I may be a minority but I say leave the washer/dryer where they are unless you do laundry all the time. You use shoes and dog food every day, better to be inconvenienced once a week for laundry (or whatever) than daily (and, you'd probably still be annoyed if you put the laundry there b/c of lack of space) Plus, when your kids get old enough, you can just make them do laundry and you won't be inconvenienced at all :)

Leave as is. You would be changing your family's productive habits. The room is too small for a laundry room that would make you happy in the long run.

I agree - leave it. Laundry could be made more enjoyable for you as the kids get older and can do their own laundry....

Rather than moving it, perhaps you could add a small stackable set that would take less room and add the convenience of having laundry handy while preserving most of the floor space. You may have to reduce the cabinets to one width.

Hi Julie,

I think you answered your own question. Some of the cons you wrote were:
1-we would lose the shoe and dog feeding area
2-not really any room to separate dirty clothes
3-no rod to hang clean clothes as they come out of dryer
4-the area would seem cramped
5-not sure about electric dryer- do they work as good as gas?

Just from reading this, I don't think you want to change your setup. The other posters are right, leave as is. I think if you make the switch, you will regret it in the long term.

Here is a link that might be useful: The connection between Mullets and Appliances is scary. Read my blog!

I also think you should leave it and can speak from experience. We had the laundry room configuration you describe in our last house -- and no basement to move the laundry to. We lived there 13 years and I was constantly unhappy with that particular aspect of the house. When we moved, one of the non-negotiable requirements was A NO WALK-THROUGH LAUNDRY ROOM. It sounds like your laundry habits and mine are similar -- the laundry doesn't always get folded right away and taken to its destination. Well, that's the way I did it, and so there was often undone or unfolded laundry staring me in the face every single darned time I went in and out of my house. It wears very thin very fast. And you are right, no room to work with the laundry. It's asking too much of a little space.

I think a mud room with shoes etc. is such a wonderful luxury. Keep it and enjoy it! :-) When house-hunting I saw one with a bench in it to sit down and change shoes and thought that was wonderful.

Another thought is that if it's not making it up to the bedrooms from the basement it probably won't make it to the bedrooms from the mud room. (Well, that's how it was with me, anyway.) And so, again, you'll be looking at your laundry all the time.

All great responses here & I agree wholeheartedly

Losing precious space in mudroom space will not make doing laundry a more pleasurable experience, nor will it magically make it to the designated upstairs area. I will make the mudroom less functional, more crowded, messy and be staring at you every time you enter the door.

Unless there is a physical disability I would keep it where it is.

If the children can dash down to get something to wear that day why not make it part of their chores to put their laundry away.

I have the same setup and I like it. I would hate having to do the laundry in the basement. cold, dark, another flight of stairs, out of sight, out of mind. I'm sure I would forget the status and find wet clothes in the washer the next day.

I use the doorknobs from all the doors in the cramped area (and another hallway nearby) to hang drying clothes. Yes, you see laundry a lot, but it forces me to get it upstairs as soon as it dries. So it is only out for one overnight.

If I did laundry all the time with a big family, I dunno. I tend to do 3-4 loads all at once in a single day/night and then I can forget about it for maybe as long as 2 weeks.

Here is an album of my laundry/mudroom that I put together on a painting decorating conversation. Maybe it can help you visualize the changeover?

As you can see, I have bifold doors to close off the mess if I want. Painting all the doors white helped minimize the closed in feeling.

It works fine for me. I think it forces me to deal with the laundry quickly, but I never thought about that before now.

OP, what did you end up doing?

I say leave it (if you haven't decided already).

I had a laundry "closet" off my kitchen (large enough to hold a built in laundry sink and washer/dryer with some storage). I HATED it!

We renovated our house before we moved in (major reno including kitchen). I wanted to move it then but people convinced me I'd find it so "handy" to have it on the main floor.

It was not bad when just the two of us but when son #1 and #2 came along - terrible. Nothing like stepping over piles of laundry on laundry days in your kitchen - gross. When I stripped beds it was the worst.

I couldn't wait to move it to my basement. Granted I did it up pretty nice. We finished our basement 2 years ago and I did a pretty full service room. It holds my machines plus a custom cabinet with storage and laundry sink. It also has a huge table in the middle for folding. I also use this room for crafts/wrapping so included storage for everything plus we use the table to do those too.

I have my sewing machine all set up and my iron/ironing board. Place to hang laundry (especially hubby's dress shirts). I even have a wall mounted TV and my elliptical machine. I have a nice chair for hanging out if I'm waiting for something or just supervising my kids doing crafts. I LOVE my new space.

Maybe if you tried to "spruce" up your space - even if it is unfinished. Go to Ikea and get a nice rug and maybe a table to fold on. You'd be amazed how much better it feels when it's spruced up. Or there are some fun floor carpet tiles (like from Flor on the link).

Make a point of getting finished laundry upstairs. I fold it all downstairs and carry it up in a basket. I leave each child's outside their room - they are responsible to help put it away :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Flor

First, difference between gas and electric dryer are nil in the grand scheme of life. Plus you're not limited to an electric dryer since you have gas there you could run a gas line and electric outlet and have gas.

You could put a stackable unit in there and have both. Do some upstairs and some downstairs. That way not lose as much room.

You say you don't like doing laundry. Why? If it doesn't include going downstairs or the related, this probably won't force you to enjoy laundry. Maybe you need to do other things? Have kids sorting their stuff? Have kids help with laundry?

I would love to have a first floor laundry. It would help me so much. But it doesn't sound like that's the case with you.

My thoughts, FWIW:

1-we would lose the shoe and dog feeding area
Wouldn't lose it all with the stacked unit. Not sure you'd totally lose it anyway with some modification though.
2-not really any room to separate dirty clothes
This could be a bit of an issue but a small wall hanging sorter might take care of it too. Or using hampers.
3-no rod to hang clean clothes as they come out of dryer
Fold down rod or rod hung from ceiling?
4-the area would seem cramped
"Seem" or "be"? That's two different questions
5-not sure about electric dryer- do they work as good as gas?
Yes, as addressed before.

We've lived with the current configuration for as long as we've lived here (13 years)
Sounds like it works for you, but...
BUT--I don't like doing laundry sometimes and I wonder if moving it up from unfinished basement would make it more enjoyable?
Again, is it the darkness? The steps? What is it that bothers you? Darkness can be addressed with simple lights. Maybe a fresh coat of paint? A chair and a TV?
Also, the clean clothes in the basement often don't make it up to the bedrooms so the kids run downstairs every morning to grab something.
Well, if you don't finish laundry down there, it's not likely you'll finish it upstairs unless something else changes. Maybe you need to put shelves/drawers in the basement to store the clothes? Then just go there for your clothes. Or have the kids bring all of it up and put it away rather than one at a time?

There's a number of issues here. I don't think a new location will resolve the underlying issues. If it's working, stay with it and work on improving it. Although again a stacked unit might be a possibility. Would you put clothes away if they were on the main floor? Can the dog eat somewhere else? Do you have that many shoes that you need a special room filled with them?

Maybe check out some design magazines or something at the library and some organizing ideas. Might be helpful.

I know this is an old thread but might still apply. I'm curious what happened.