Wednesday, 27 November 2024

No longer airing my dirty laundry

Technically, I used to air washed laundry :p

Having a dryer is a wonderful thing. Really. All the time I used to spend hanging up laundry, shifting the drying racks depending on the weather and checking for dryness was such a waste! 

In our first home, our dryer was stacked on top of the washer. We didn't have a stacking rack, just placed a tailored plank from carpenter on top of the washer, and put the dryer on. But it was impossible to clean the floor under the combo coz it was too heavy to move. When we had to change the washer, it was a nightmare. When we had to repair the dryer, it was also a nightmare.

So for our home now, I decided I want my washer and dryer together. The downside is that our selected dryer model does not allow us to install the door such that it opens in the opposite way as the washer. 

But I already have two Ikea Samla 45L boxes for clean laundry. So I just use a box to hold the west laundry, and pull the box over to the dryer to throw in the clothes. As I like to shake out each item instead of letting each be crumply wet, this setup is much better than the stacked setup where I would have to bend up and down 50 times! Yes, that's roughly the number of clothing items every full load!

These Ikea boxes are really good. Just the right size of a full load of laundry. I bought only one lid though. I put clothes for ironing in a covered box as I don't iron every day now. The box without a lid stacks nicely on the covered box. When I need to mop, the stack of two goes on top of my dryer.

They are also easy to carry. I have to carry Sito's and my clothes for folding to our room to fold. We didn't install the common counter over washer/dryer in our laundry room as I thought it silly to make the machines less accessible for maintenance AND collect dust on the machine!

Yes, we have a dedicated laundry room!


That was the scene after ironing one day. This room gets the afternoon sun so it's perfect, though the direction of the sun alternates every six months.

But when the autumn solstice came this year, I decided that it was too hot when I wasn't drying anything so I put up an extendable rod and hung up an unused shower curtain to protect the machines and my Robot-kun charger.

Come come, let me introduce my favourite room :p

The basin is the biggest, good-looking basin we could find. It's for washing stains off before throwing into the washer. I also wash shoes and Robot-kun parts there. Basically the mud sink. But you know the usual mud sinks look horrible :p Various cloths are hung near or on it - for drying hands, wiping machines, toilet rags etc.

There's a thin movable rack between the washer the wall under the window, where I store detergent, laundry sanitiser, stain removers, bleach for cleaning the washer etc.

The washer looks lower than the dryer coz the roller stands can't take the washer drum vibrations! I can still clean around the washer but at some point, I would need to shift it to clean under it.

The wall rack was useful for me to hang up ironed clothes and also various items to be hung dry, like Sito's jogging clothes (too small a load for the dryer), Kai's school tie, schoolbags and shoes. I can turn the arms so that they go outside the window - great for things that drip and/or need more sun!

The ironing board and iron go into the cabinet on the right edge of the photo, along with other cleaning materials and stores of various stuff which I don't even know where to start describing so I shan't :p The side wall is great to hang up my Magiclean sweeper.

The three baskets in the foreground are for the kids' clean clothes. Each kid will bring his own clothes back to fold. I still hang other clothes for them - that may change if they become more gentle in future, else I fear for my wall rack!

Oh, the small stool is for me to sit on while I move clothes into and out of the machines. And to clean Robot-kun. 

Think this is also the first house tour for our home. Hope to get down to more :)

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