Where is your washer and dryer?

mjd

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In this thread Eating with unfamiliar utensils ...

LissaC posted a picture of her kitchen which featured a washer and dryer.

Burt Blank posted that Croatians often have the washer and dryer in the bathroom.

Here, in the US, the laundry room is often a separate area from both the kitchen and bathroom.

My parents' house has the washer and dryer in the kitchen and I never liked it. They have a huge kitchen which has a commercial sized stove/oven combo and two refrigerators. I guess I think the w/d is just way too much stuff going on in the kitchen. Plus, it seemed like the laundry absorbed the cooking odors.

I had the washer and dryer off from the furnace in my first house. It was nice because I could do laundry anytime. They were in their own little room in my second house on the same floor with the bedrooms. That was nice because I didn't have to carry laundry upstairs to put it away.

Where is your washer and dryer and do you like it?
 
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Growing up, it was in a large room in the basement, which also contained a dining-room sized table for folding clothes, a large chest freezer, and the furnace.

Apartment living, it was always in a little closet, in a space just big enough for the two units - open the bi-fold door, and there they were.

In both houses in the U.K., there was a space for the washer in the kitchen, so that's where it was, but as tumble dryers aren't as common, no space for that, so the dryer sat off to the side, very much in the way. One house did have a basic dryer vent hole, which was literally an open hole in the wall, no cap over it, no insulation around it, but the other house, you had to either open the back door and run the dryer vent out that or out a window.

Both houses we've owned in the US have had their own "utility room" - washer and dryer, as well as the furnace, water heater, electrical box, main water shutoff, etc. Not nearly as large as what we had growing up, but same concept. It's large enough to do the laundry in, but not large enough to set up any kind of table for folding clothes.
 
Houses in Portugal are usually much, much smaller than Canadian and American homes and laundry rooms are unheard of. I've seen the washer in the bathroom in extremely tiny houses, but that's usually something that signals a tiny, low income home and everyone thinks it's super odd.

Brazilian homes usually have a laundry room, even though most tend to be tiny.
 
Behind the wall next to the shower in my wife's bathroom. I prefer mine as I don't like enclosed showers. The dryer is the south facing balcony.
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Mine are in a closet off the bathroom. No room to fold but I do have a small area to hang clothes for drying. Last week our washer bit the bit dust after 27 years of use and no previous breakdowns. I would say we got our use out of it.

When I bought a new set this week I was overwhelmed with all the options available. Who knew there were so many choices - thankfully the sales person knew the product and I was able to take what she advised and then do my own research before making a decision. The main surprise was the sales person told me average life expectancy of washers in the US is now 5-7 years!!
 
The main surprise was the sales person told me average life expectancy of washers in the US is now 5-7 years!!
Yep. I have a local repair guy, and he told me the same thing. When our Bosch washer broke down after 10 years, he said to count ourselves lucky, we got more than most.
 
In this thread Eating with unfamiliar utensils ...

LissaC posted a picture of her kitchen which featured a washer and dryer.

Burt Blank posted that Croatians often have the washer and dryer in the bathroom.

Here, in the US, the laundry room is often a separate area from both the kitchen and bathroom.

My parents' house has the washer and dryer in the kitchen and I never liked it. They have a huge kitchen which has a commercial sized stove/oven combo and two refrigerators. I guess I think the w/d is just way too much stuff going on in the kitchen. Plus, it seemed like the clothes absorbed the cooking odors.

I had the washer and dryer off from the furnace in my first house. It was nice because I could do laundry anytime. They were in their own little room in my second house on the same floor with the bedrooms. That was nice because I didn't have to carry laundry upstairs to put it away.

Where is your washer and dryer and do you like it?
I love the way you bring up all kinds of threads and essential everyday topics, mjd-lovescooking 😍. Background info: due to heavy taxation, high material and heating costs etc., houses in Finland tend to be small. In the cities, most people live in smallish blocks of flats. The price of lots and properties is insane. It's not unheard of to have a 200 sq m (2100 square feet) house on a 1000 sq m lot on sale for 2,5 M €/3 M $ in the capital (Helsinki area). Average wages (after taxes) are 2 500€/month.

Anyway, detached houses usually have a small separate washing or washing-utility-mud room with ironing stuff, coat racks, closets for clothes and possibly a hand shower for washing wellies/rubber boots and dirty pets (like in Love It or List It). I love those kinds of solutions but I've never experienced them at home.

I've always lived in an apartment (a family decision to avoid mowing the lawn and taking care of utilities everywhere) and spent most of my summers at the countryside. As a child in Helsinki we lived in a small two storey block of flats and had a separate own sauna downstairs with a dressing room. The washing machine was in the bathroom. No dryer.

Many blocks of houses have a large mutual washing room and sauna area in the basement or in the attick; sometimes with a pool. I've always had the washing machine in either the bathroom or in the kitchen. No dryer. Now our washing machine is in the bathroom with no dryer - I don't like the way dryers wear out delicate cottons. I don't like removing peachfuzz from the dryer either.

