It’s been about five and a half months since I finished my walk-in closet with washer and dryer. When I decided to put the washer and dryer in the closet, I got a lot of mixed reviews about this decision. And to be honest, I didn’t really know how it would turn out. The only thing I was sure about was that having the washer and dryer in my walk-in closet would be far better than what I had before. In my opinion, any improvement over the previous setup would be a good thing, even if it wasn’t ideal.
If you recall, from the time we moved into this house in 2013 until almost six months ago, my “laundry room” was located in our sunroom, the most awful room in our entire house. In fact, I dislike this room so much that it will eventually be torn down. But unfortunately I had no other choice, so the washer and dryer sat there for twelve years.
I hated going into that room so much that I dreaded doing laundry. And because I was afraid to do laundry, the laundry piled up until I had no choice but to go there and do some laundry.
I knew that even if it wasn’t ideal to have a washer and dryer in the walk-in closet, it would at least be a huge improvement over what I had. So I did it when I had the chance.
Now that I’ve been living with this arrangement for five and a half months, I can tell you that I absolutely LOVE this arrangement! It’s not just “Well, that’s better, so it’ll do.” I would say, at least for me, the whole arrangement was ideal.
When it comes to doing laundry, I’m not afraid of it at all. I won’t go so far as to say that I’m interested in doing laundry now. I don’t know if anything would really get me excited about doing laundry. But it no longer feels like a chore.
And since most of my laundry stays in our master bedroom (towels, sheets) and most of it stays right here in my closet (clothes of course), it feels so convenient to have the washer and dryer right here in this room.
I never thought I’d be one of those people who was so organized that I could actually keep up with the laundry. I’ve never been that kind of person, but I’ve also never had a convenient laundry area. Before we lived in this house with a laundry room in the sunroom, we lived in a condo with a laundry room in the hall (and no countertop for folding laundry). And before that we lived in two houses with the laundry room in the garage. This is the first time in my life that I have a laundry area in a very convenient location and right next to a large countertop (the island) where I can take laundry out of the dryer and fold it immediately.
When my mom was over at my house last week, she even noticed (and seemed a little shocked) how well I’ve been keeping up with my closet. The entire space is so practical and efficient in its layout and organization that I am proud that it looks beautiful. And of course she was shocked at how well I kept up with the laundry. She knows me and she knows my past habits of letting laundry pile up before tackling it. But that is now a thing of the past. The new Kristi with the new walk-in closet and convenient laundry room is a different woman.
I have to admit that I shocked even myself. Once I finished this closet, I knew I wanted to keep it clean and organized. I knew I wanted to keep up with the laundry and not leave piles of dirty laundry on the floor or piles of clean laundry on the countertops. But knowing my previous habits, I had some doubts as to whether I could actually live up to these hopes.
But it’s been five and a half months now and this whole arrangement has changed my life. I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but it really changed that part of my life for the better. I used to live with piles of laundry and the constant fear of having to do laundry, but now I don’t think about it at all. I just go in and get the job done, and I don’t let the laundry pile up anymore.
So if you’re thinking about putting a washer and dryer in a walk-in closet, I can tell you from personal experience that I highly recommend it. Seriously, I would give it ten stars out of ten. I really think it’s my best design decision yet.
