6 Floor Plan Solutions For An Efficient Laundry

1. Laundry Location

The best laundries have direct access to an outdoor drying area and are located next to the kitchen. Being able to cook and do your laundry at once is a big timesaver and will keep you from traipsing back and forth inside the house. Alternatively, it’s often found near the garage, away from living rooms and bedrooms so you won’t be able to hear the washer and dryer.

While dryers are a lifesaver, especially in rainy weather, having a clothesline right outside your laundry makes hanging them out to dry a breeze. Ideally, your laundry will also have a window or louvres for natural light and ventilation.

2. Room Size Considerations

A laundry should be in proportion to the size of the home. The number of bedrooms and people who live in it will determine how much space you’ll need.

According to interior designer Corinne Bolton of Elm Interiors in Brisbane, the minimum space for a laundry in any size home is 1.5m x 1.5m. “It would be better to have 2m in length, but you can get away with it being a bit smaller,” she says.

Bigger homes with more bodies means more clothes in washing baskets, more items in the washing machine, more garments hanging on the line or in the dryer, more folded clothes on benchtops and more shirts hanging on the rail. In a three or four bedroom house, Corinne Bolton recommends a laundry no smaller than 3m x 1.8m.

“There’s no formula for how big your laundry should be in proportion to the floor plan, it comes down to common sense,” she says. “If you’re building a huge five bedroom house to cater for a family of five or more, you certainly want a decent sized laundry that fits everything you need and allows room to move.”

3. Optimal Appliance Configurations

For maximum efficiency, a washer and dryer should be placed close together in your laundry. “You need to ensure adjacency with a washer and dryer so they’re right next to each other,” says Corinne Bolton. “When you’re taking wet clothes out, you don’t want to be moving around too much, you need to be able to put it straight in to dry.”

Front load washing machines will give you more layout options than top loaders. Depending on the size and shape of the room, washers and dryers can either be placed side-by-side under the bench or stacked one on top of the other. The dryer can also be wall-mounted up high above the washing machine to allow more counter space or to cater for top loaders.

Many of Corinne Bolton’s clients also request plinths for their washing machines to sit on. “It helps get them up higher off the ground so you don’t need to bend down so far to get your washing out of front loaders, which most people have these days,” she says. “You can also make the plinth into a drawer for extra storage, but you’ll need to check that having your washing machine raised won’t void your warranty.”

4. Efficient Storage

A well-organised laundry has a place for everything and everything in its place. Closed cabinets help keep the room looking tidy, while open shelves are quicker and easier to reach.

A combination of the two can be handy, with closed cabinets at the bottom and a mix of open and closed shelves overhead. Whatever you choose, storage baskets are a great way of keeping loose items grouped together and preventing them from getting lost at the back of the cupboards or falling off the shelves.

Maximise your storage space by configuring your cabinetry vertically on the walls for all your needs. Do it right and you’ll free up valuable floor space to sort the laundry, do the ironing and even have space for the dog to keep you company – and if your dog sleeps in the laundry, floor space for a bed is essential.

5. Laundry Chutes

The superhero feature of laundries, chutes get your dirty clothes to their ultimate destination faster than a speeding bullet – well, almost! Laundry chutes have made a big comeback in recent years. Why spend your time fetching and carrying dirty clothes from multiple rooms in the house to the washing machine when you can open a single door and throw them down the chute, mission complete?

A dream in double-storey homes, they do require some pre-planning and are more easily achieved in new builds. Chutes are usually placed in a bathroom on the upper level, directly above the laundry. And while they can be diverted, it’s not recommended as clothes can get stuck along the way.

6. Hi-Tech Inclusions

New products are taking home laundries to a whole new level, helping you save time and adding a sense of luxury.

An AirDresser is like having your own steam cleaning and dry cleaning service in your very own home. They are the perfect addition to executive-style homes and don’t take up a lot of space.

Ironing cabinets with in-built lighting and power points, as well as broom cupboards with power points to charge up cordless stick vacuums, are other great ways to get your laundry sorted like a boss. For a full range of appliances to kit out your laundry, visit us in-store or online. Also check out our home renovation ideas page for inspiration and tips.