Many times, homeowners prefer to have a laundry room in the main area of the house as opposed to in the garage.  However, sometimes a garage laundry room is the best, or even the only, option in some houses.  If you do not have a dedicated laundry room within your home, having one in the garage might be your best bet.  Some advantages to having a laundry room in the garage include not having to hear the washer and dryer when you’re trying to watch television, eat dinner or take a nap, and that you won’t be heating up the house in the middle of the summer by running the dryer.  If you have a laundry room in your garage, here are 4 tips for making it work better for you:

• Keep the area squeaky clean

  No one wants typical “garage dirt,” which might consist of grease from the car, sand tracked in on shoes and tires, or leaves that have blown in from outside, near their clean laundry. Give the area a good scrubbing, and keep up with the dirt level near the washer and dryer by frequently dusting the walls, wiping down the appliances themselves, and sweeping or vacuuming the floor.

• Maintain excellent insect (and other critter) control

  Even worse than sand and dirt getting tracked around in your garage laundry area is having an infestation of spiders, ants, cockroaches, mice or worse! Go over our tips for keeping your garage pest-free to reduce or eliminate this issue.

• Set up an organization system

  Just because your laundry room is in the garage, it doesn’t mean that you have to resort to stacking laundry detergent bottles on top of the car or piling up dirty laundry on the floor! If there’s one thing that your garage has that a typical utility room does not have, it’s a lot of space. Think about how you would like to use some of this space to ensure adequate storage and organization for your laundry room. Some options include overhead shelving, a stand-alone storage unit, or shelves attached to the wall of the garage. A pull-out bin for dirty laundry might be a welcome addition, too.

• Make the area as pleasant as possible

  Most of us do not enjoy doing laundry on a good day, and if the garage feels ugly or depressing to you, this will quickly become a despised chore. Give the garage (or at least that section of the garage) a fresh coat of paint, and find ways to bring little touches of home into your garage laundry room. Maybe you can hang some framed art that your children have created, or perhaps you have a shelf available where you can prop up some photographs. If it’s exceptionally hot or cold in the middle of the summer or winter, try to think of ways that you might be able to bring in a breeze or some warmth. A fan or a space heater can make things a little nicer while you do your laundry.

Having a laundry room in your garage might not seem ideal, but it’s usually better than the alternative, which is to have no laundry room at all. By following these tips, you can enjoy a laundry area that does not take up valuable living space in the main area of your home.

Contact our experts if you are looking to turn your garage into a laundry room

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