A few days ago I posted about innovative ideas for handling the transport and efficient flow of laundry, including having two laundry rooms, two dryers, laundry chutes, and other thoughts.
What if you turn this entire thing on its ear? The whole struggle centers around carting laundry to and from bedrooms, right? There is a concept called the "family closet," in which all clothing in the house is stored in one big wardrobe room/utility room together. Yes, that's right, all the clothing is here, so when it's dried and folded, it's just two steps away to put it back where it goes.
I had heard of this concept in a magazine a long time ago, and recently found a post where someone is doing this-- she says it has cut her laundry time in half!
I guess everyone in the family just needs a really good bathrobe to go get dressed in there after their showers...? Or maybe the policy is that you choose your outfit before bathing? Very interesting! What do you think? Post a comment and let me know!
I saw this at a friend of mine's house-she had a closet right next to the laundry room for her twin daughters- and it was so very easy for them...all the clothes were labeled in boxes or hung on the shelves..and it was a closet with a sliding door so it could double as a place to change as well..then all they had to do was "toss" the dirty clothes right across the hall into the laundry room were they were to be washed..I thought it was a great idea- saves time and energy of having to walk all the way to the bedrooms to put clothes in there (which will prbly end up on the floor anyhow..) However I think with a larger family there should be several closets, shared among family members (close to the laundry room of course) such as mom/dad closet, brothers closet, sisters closet- to give a sense of privacy:)
Posted by: Kayla | April 07, 2007 at 09:30 PM
The Family Closet is the best idea since sliced bread! We plan to include one in our home we will build soon. I liked the above comment to include enough space to use it as a dressing room as well. Or perhaps get in the habit of choosing clothes before you hit the shower. But the Family Closet idea makes much more sense, to me, than hauling the clothes TO the laundry room, washing and folding them, and then hauling them ALL over the house to put away. It would save much, much more time to just walk across the room and put everything away, nice and neat, but in one central location.
Posted by: Heather | May 21, 2007 at 09:45 AM
I think this is a great idea but would probably require a remodeling project for our family.
When I was looking for a home to buy several years ago, I thought it would be awesome if I could look for one with the thought of having shelving/closet space which backed up to the laundry room so I could put the clean clothing in the appropriate 'slots' like they do at the post office for the mail boxes.
Posted by: Brenda | May 27, 2007 at 02:27 PM
We are about to do this! I'm so excited! We have an unused room downstairs next to our laundry room that is supposed to be a sitting room/study. We have converted our dining room to a sitting room and so this room is empty. We're getting the majority of our racks, cubbies and baskets from IKEA to cut the costs. I'm also planning on having a table in there for the laundry folding and I'll set up my sewing machine in there as well. We're also going to use the room for crafts. I'm so thrilled with idea. I'm very tired of carting loads of laundry up and down the stairs.
Posted by: Kerri | July 31, 2007 at 07:41 PM
Kerri, this is brilliant! Please let us know how it works for you! I have always thought this was the best, most efficient way to deal with clothing. Thanks for being bold enough to try it out!
- Lorie
Posted by: Lorie Marrero | August 02, 2007 at 05:20 PM
I just stumbled across you post and had to share that we are in the planning stages of building our dream home and have incorporated a family laundry room/closet.
The awesome thing is that the laundry/closet will be upstairs right between the Master and my daughters' bedrooms so we all have direct access to the room from our bedrooms.
It is something I've long felt should replace the current approach in american homes, where bedrooms lose size with that inefficient closet space, plus all that lugging of laundry from the basement to the top floor and back again.
Our home will be only 1,800 square feet TOTAL, but our floorplan is so efficient that the master will be 13 x 20 feet and the girl's bedrooms are 10 x 14 feet each. BTW, it will be net zero home with many energy efficient/ solar features.
Posted by: Jessica Hughes | October 27, 2007 at 12:25 PM
I found an article on this that has pictures and everything. Very neat. I hope to one day be able to implement this idea in my home.
http://www.lotsofkids.com/LOK-Household/Laundry/familycloset/familycloset.htm
Posted by: Sara | November 30, 2007 at 05:17 AM
We've done this for years. It was my husband's idea, so I can't take credit for it. Everyone goes to the laundry room before baths and showers to pick out what they will wear. Sometimes when we're all getting ready, we'll have a laundry room traffic jam, but that's the only drawback. I wish our laundry room was bigger.
Posted by: Fatcatpaulanne | March 28, 2008 at 10:28 AM
the Master and my daughters' bedrooms so we all have direct access to the room from our bedrooms.i agreee. folding sliding doors
Posted by: folding sliding doors | September 03, 2010 at 04:12 AM