Rear addition/family room with laundry room

[Anonymous]

Have a 1970s colonial that originally had laundry downstairs but since moved to a closet on top floor. We are thinking about putting a family room/sun room addition on the back of the house where are deck currently is. I was thinking it would be good to have some more space for an actual (small laundry) room rather than the current hall closet with are using. Are there major issues with this that I'm not aware of? Kitchen wouldn't be too far aware from it.

[Anonymous]

We just did this to our 70s split foyer home. As long as you're doing the addition and have a water line nearby, it's not that big of a deal. The addition is expensive, but while we were at it, we brought the laundry room upstairs.

[Anonymous]

Can you keep both? We added a sitting room/changing room/bath addition on the back of our house at the same time we were adding a pool, and we put a washer/dryer in the changing room. We kept the laundry room on the second floor.

The downstairs laundry is obviously useful for swim suits and pool towels, but I use it all the time, even when we’re not using the pool. Kitchen towels, powder room towels, towels used to wash the dogs, throws from the family room, throw rugs, family room slipcovers, table cloths, etc On the other hand, I’d hate having to haul all of our clothes up and down the stairs, so if I had to give one up, it would be the one on the first floor.

[Anonymous]

We have a small master and the upstairs hall with the just gets conjested with laundry baskets, piles of clothes etc. Also, they are stacked so I can’t put anything on top of them if needed. Also the doors have to be left open to avoid mildewing which creates an obstacle in the hallway. It’s just a bad setup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a small master and the upstairs hall with the just gets conjested with laundry baskets, piles of clothes etc. Also, they are stacked so I can’t put anything on top of them if needed. Also the doors have to be left open to avoid mildewing which creates an obstacle in the hallway. It’s just a bad setup.

Are you OP? Consider that whatever you're doing with piles of clothes, will also happen in the main level laundry room. Mine used to be on the main level and we always had stacks of folded laundry on the sofa. We moved it upstairs so now it's easier to take the whole hamper to the bedroom and fold it on the bed.

I liked having a main level laundry room for towels etc. If we could have kept both I would have. My issue with our setup was that the laundry was in the entry/mudroom from the garage so it was a joint laundry / shoe and coat place / pet feeding station: I much prefer a separate space that is just for clothes (and we also store TP and cleaning supplies there).

[Anonymous]

If I had a really big house with a lot of interior space I would tuck laundry rooms in there, but I would never give up space at the back of a normal sized house near the kitchen for one, personally. I’d rather use that space for living area.

I don’t really mind carrying laundry up and down though. I don’t even think about it I guess.

What I do want someday is an air drying closet with a fan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a small master and the upstairs hall with the just gets conjested with laundry baskets, piles of clothes etc. Also, they are stacked so I can’t put anything on top of them if needed. Also the doors have to be left open to avoid mildewing which creates an obstacle in the hallway. It’s just a bad setup.

Are you OP? Consider that whatever you're doing with piles of clothes, will also happen in the main level laundry room. Mine used to be on the main level and we always had stacks of folded laundry on the sofa. We moved it upstairs so now it's easier to take the whole hamper to the bedroom and fold it on the bed.

I liked having a main level laundry room for towels etc. If we could have kept both I would have. My issue with our setup was that the laundry was in the entry/mudroom from the garage so it was a joint laundry / shoe and coat place / pet feeding station: I much prefer a separate space that is just for clothes (and we also store TP and cleaning supplies there).

Yes, I am the original poster. I wouldn’t mind if an actual room got congested (downstairs laundry) as it is better than the hallway upstairs leading to my kids bedrooms! The problem is my washer and dryer upstairs are in a hall closet (probably originally the linen closet) not an actual laundry room.

[Anonymous]

Makes sense as long as you're prepared for the cost. Small additions are rarely as cheap as people expect them to be.