By Douglas Martz
As we discussed in the March issue, the first two steps to an exceptional laundry room are assessing your needs and maximizing your space with cabinets. Here are the final two steps.
Step Three: Allocate sufficient space for drying everything.
Laundry Tip: Customize your laundry room with helpful accessories like fold-up wall hangers, pull-out ironing boards, valet rods, and pull-down racks.
Fabrics today require different handling. Some are dryer safe, some are air-dry only, others take a spin in the dryer and then hang to finish drying, and some items should dry flat to hold their shape.
- Air-drying prevents shrinkage and saves on energy costs (the dryer), but some fabrics, like cotton and linen, may require ironing.
- Polyester and polyester/cotton blends are dryer safe or will air-dry wrinkle-free.
- Silk, wool, rayon, cashmere, spandex and Lycra (any elasticity) should be air-dried, including bathing suits, bras, and sweaters.
- Don’t crowd wet hanging items; they need space for air to circulate.
Laundry Tip: Never return any laundry to drawers or closets if even slightly damp; it will mildew.
Step Four: Personalize your laundry room.
Laundry Tip: Fixed hanging rods or fold-away racks can handle loads of laundry, and if space is limited, use the shower curtain rods for air drying.
Specialty accessories that integrate with custom cabinets for ultimate functionality will help to make laundry day more efficient.
- A pull-out ironing board makes touch-ups quick and easy.
- Pull-down rods give lots of space for hanging and then fold up out of the way.
- Retractable and fold-up valet rods provide additional hanging space
Doing laundry is rarely anyone’s favorite thing, but the end result is so satisfying. And since you have to do laundry, why not do it in a beautiful, custom laundry room designed just for you?
Douglas Martz is the president of Tailored Living featuring Premier Garage. Details can be found at tailoredliving.com/fredericksburg/