There is a mutual clothes hanging room (without machines) in the basement but we usually hang the clothes on foldable plastic racks all over the place. It looks rather slovenly but homey: I love it; keeps things down-to-earth and reminds me of Italian narrow alleys with flagline-clothes hanging above. At the moment there is laundry hanging right in front of the main door in the corridor. The pizza delivery lady took a peak inside and probably thought that "oh, that's normal".

At the countriside we have no hot water plumbing - just cold water straight from the lake (as we use the place only in summer months). We heat water in a small electric kettle for washing up. My mom has a washing machine in her adjacent house but we usually take our laundry back to the city. There are just cords zig-zagging between the trees for hanging damp clothes.

Thanks to former activities in business we have another weekend home by the lake. It is better equipped but we don't like to spend time there as the milieu is more desiccated (mainly just pines), there are next door neighbors and occasional snakes (the only venomous snake in Finland: viper/adder). In that place, we have a washing machine-dryer tower but it's seldom in use.

It's a shame that only my in-laws use this modern villa, but one can't help taking emotional and tranquility issues into account when it comes to spending the summer with the family. We just love to stay in our non-equipped, old shack with an outhouse and my mom and stepfather in the neighbor. The nature and fishing grounds are much better there.

Here's a pic of the washer and dryer of the modern villa. The machines are behind sliding glass doors in the foyer - a bit like in TastyReuben's late apartment.

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Here's my set-up:


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the word would be "homey," as "homely," generally means ugly or unpleasant-looking.
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I love your pedantry, my spiritual brother. I edited my post! I edited my post! Homely - > homey, as our home isn't ugly or unpleasant-looking, just slight(ish)ly disorderly. Can I have my pink & glittery star sticker now?

I noticed that you're prepared for the... second wave.
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Our washing machine is under the worktop in the kitchen: its an integrated model so its nicely hidden behind a cupboard door. The tumble dryer is in the garage as there's no space for it in the kitchen (I dislike combination washer-dryers). But actually we try to line dry clothes as much as possible rather than using the dryer.

Some houses in the UK do have a utility room where the washing machine, dryer and boiler are fitted, but they tend to be the larger houses and are in the minority. Space is at a premium here ;-)

A quick Google says that the average house size in the UK is 85 sqm (915 sq ft) versus the US average of 2386 sq ft (221 sqm) - which probably explains why so many of our domestic appliances are designed to fit into small spaces.
 
I love your pedantry, my spiritual brother. I edited my post! I edited my post! Homely - > homey, as our home isn't ugly or unpleasant-looking, just slight(ish)ly disorderly.
Please note, I wasn't saying it's incorrect. Since this is a U.K.-run site, I'd say you're more correct. Just pointing out another language difference, which is fun sometimes.

Hemulen I was going to comment on the same!! TastyReuben got all the toilet paper!
Ha, I should point out, that's not hoarding, as we've been to Sam's Club recently. That's both toilet tissue and paper towels. Just our usual purchases. :)
 
I love your pedantry, my spiritual brother. I edited my post! I edited my post! Homely - > homey, as our home isn't ugly or unpleasant-looking, just slight(ish)ly disorderly. Can I have my pink & glittery star sticker now?
Please note, I wasn't saying it's incorrect. Since this is a U.K.-run site, I'd say you're more correct. Just pointing out another language difference, which is fun sometimes.
Yep..I don't think I've every heard a British person use the word "homey". "Homely" for me means cozy and welcoming.
:happy:
 
Please note, I wasn't saying it's incorrect. Since this is a U.K.-run site, I'd say you're more correct. Just pointing out another language difference, which is fun sometimes.


Ha, I should point out, that's not hoarding, as we've been to Sam's Club recently. That's both toilet tissue and paper towels. Just our usual purchases. :)
Ha, I know. I just like your style and this missus <bleeping> tries to adapt :roflmao:. We usually have a similar amount of kitchen paper and toilet tissue in our tiny town house sauna which hasn't been used since 2003. The resistor of the sauna stove broke down and nobody is interested in repairing it: the sauna bath/intensity of an electric sauna is nothing compared to a wood stove sauna at the countryside. Besides (a bit more back to the topic, MorningGlory) there is now room in the unused sauna to store e.g. paper, dirty towels, odd (uneven) socks, outdated makeup, Christmas ornaments, old paintings, dust bunnies and flower pots...

The unedited, ugly truth; the discreet charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Finnish Sauna:
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The former residents had made a modification in the floor plan which we really like. In the original plan, there was a wall and a guest restroom on the right. The first owners had relocated the restroom and converted the original restroom into a spacious walk-in shower which now works as a second bathroom and a discreet place to hang the clothes. The reason we scatter damp laundry all over the apartment on foldable racks has a lot to do with the urge to add some humidity during dry and cold seasons - not only to add coziness.
 
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