A Look At Laundry

When we first came to look at our new house and I saw that the laundry room was in the general storage/utility room in the basement, I was at first a little disappointed. At the old house the laundry room was in the little entryway between the garage and the kitchen, thus making it very easy to get laundry started in the morning and keep up with it throughout the day. I wasn't sure how I would like having it in the basement, going up and down the stairs all the time, trying to remember to change out the loads.

Then, the second time we came to look at the house, we found this: Yes, it is a laundry chute! What fun!

Now that I have lived with the basement laundry room for a couple months, I have learned a few things. It is very nice not having baskets of dirty laundry sitting in our closets. The kids love throwing their dirty clothes (and ours) down the chute [along with toys, used diapers (Joseph is responsible for those-at least they are not poopy ones!), you name it, it's probably been thrown down]. I also have a lot more room to work in. (At the old house it was a tiny area through which people were always going in or out.) There is a cabinet between the washer and dryer to store detergent, etc. and Dan set up a table for me to work on. Then there is a mat on the floor, which makes it nicer on the feet. I have my ironing board set up down there (not that I have even used it yet, sorry, Dan). Another nice thing is that doing laundry in the basement doesn't heat up the house in the summer.

The only downsides to having the laundry room in the basement are:

• carrying the laundry up the stairs-good exercise now, but if/when I get pregnant again, that will be a burden-of course, when the kids get bigger, that will be their job!
• trying to remember to change out the loads. I usually don't hear the ding of the dryer and I haven't quite trained myself yet to remember by what time it is. I have found that I can listen down the chute to hear if the machines are still running, as long as I remember to check. Oh well, I'll get used to it, I suppose. Thank goodness for Downy Wrinkle Releaser!
• it is right underneath the kids's room and can get a little loud. So I just have to be careful during naptime.
• it is just not as convenient.

All in all, I find I don't mind having my laundry room in the basement. I think the fact that we have a laundry chute makes up for all the downsides! And that is quite enough about laundry for one day.