If you care about resale value, the laundry in the basement isn’t ideal. We have a full laundry room with a countertop for folding clothes on the second floor near the bedrooms and a washer dryer in the mud room/pool room on the first floor. The w/d on the first floor seemed like an extravagance when we put it in, but I use it much more than I thought I would.

I can see how the basement might work for you now. However, the only people I know who have a housekeeper that comes and does laundry have a lot of kids. One family with 5 kids has multiple w/d in one room, but it’s on the first floor. We have a large house and a housekeeper, but we’ve always done our own laundry. Once your kids are grown and you’re doing your own laundry, you’ll really appreciate having a bigger laundry area on the second floor. It’s not like having it in the basement gains you a ton of privacy; the housekeeper is still going to be in and out of your bedrooms collecting dirty clothes, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Laundry on the main level. 2 washers, 2 dryers. Large folding surface. Fridge, tv, giant sink, and lots of storage should be in there too. Think oversized mud room.

I’ve seen this in a few houses in our neighborhood. Love it!

Just needs a vending machine and a change machine.

Laundry on the main level. 2 washers, 2 dryers. Large folding surface. Fridge, tv, giant sink, and lots of storage should be in there too. Think oversized mud room.

I’ve seen this in a few houses in our neighborhood. Love it!

1. Ask your housekeeper.

2. Also, ask your chef about the second staff kitchen - do you need 3 or 4 ovens? 6 or 8 burners? Dumbwaiter?

3. Better yet, ask your butler to ask your staff about these issues. Then butler should discuss with architect. In fact, if your butler should have already done this if he is any good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lol at “it can double as a gift wrapping room”

Who has a room that’s designated for wrapping presents?

Candy Spelling does. OP's influences need work.

EVERYBODY has a room in which they wrap presents. It might be the dining room or the floor of the living room.

A basement utility room can be useful for a ton of things including wrapping presents, folding laundry, hanging large items to dry, soaking things in the sink, storing entertaining stuff, staging for parties (rental crates, flowers, cases of beverages, etc). It makes sense to think about those things if you're building the house and design the room and the storage in the room to facilitate them.

I have a normal small house in PG COUNTY of all places and I have an Elfa wrapping paper thingy on the basement (the horror) laundry room door because there's a counter that's a convenient place to wrap things. Plus I can then stash them there on high shelves until Christmas or the birthday or whatever (until the child gets wise I guess). That makes it my "present wrapping room."

Anonymous wrote:Go ahead and do the basement laundry room but consider installing a dumbwaiter or a laundry chute.

I don't get the hate for basement laundry rooms. Ours is in the finished basement in our house in Bethesda. There is no room on the main or second floor to devote to a laundry room. It simply isn't that big a deal. We do have it on the main floor of our beach house and that works better there because we have beach/pool towels and a lot more guests so are doing a lot more laundry.

+1 to basement + dumbwaiter/chute.
I don't have a housekeeper but my laundry room is bright and pleasant, and I find it nicer to iron in the cooler basement. And yes, counter space, a sink, etc. for crafts/projects/whatever.

Anonymous wrote:I can’t even with this post.

This. I have 6000 sq ft, one set of washer/dryer and clean my own house. I manage just fine.

Go ahead and do the basement laundry room but consider installing a dumbwaiter or a laundry chute.

I don't get the hate for basement laundry rooms. Ours is in the finished basement in our house in Bethesda. There is no room on the main or second floor to devote to a laundry room. It simply isn't that big a deal. We do have it on the main floor of our beach house and that works better there because we have beach/pool towels and a lot more guests so are doing a lot more laundry.

Anonymous wrote:Lol at “it can double as a gift wrapping room”

Who has a room that’s designated for wrapping presents?

Candy Spelling does. OP's influences need work.

Anonymous wrote:Lol at “it can double as a gift wrapping room”

Who has a room that’s designated for wrapping presents?

It's totally a thing in larger houses.

Is putting W/Ds on the main floor in a mudroom not a thing anymore? I grew up in a 7K sq.ft. house, and we had one laundry room that was also our mudroom. In retrospect, I think my mom would have added a folding/ironing table, but otherwise I doubt she'd do things differently.

Personally, I found W/D on the bedroom levels to be odd, especially since I think most people do their personal laundry at night. Who wants a dryer running next to their bedroom?

Lol at “it can double as a gift wrapping room”

Who has a room that’s designated for wrapping presents?

Don’t make your housekeeper drag laundry up and down to the basement.

Here's what I would do:
-Giant laundry area of your dreams in the basement. Your housekeeper will appreciate having the space and privacy to do the work.
-Install hookups for laundry in a closet in your 2nd floor. But there's no need to actually use it right since your housekeeper is doing all your laundry. However, you'll have the hook-ups and piping already installed for use at some point in the future.

OP ignore all the naysayers here. I would absolutely do this if I were in your position. I remember a house that Emily Henderson designed and featured on her blog a few years ago (I think in Portland OR) where she did the exact same thing.