. The biggest part I love is space to move about. We are no longer on top of each other when we are getting ready in the morning. Neither of us have a huge amount of clothing but now we can really see it and I feel like we wear what we have.
Having said that, my laundry room is 6 x 12. I can fit the washer and dryer, dirty clothes hampers, a trash can, the vacuum cleaner and a small shelf. There is barely room to move around in there. I would enjoy a space to have a sink to hand wash items, a drying rack and space to actually fold my clothes. Not going to happen in this house unless I lose room from my master bedroom. (ummm, no). I am finding different places to put things and pare down as well. Mostly, I enjoy dreaming and those lovely laundry rooms in your post are absolutely dreamy.
Our previous house had a huge laundry room – I”m not sure of the dimensions but we could have easily converted it to a family room, it was so big. I didn’t find that much of a laundry room useful, so I’d choose a huge master closet instead if I couldn’t do the family closet described above. In the huge laundry room, it just encouraged us to leave clothes around instead of immediately folding and putting them away.
Otherwise a BIT bigger of a laundry room (we have a laundry closet right now) would be nice.
That would probably be true for us, too. More room = more piles!
Laundry room all day long! I would actually love to have a sewing room/laundry combo. I’ve whittled my closet down to my must haves and let go of the rest so I’m pretty streamlined in that department. It helps that we live in SoCal so we don’t have a ton of off season clothes and outerwear that needs to be stored.
If I had to choose between these two it would be a big laundry room/mudroom combo with a shower! Cubbies for backpacks & coats big enough to stow a laundry basket full of folded laundry for each kid to put away. Shower for extra dirty kids coming in from playing outside or sports practice who need to bathe before entering the home. And of course private living quarters for the hired help who does all of that laundry :)
Closet for me! Although, if I had 5 kids I would pick a big laundry room, too! LOL!
Bigger closet trumps all for me!
A bright sunny laundry and sewing room, a dream come true! And all on the same floor, even better!
Bigger laundry!! With 2 washers and 2 dryers!! A large chair, a large table, hanging rack, oh the possibilities. Mine is a walkthru/mudroom from the garage and I hate it! Thanks for allowing us to dream
That’s what I always say! Two of each. If one breaks and you have a group of kids it can get crazy fast! That way there is always a back up. My appliance man was talking to me and asking how often I run appliances and then it dawned on me-we wear things out twice as fast or more because there are 6 of us and we are all home all day. So an appliance that lasts ten years only lasts five for us.
Also a nice big closet to drive the vacuum and carpet steamer into and plenty of shelves for all the cleaning supplies
As for a closet, if I could wear a flattering, comfortable uniform every day I would, maybe a variance of three styles-done. Drop the mike and walk away.
Laundry room! Hands down. I don’t even want enough clothes to fill a big closet. Less is more!
My dream would be to have our laundry room right off of our closet (two good size rooms). I usually get dressed in the laundry room and not our closet since my clothes are the last to be put away in this family of 6….
Laundry. Always. It’s such an awful chore, but a large, pretty space with plenty of room to fold, and spaces for a basket of clean folded clothes for each person would make the chore a little easier!!
for that big laundry room with a lock & TV w/your favorite shows DVR’d – may I suggest you make it bit enough for a comfy chair & perhaps a footstool??? I designed my craft studio similar to what you described for your laundry room – and the one missing element is a way to RELAX. I have a stool, sure, but it’s not “comfy” enough to kick back, watch those shows I’ve DVR’d and enjoy. I’m working in there, after all, but sometimes I need a break. A break for my back, mainly. No where to sit & leaf thru a magazine while I take a break or need a creative refresh. Oh, and I think tiny laundry rooms were intentionally designed so we wouldn’t spend too much time in there… just sayin’!
Big laundry room – all the way!
Bigger laundry room over closet any day of the week. We have a large laundry room/pantry/computer desk/coffee station room that we use frequently throughout the day. I use my closet about 2 minutes a day. I’d rather pay to heat/cool a space that I actually use and limit the amount of clothing I purchase (less laundry to do anyway).
AMEN! Would also include a bathroom and I would strategically have this room between our master bath and the kitchen with access to both of these rooms via pocket doors. It would be my multi purpose room. Also, can’t forget the dog bath station and dog beds. Genius!
Laundry room for sure. I have a pretty big one… 10×12 and I love it! We got rid of a home office to create the laundry room. I have glass fronted cabinets to store pantry items. Lots of drying room too. I also have 5 kids 13 yrs and under…. So lots of laundry. I have a small walk in closet, which is great… Keeps me from accumulating too many clothes.
Our floor plan came with a smallest laundry room and big closet. They are connected (which is awesome!) and I have done a little brainstorming wondering if I could borrow some closet space and expand the laundry room. But then I’d have to give up some closet space. Decisions, decisions!
I would love to see a floor plan with a large laundry room with drawers and closets for everyone. Like one big giant changing room with maybe indivual changing rooms inside. Just think of the time saved and not having to get the laundry to and from constantly. I am so aboard this idea. And right next to the kitchen and inbetween a bathroom. That way all the water lines are on one end of the house. what a concept. Hurry up home designers…we need plans!!!!
Large laundry room with drying racks and loads of storage. Just built it and enjoying every load. Used to have just a stackable machine in a closet.
I’ve always been a “laundry room” person. We’ve owned and/or built a number of homes and the laundry has always been a priority…I’ve had basement, first floor and second floor laundries. I’ve had closet sized laundries and a laundry in the master closet. We’re in the process of designing our next home and my biggest concern is my laundry…I wanted a huge combination laundry/sewing/potting/hair salon room but it’s looking like I’m going to have to divide it into 2 rooms instead and I’m having a difficult time assigning the uses to the spaces. Additionally, the back door mud hall is between the 2 rooms so combining them doesn’t work. It’s a dilemma all right, but the choice is clear…a laundry room trumps a bigger closet every time!
When the whirlpool tub in our Mb dies, I am putting a WASHER and dryer in that spAce.
That being said, I would also like a mud room with at least a washer.
Big closets invite more stuff. Maybe a closet just for clothes and a closet or storage room for the rest.