{"id":102381,"date":"2019-12-19T09:12:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T14:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bhgre.com\/bhgrelife\/?p=102381"},"modified":"2019-12-17T16:37:07","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T21:37:07","slug":"laundry-room-remodel-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhgre.com\/bhgrelife\/laundry-room-remodel-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Laundry Room Renovation Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\naverage lifespan of washers and dryers is less than 15 years these days,\nalthough your mileage may vary. While no one jumps for joy at the expense and\ninconvenience involved in replacing major appliances, replacing your washer and\ndryer is a great incentive to do a laundry room remodel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngood news is that by choosing the right new appliances and renovating your\nlaundry room, you can create a space that maps to your workflow. Whether you do\nlaundry on a daily basis or have family laundry marathons once a week,\ndesigning a layout that works for you and your family will make this chore less\nonerous. You\u2019ll also be able to invest in energy-efficient appliances that will\nsave you money over time and may also save you major wear and tear on your\nclothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\nare some laundry room renovation tips to think about before starting your\nremodel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrade your lighting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

No\nmatter where your laundry room is located, good lighting is almost as important\nin this area of the home as it is in the kitchen. You can\u2019t pretreat a stain\nyou can\u2019t actually see. This is especially important in basement laundry areas\nwithout a lot of natural light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nso many lighting options out there, get rid of any fluorescent tubes and harsh\nlighting that can create shadows and glare. Invest in some ceiling pot lights\nand make sure you\u2019ve got good lighting over your laundry sink and washer area,\nsince that\u2019s where you really need to see stains that need to be treated before\nhot water and hot air cause them to set permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get some storage systems<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Depending\non how you organize family chores, doing laundry may be a centralized or a\ndecentralized chore. Does each member of your family converge on the laundry\nroom with their individual baskets of dirty clothes to do their own laundry? If\nso, you probably won\u2019t need as much storage space<\/a> as a family that\u2019s delegated the\ntask to a single person. If dirty clothes are stored in the laundry room before\nbeing washed, you\u2019ll need more storage space and some pre-sorting bins to speed\nup the actual process. Pull-out bins in lower cabinets will help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou have the space, a hanging rack for clothes that may not need much (or any)\nironing will let you get on with the necessary folding without letting wrinkles\nset in freshly washed clothes, creating more work for yourself later on. A\ndrying rack for clothes that can survive machine washing but will shrink in the\ndryer is a great idea too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nof course, an area set aside for ironing in the laundry room is a necessity\nunless you iron somewhere else. There are lots of space-efficient ironing board\nover-door systems available now with racks to hold both the board and the iron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou don\u2019t have any cabinets in your laundry room to hide bottles or boxes of\nlaundry detergent, bleach, stain treatments, and dryer sheets and you\u2019re\nreplacing your appliances anyway, invest in under-appliance\ndrawers<\/a>\nto store these items. They need to be accessible, but they don\u2019t need to be on\ndisplay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Create the counter space you need<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Front-loading\nwashers are game-changers in many ways. They use less energy and less water,\nand the fact that they spin rather than agitate means less wear and tear, and\ntherefore longer life, for your clothes. But they are also amazing space\nsavers. If you have enough space to install your washer and dryer side by side\nrather than stacking them, a two- or three-sided countertop that fits over your\nwasher and dryer gives you a flat surface for folding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nspace is at a premium and you have to stack your laundry appliances, you can\ninstall a folding table that doesn\u2019t take up space or get in the way as you try\nto get to the washer and dryer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make it pretty<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For\nthose who consider laundry a thankless task, an undecorated, poorly designed\nspace just makes it worse. And for those who actually like doing laundry, why\nspend time in an ugly room with no redeeming features? Invest in some bold\npaint or wallpaper or a piece of art that isn\u2019t going to be adversely affected\nby heat and humidity and give it pride of place on the wall above your\nappliances or the one you\u2019ll be facing while folding or ironing. Small quilts,\nhandmade rugs and wall hangings that bring you joy are perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\ndon\u2019t need to paint or wallpaper the whole room. Think of the area behind your\nappliances as a feature wall. It\u2019s a small, low-traffic area that can be\ntransformed with a pint of paint and no more than two rolls of wallpaper. And\nonce you\u2019ve finished your laundry room remodel, you may find you don\u2019t hate doing\nlaundry anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"