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The Constants are Changing: Laundry Rooms
9 years ago
General
You know, when Samsung announced their top-loading washing machine with the built-in sink, I thought it was a neat idea. How convenient, to have a place right there on the machine to pre-treat clothes and then dump them right into the wash basket. Why didn't anyone think of this before?
It took a few weeks of mulling it over to find the answer: it wasn't necessary before.
I grew up in a house with an attached garage (but no direct entry from the house) and the washer and dryer lived in the garage. And what was next to them? A deep laundry sink, where you could pre-treat anything that needed it.
Once the addition was put on to our house, there was a service porch with a place for the washer and dryer, getting them out of the garage and into the house proper. And what was across the traffic lane to the back door from the washer and dryer? A laundry sink. It also doubled as a sink for the three-quarters bathroom that was back there too.
Now in these enlightened days, the washer and dryer are often relegated to a closet. In my current house, they're behind double doors right off the kitchen, taking up space in the wall divider between the kitchen area and living room area. There's no space for a laundry sink, and nobody wants to use the kitchen sink. Even if you could, you'd be hauling wet laundry across the kitchen from the sink back to the washer.
It wasn't until the demise of the laundry sink sitting alongside the washer and dryer that we really needed a washing machine with a built-in "sink". The generation before would have shrugged their shoulders and asked why pay for that when they already have something that does the same job.
The constants are changing, my friends.
Samsung calls this built-in sink and water jet "Active Wash". Which is funny, since the only activity will be you scrubbing your clothes in that sink.
It took a few weeks of mulling it over to find the answer: it wasn't necessary before.
I grew up in a house with an attached garage (but no direct entry from the house) and the washer and dryer lived in the garage. And what was next to them? A deep laundry sink, where you could pre-treat anything that needed it.
Once the addition was put on to our house, there was a service porch with a place for the washer and dryer, getting them out of the garage and into the house proper. And what was across the traffic lane to the back door from the washer and dryer? A laundry sink. It also doubled as a sink for the three-quarters bathroom that was back there too.
Now in these enlightened days, the washer and dryer are often relegated to a closet. In my current house, they're behind double doors right off the kitchen, taking up space in the wall divider between the kitchen area and living room area. There's no space for a laundry sink, and nobody wants to use the kitchen sink. Even if you could, you'd be hauling wet laundry across the kitchen from the sink back to the washer.
It wasn't until the demise of the laundry sink sitting alongside the washer and dryer that we really needed a washing machine with a built-in "sink". The generation before would have shrugged their shoulders and asked why pay for that when they already have something that does the same job.
The constants are changing, my friends.
Samsung calls this built-in sink and water jet "Active Wash". Which is funny, since the only activity will be you scrubbing your clothes in that sink.
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