No, I haven't needed to service the washer or dryer at all. (It probably helps that I bought Mieles, as they've been trouble-free little workhorses. I'm opinionated about buying as much quality you can afford at the outset, to avoid problems later on, which has served me very well in this instance.) As far as accessing the dryer vent, I haven't actually ever done that. It vents down through a crawl space and out the foundation of our house. (You make me wonder however if it's time to go check on that, to see how much build-up there might be.) I don't seem to get an overabundance of dust, and am pretty meticulous about keeping the mesh lint screen cleaned after every dryer load, so that's probably helped. The washer is a tight fit, but can be moved. We need two people to actually pick it up (a couple of inches) to move it out, but have only needed to move it once in the time it's been there. (That was in the beginning when I had the sheet metal pan made, which took some time to procure and set into place. I also went the extra mile and bought metal mesh supply lines for peace of mind, knowing that moving the washer or dryer would take some planning!) The turn-off valve is at the back of the washer (behind the laundry basket) and rather hard for me to access as I'm short and don't have long arms. The Mieles are deep, rather than wide and because of this, I keep a step ladder (just in case) at that end of my home in my closet, so I can reach it quickly if the need ever arises. Hopefully it never will, but I did plan for the eventuality. This is absolutely some of the best space planning I've ever done. I can't tell you how easy it is to deal with laundry at this stage of my life...you'll just have to experience it yourself! If I ever have to move from here, I would repeat every detail exactly as is, in a heartbeat. Good luck!

Thanks. I guess there's not much more than I can do but the obvious? There's definitely room for more shelving to be put up. Saw a set of sliding / bypass doors on a closet like this on line and may think about doing that, would probably give me a little more playing room and possibly allow me to open it up a little more. Honestly, with all the measurements I took of this house, that's one I forgot, the linen closet. It's your typical one door closet opening, it's just very deep. I think a U shape with ventilate shelving would be better, and stuff would be easier to reach. THANKS!

the one thing about stackables, in your space: they'd rob you of WALL space--which you have very little of, given all the doors and windows. And wall space means space for dressers to sit against the wall, space for clothes to hang on a rod. And that sort of storage is what you need, actually--isn't it? I'll have to look at the pics again, and see what the space looks like. --and now that I have, maybe they'd work after all. There's a little more wall space than I expected. I guess you'd free up SHORT wall space under the window--so you could put a dresser there, or a cabinet w/ doors. Or a bench so you have somewhere you can sit. But I would NOT suggest a bench for stor ing laundry supplies there. I don't think laundry supplies on a bench is very useful. If you end up w/ a bench, you want to be able to sit on it, and I guarantee that the supplies will fill it completely up. I want you to have the supplies in a cabinet of some sort, and not out and visible. Maybe a drawer *UNDER* the stackables? One nice thing about front loaders--you can raise them up a bit. And oddly enough, I'm not a fan of shoes stored on or near the floor--too much bending over, and they end up flopping around and getting underfoot. Just 'cause you WEAR them there, doesn't mean they are best STORED there. But if you don't have any other choice, there's this sort of thing I think you should get some wardrobes or closet-system stuff to make that whole wall where the clothes are hanging into the main clothes-hanging space. I'd prefer wardrobes, or a custom-sized wardrobe from an unfinished-furniture place, bcs I want you to have DOORS over your clothes. Either way, it's my believe that you won't want a bench or dresser that goes the full width of the window; you'd want a bench for sitting (and putting on socks, etc.) that FACES the hanging rod. So you can stand in front of the hanging rod all the way over by the window. I would suggest a bench or cabinet or dresser that has its back to the washingmachine, and faces the clothes. You *could* just get smaller machines--the stackable front-loaders are much smaller physically, even if they DON'T stack, but their capacity is pretty good, bcs they're front loaders--and that would leave you more space around them. Get some graph paper, and sketch out the room. The Container Store has a great closet-planning service; give it a try! Here is a link that might be useful: Container Store closet-planning service

Carolmka, I will try searching the Organizing forum, thanks. I considered Elfa because it is a very nice looking, flexible system. We know from experience that we want half of the hanging space to have 1 shelf and rod and half to have 2 shelves and 2 rods, and it will cost less to have our cabinet maker or GC build and install the simple elements we want.