One of the things that has stuck me recently is the lack of a good space to do laundry in my current condo. Now, I have a stacked washer/dryer unit hidden in my front closet, but I really don’t have a good place to set up shop to fold clothes and iron. If I want to be near the laundry machines I can stand in my front hall and face a wall. But I tend to like distraction while I work, even considering that I truly do like to iron, so my living room is my chosen place of work. There is something very zen and calming about the repetitive motion coupled with the warmth and moisture, even with House blaring in the background. Now the problem with ironing in my living room/den/dining area is that like most 900 square foot condos, there is just not enough floor space to set up a board, have a place to hang finished clothes, a place for the wrinkled clothes, and have the standard coffee table and chairs or a couch. I guess I can look to building a board and hanging bar into some wall or part of an entertainment unit, and if i stay where i am, that is what will probably happen. I have to wonder though, thinking back to all of the apartments I’ve lived in, there has not really been any good place to iron clothes. I think the last place that has a decent laundry set-up was my parents house.
In today’s economic climate one of the first things that has fallen out of my budget has been dry cleaning/laundering my work clothes. I’m sure there are other young professionals who are in the same situation; we have living spaces where laundry facilities have become an after thought. They are adequate enough to wash your weekend and evening wear, but the layout is just not conducive to washing and pressing your work clothes: these living spaces were built with the dry cleaner in mind. With lesser expenses shifting from the necessity to luxury column, like daily coffee and meals out, I have to wonder whether more young people will start doing their own laundry. If so, it would be interesting to see if laundry zones become larger and more centralized in multi-family development units.
It wasn’t that long ago that “luxury” apartment buildings did not have in unit laundry facilities, just a few decades really. In that time, with advances in appliances and cooking technology, we’ve seen kitchens grow from an efficient galley to a showpiece selling feature. I have to wonder if in a decade realtors will be hawking the spacious and airy laundry facilities of the new luxury living and architects planning these new units around both the hearth and the board?
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