Locating the laundry room

Many people spend a lot of time doing laundry, from piles of bathroom towels to the kids’ sports uniforms.

To be sure this chore doesn’t become more of a headache than it has to be, they can consider planning the style and location of their laundry room around their lifestyles, rather than just sticking it in the basement or a corner closet.

When deciding where to set up a laundry room, they should ask these questions:

1. Where in their home do they spend the most time? If it’s the kitchen or living room, the laundry room should be adjacent to those rooms. They should then purchase sound-conditioned appliances so the noise of the washer and dryer doesn’t compete with family conversation or the television.

2. If they are unable to climb stairs or prefer to save their workouts for the local gym, they can consider putting the laundry room on a main level or even next to the bedrooms, where the majority of laundry will be generated.

3. If cost is an issue, and they can’t rework their home’s entire plumbing system, they can find out which walls house the main water and waste pipes and plan their laundry area for those locations.

4. They can think creatively to turn their laundry area into a multiuse space to save on interior real estate. It may double as a mud room, a butler’s pantry or an exercise area.