Laundry room

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Washing machines in a laundry room Laundry Room in the Student Residence Office in the City University of Hong Kong.jpg
Washing machines in a laundry room
Some laundry rooms are built together with other utilities such as sinks Laundry room with other utilities.xcf
Some laundry rooms are built together with other utilities such as sinks

A laundry room is a room where clothes are washed, and sometimes also dried. In a modern home, laundry rooms are often equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer, and often a large basin, called a laundry tub, for hand-washing of delicate clothing articles such as sweaters, as well as an ironing board. Laundry rooms may also include storage cabinets, countertops for folding clothes, and, space permitting, a small sewing machine.

Contents

The term utility room is more commonly used in British English, while Australian English and North American English generally refer to this room as a laundry room, except in the American Southeast.[ citation needed ] "Utility" refers to an item which is designed for usefulness or practical use, so in turn most of the items kept in this room have functional attributes, i.e. "form follows function".

History

The utility room was a modern spin off to the scullery room [1] [2] [3] where important kitchen items were kept during its usage in England, the term was further defined around the 14th century as a household department where kitchen items are taken care of. [4] [5] The term utility room was mentioned in 1760, when a cottage was built in a rural location in the United Kingdom that was accessible through Penarth and Cardiff. [6] A utility room for general purposes also depicted its use as a guest room in case of an immediate need. [7] A 1944 Scottish housing and planning report recommended new state-built homes for families could provide a utility room as a general purpose workroom for the home (for washing clothes, cleaning boots and jobbing repairs). [8] An American publication, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, on July 24, 1949 [9] reported that utility rooms have become more popular than basements in new constructions. [10] On June 28, 1959, in a report of a typical American house being built in Moscow, Russia, the house was described to have a utility room immediately at the right side after the entrance. [11] The Chicago Tribune reported that the laundry room was then commonly being referred to as the utility room in a September 30, 1970, publication. [12] [ clarification needed ]

Uses

The utility room has several uses but typically functions as an area to do laundry. This room contains laundry equipment such as a washing machine, tumble dryer, ironing boards and clothes iron. [13] The room is also used for closet organization and storage. The room would normally contain a second coat closet which is used to store seasonal clothing such as winter coats or clothing which are no longer used daily. [14] [15] Storage spaces would contain other appliances which would generally be in the kitchen if it was in usage daily. Furnaces and the water heater are sometime incorporated to the room as well. Shelving and trash may sometimes be seen at this area as not to congest the other parts of the house. [16]

Location

In older homes, the laundry is typically located in the basement, but in many modern homes, the laundry room might be found on the main floor near the kitchen or, less often, upstairs near the bedrooms. [17]

Another typical location is adjacent to the garage and the laundry room serves as a mudroom for the entrance from the garage. As the garage is often at a different elevation (or grade) from the rest of the house, the laundry room serves as an entrance from the garage that may be sunken from the rest of the house. This prevents or reduces the need for stairs between the garage and the house.

Most houses in the United Kingdom do not have laundry rooms; as such, the washing machine and dryer are usually located in the kitchen or garage.[ citation needed ]

In Hungary, some older apartment buildings and most workers' hostels have communal laundry rooms, called mosókonyha (lit. "washing kitchen") in Hungarian. In the former, when residents started to all own individual washing machines in their apartments, obsoleted laundry rooms were sometimes converted into small apartments, shops or workshops (e.g. a shoemaker's) or used simply for storage.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Homemaking is mainly an American and Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational, day-to-day operations of a house or estate, and the managing of other domestic concerns. A person in charge of the homemaking, who is not employed outside the home, in the US and Canada, is called a homemaker, a term for a housewife or a househusband. Historically the role of homemaker was often assumed by women. The term "homemaker", however, may also refer to a social worker who manages a household during the incapacity of the housewife or househusband. Home health workers assume the role of homemakers when caring for elderly individuals. This includes preparing meals, giving baths, and any duties the person in need cannot perform for themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laundry</span> Washing of clothing and other textiles

Laundry is the washing of clothing and other textiles, and, more broadly, their drying and ironing as well. Laundry has been part of history since humans began to wear clothes, so the methods by which different cultures have dealt with this universal human need are of interest to several branches of scholarship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washing machine</span> Machine that washes clothes automatically

A washing machine is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning or ultrasonic cleaners. The user adds laundry detergent, which is sold in liquid, powder, or dehydrated sheet form, to the wash water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clothes dryer</span> Appliance used for drying wet clothes

A clothes dryer, also known as tumble dryer or drying machine, is a powered household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing, bedding and other textiles, usually after they are washed in a washing machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pantry</span> Room where accessories, provisions, etc. are stored

A pantry is a room or cupboard where beverages, food, (sometimes) dishes, household cleaning products, linens or provisions are stored within a home or office. Food and beverage pantries serve in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clothes line</span> Device for hanging and drying laundry

A clothes line, also spelt clothesline and also known as a washing line, is a device for hanging clothes on for the purpose of drying them. It is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points, outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line to dry, using clothes pegs or clothespins. Washing lines are attached either from a post or a wall, and are frequently located in back gardens, or on balconies. Longer washing lines often have props holding up sections in the middle due to the weight of the usually wet clothing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mangle (machine)</span> Mechanical laundry aid

A mangle (British) or wringer (American) is a mechanical laundry aid consisting of two rollers in a sturdy frame, connected by cogs and powered by a hand crank or by electricity. While the appliance was originally used to squeeze water from wet laundry, today mangles are used to press or flatten sheets, tablecloths, kitchen towels, or clothing and other laundry.

Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running and maintaining an organized physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as cleaning, tidying/organizing, cooking, shopping, and bill payment. These tasks may be performed by members of the household, or by persons hired for the purpose. This is a more broad role than a cleaner, who is focused only on the cleaning aspect. The term is also used to refer to the money allocated for such use. By extension, it may also refer to an office or a corporation, as well as the maintenance of computer storage systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scullery</span> Room in a house traditionally used for washing up dishes

A scullery is a room in a house, traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils, occasional kitchen work, ironing, boiling water for cooking or bathing, and soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, sometimes slop sinks, drain pipes, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various coppers for boiling water, tubs, and buckets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walk-in closet</span>

A walk-in closet or walk-in wardrobe (UK) or dressing room is typically a large closet, wardrobe or room that is primarily intended for storing clothes, footwear etc., and being used as a changing room. As the name suggests, walk-in closets are closets sufficiently big as to allow one to walk into them to browse through the items. It is often a small room with wall-mounted cabinet, shelf and drawers, and these can either be with or without doors. Walk-in closets often do not have doors in front of shelves, which can give a better overview of the clothes, but also leads to more dust. When the walk-in closet is large enough for dressing and undressing, the wardrobe is often also equipped with one or more mirrors. The room should also have good lighting, and a bench or chair can be handy. A dressing table is sometimes also found in the walk-in closet, and such dual use can relieve congestion around other rooms such as bathrooms.

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The Simpsons house is the residence of the Simpson family in the animated sitcom The Simpsons and in The Simpsons Movie. The house's address is most frequently attributed as 742 Evergreen Terrace. In the series, the house is occupied by Homer and Marge Simpson and their three children: Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washer-dryer</span> Single machine for washing and drying clothes

A combo washer dryer is a combination in a single cabinet of a washing machine and a clothes dryer. It should not be confused with a "stackable" combination of a separate washing machine and a separate clothes dryer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Room</span> Distinguishable space within a building or other structure

In a building or ship, a room is any enclosed space within a number of walls to which entry is possible only via a door or other dividing structure. The entrance connects it to either a passageway, another room, or the outdoors. The space is typically large enough for several people to move about. The size, fixtures, furnishings, and sometimes placement of the room within the building or ship support the activity to be conducted in it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-service laundry</span> Venue where one may hire the use of a washing machine

A self-service laundry, coin laundry, or coin wash, is a facility where clothes are washed and dried without much personalized professional help. They are known in the United Kingdom as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as laundromats. In Texas and other parts of the south central United States, the term washateria is still used by some older speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drying cabinet</span> Same as a clothes dryer, but does not move the items placed inside it

A drying cabinet is today usually an electrical machine designed to expedite the drying of items - usually clothing - that are unsuitable for a mechanical clothes dryer. Such items may include delicate clothing care labeled as "hang dry", "dry flat" or "do not tumble dry" on their wash instructions, as well as items such as comforters, boots and coats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overhead clothes airer</span>

An overhead clothes airer, also known variously as a ceiling clothes airer, laundry airer, pulley airer, laundry rack, or laundry pulley, is a ceiling-mounted mechanism to dry clothes. It is also known as, in the North of England, a creel, in Scotland, a pulley, and in the United States, a Sheila Johnston's Sheila Maid®.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yale Union Laundry Building</span> Historic building in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Yale Union Laundry Building, also known as the Yale Laundry Building, the City Linen Supply Co. Building, Perfect Fit Manufacturing and simply Yale Union (YU), in southeast Portland, Oregon, is a two-story commercial structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built largely of brick in 1908, and embellished with Italian Revival and Egyptian Revival decorations, it was added to the register in 2007. Two-story additions in 1927 and 1929 changed the original building into an L-shaped structure that shares a party wall with a building to the east.

Laundroid was a laundry-folding machine and home robot, used to automatically wash, dry, iron, sort and fold clothes to a dedicated closet. It was dubbed to be the world's first laundry folding robot, and was planned to go on sale in Japan first, and subsequently, in a limited number, in the United States. Release date was set to 2017, with pre-orders starting in March 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laundry-folding machine</span>

A laundry-folding machine or laundry-folding robot is a machine or domestic robot which folds apparel such that they can be stored compactly and orderly.

References

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  3. "Organized Utility Room". Hi Hut. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  4. Bouknight, Joanne Kellar (2004). New kitchen idea book . Taunton Press. p.  115. ISBN   9781561586424 . Retrieved 2010-03-17. modern sculleries.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  5. "scullery". Douglas Harper. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  6. "utility room history". Google Timeline Search for Publications on “Utility Room”. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  7. "Utility Rooms". St. Petersburg Times – Aug 3, 1946. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  8. Great Britain. Scottish Housing Advisory Committee (1944). Planning our new homes : report by the Scottish Housing Advisory Committee on the design, planning and furnishing of new houses. Wellcome Library. Edinburgh : H.M. Stationery Off.
  9. "Utility Room Vs. Basement". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  10. "Utility Room Vs. Basement". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  11. "THIS HOUSE MAY MAKE HISTORY". Chicago Tribune. 1959-06-28. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  12. "LAUNDRY ROOM TODAY IS A UTILITY ROOM(2)". Chicago Tribune. 1970-09-19. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  13. "Utility Room Laundry Aids". UtilityRooms.com. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  14. "Utility Room Closet Organizers". Utility Rooms.com. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  15. "Utility Room Storage Cabinets". UtilityRooms.com. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  16. "Utility Room Trash". UtilityRooms.com. Archived from the original on June 2, 2013. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
  17. "A Design Expert Tells Us The Mistakes To Avoid When Designing Your Laundry Room". MSN. Retrieved 2022-11-17.