Hellobee Boards

Tough one! I think I might prefer it in the powder room if it was done nicely (maybe in a closet) and the powder room is tucked away so the noise won't be bothersome while you're eating dinner it watching a movie or something. I feel like garages and unfinished basements are a little dirtier/mustier in general,and prefer to have laundry fully indoors. In its own room or a guest bathroom on the same floor as the bedrooms is my ideal!

Ours is in the (finished) basement bathroom, and I think it looks weird. But it's only one floor diwn from our bedrooms (we have a weird brownstone layout), which is nice. Though I tend to fold in the family room (second floor), so it's still lots of up and down.

Definitely 1st floor. In my future home, I want it on the 2nd floor, or whatever floor the bedrooms are on. We have laundry in both our basement and a closet on our 1st floor. I never, ever go down to the basement to do laundry. (It's not finished though) Maybe I'm just lazy, but I like to fold laundry as close to where I am putting it away as possible! Ha.

I would hate walking up/down the stairs to the basement for laundry.

We have a basement laundry room and prefer it that way. Yes, it's more annoying to lug the laundry up and down, but I just like that stuff tucked out of the way. Also, while our machines are noisy, they do still make a noise and I prefer not to really hear it.

@Cherrybee: A half bath (just toilet and sink) in a main living area usually meant for guests.

Ours is in the basement.
Yes it's a pain to lug clothes up and down but we spend a lot of time in the rec room down there so I sit and fold while the kids play.
I don't like laundry being in public areas (where guests might go, not the general public). When I do laundry I sort in front of the machines and I don't need anyone looking at my dirty clothes.
The garage just seems cold/dirty/hot.

I have a basement laundry area, and would much prefer it on one of our two other floors. Our basement can be damp at times, which makes the clothes smell if you leave them down there, so even though we could air dry clothes down there, we don't. Also, it is only somewhat finished so I don't like bringing LO down there with me, which means I have to have her safe alone someplace upstairs when I do laundry which seriously impacts my ability to do laundry when I'm home alone with her. (I know this won't be an issue in a couple of years).

@MaryM: Thank you! We call that a "downstairs toilet"!

It's usual, over here, for the washing machine and tumble dryer to be in the kitchen. I prefer that because its on the main floor of the house and you don't have to lug laundry around. That said, of the options you gave given, id prefer the basement option because I would prefer any room meant for guests to visit to be beautiful.

Ideally I would love a laundry room on the second floor where our bedrooms are. Currently our washer/dryer is in a small laundry room on our first floor that is off our kitchen and opens up to our garage and i'm realizing I hate it. We also have our water cooler and recycling bin in there and it's just so cramped.

To answer your question I guess I would choose the first floor powder room although not ideal. I would hate it in the basement and garage.

With those options, I chose first floor. I have a dedicated laundry room- small but with a large windowsill and bar for hanging- on the second floor where our bedrooms are and it is the best option in my opinion. I'm glad the previous owners put it in. Less lugging things up and down stairs. It's what we had in our old home and we were ok with first floor laundry in the new home but I'm glad we ended up with this again.

One drawback is we can't really do laundry during naps, it's too close to his room to take the chance.

I didn't vote because for me it would be a toss up between basement or 1st floor, depending on how big the 1st floor bathroom is. If the 1st floor option is big enough so that you can leave a laundry basket in there and not crowd up the whole room, I'd say go for that. Otherwise, basement really isn't so bad. We have ours in our unfinished basement and I don't mind it. Plus I can leave dirty laundry down there waiting to be done and no one sees it.

I definitely wouldn't want to have to go out to a garage in the winter though.

@Foodnerd81: If you did build a cabinet, it's helpful to get those doors you can slide back into the cabinet once they're open, because it takes a huge door to cover the front of a washing machine

ETA photo

This is similar to what my mom has, minus the backsplash and window. http://www.houzz.com/photos/215257/Laundry-Room-san-francisco

My top preference would be a dedicated laundry room on the 2nd floor, closest to the bedrooms. If that's not possible, then it would be as much space as I could get with the least amount of walking.

ideally there would be a dedicated laundry room on the same level as all the bedrooms, but barring that, i chose dedicated laundry in basement.

@Foodnerd81: In my family, we don't sort laundry until we're about to do it. And hampers live in bedrooms. So not having a place to leave dirty laundry is sort of foreign to me.

I used to live in a house where the laundry room was off the powder room and it was awful. I hang dry/line dry a lot of things (bras, yoga pants, any clothes that say "line dry", etc), and there wasn't a place to put the drying rack except in the powder room. So every time guests came over, I had to make sure nothing was drying on the rack and put away the rack.

Of the options listed, I'd select laundry in the basement.

Of those options, I would have my laundry in the basement. Whenever I see laundry in a downstairs bath, it always makes the room look messy, even if everything is picked up.

We have a laundry room on the second floor, and it is one of the features I’ve ended up loving the most. Previously, I’ve always had laundry in the basement. It’s a PITA, but not a huge one.

I love having mine in our finished basement. It's nice to not have laundry piled up around guests. One day I might get very tired of hauling it up and down 2 floors, but so far I'm okay with it.

I voted basement. We are in a single level apartment and have our laundry in a weird closet hallway thing and I hang dry a lot of clothing, but the hanger thing is in the hallway, which I hate. I would love to be able to have all of that out of sight.