laundry in a cupboard what do you think?

I am looking at ways to reduce the overall size of the house we are planning to build, there is only the 2 of us now that the kids have flown the nest. I have seen a small house that had a large wet area which consisted of a large 3 way bathroom which incorporated the laundry into a cupboard. I'am thinking of including this into our design as i dont need a large laundry. I am interested to see if anyone done this, and does it work?

I love the idea -- how often do you hang out in a laundry? The only things to consider would be resale, and if you need a space for ironing/storage/dirty clothes!

Funny, I showed my mum the layout of my new house recently, and the first thing she said was "you should make the laundry bigger". All comes down to priorities, I suppose...

If you are building a house for 2 and would re-sell to a downsizer, then go for it. Have used these laundry cupboards in holiday units and they seem to work well, as long as you don't need anywhere to hide the washing pile. With two lazy teens I am going for a large laundry, prob. overkill but will be extra storage anyway.

I've looked at a few houses with the laundry in a cupboard, and I'm not a fan. I don't hang out in my laundry, but even when there were just 2 of us I would sort dirty washing in there, store baskets of clean washing waiting to be folded, hang clothes in there on clothes horses or drying racks, soak clothes in buckets or the trough, iron in there (if I'm only ironing one or two things, otherwise I pull the board out where I can watch TV ), plus store all things washing and cleaning related.

I think they're a great idea where space is a big issue, but I would prefer a dedicated laundry room and the absence of one would probably be enough to put me off buying a place. But if you're building a small place for two then I'm not your target market for re-sale

My feelings on this are they are never a selling point no matter what the real estate agents call them (European laundry, Manhattan laundry ) but in an apartment or cottage they might be understandable. I've seen it done in 4 bedroom reno's which to me doesn't really make sense.

I used to say I want a bigger laundry, I miss my old one, but then I thought about it and realised they are about the same just laid out differently. What we've gotten in this house is a generous but awkward cupboard while what we used to have was just enough tall cupboard space for what we needed and a lovely big useful bench with lots of storage under. So it's not just size, it's design and layout. And other people might have different priorities and prefer more cupboard and less bench.

I reckon you should think about what you need space for, what you comfortably could or would want to keep/do somewhere else in the house and what isn't relevant to your lifestyle

washer
dryer
hand washing, soaking
flat drying
dirty clothes hamper
ironing
mending
broom cupboard
other cleaning equipment storage
stepstool
useful bits and bobs, spare household items
sports gear, gardening gear
suitcases
etc

and think about how you would deal with things like ventilation and noise and clutter. I mean if you need to suddenly do something will it disturb what's going on in the rest of the house or if you are in the middle of doing something and visitors turn up unexpectedly will it be difficult to shut the door on what you were doing?

Another thing is where would you put the cupboard? I've seen them in the bathroom like you described or in the corridor or in the family room or kitchen. I can imagine pros and cons with each, perhaps somebody with personal experience can say more about that.

I suppose it could be alright if you can see it working for you AND if it is designed well and in keeping with the size of the house.

No no no! Would never buy a house with euro laundry in cupboard!

I lived in an apartment for a few years and with two of us it worked fine with laundry in a cupboard.

We had a combined front load washer/Dryer and a washing basket sat on top for dirty clothes.

It depends on your needs.
For two people it is fine, however if you have pets etc may not work unless you plan to place kitty litter, feed bowls etc elsewhere.

Gotta agree with the above...if you want pets either cat or dog you may regret not having a laundry..
If the laundry in the cupboard is going into something bigger than a villa/apartment i wouldn't do it based on resale. if it was for something like that then maybe...living space may have to take preference!

Thanks for the comments, I had not really considered how this may effect the resale value, more thought is required. We are in the process of trying to sell our house but with the buyers market at the moment we have had to drop the price $40k so I'm looking at how to reduce the cost of the build as we need to fund the build from the sale as we are not in a position to increase our small mortgage.

I was thinking of doing away with the ensuite and moving the bathroom with access from master bedroom, making the Bathroom larger to incorporate the laundry. Hubby wants a second loo but not sure how to work that into the plan. May stick with the laundry and have a second loo off the laundry.

Thank you for your comments, much appreciated.