Does anyone have a laundry chute?

[rpm]

Or use it?
I have been in three houses recently that have them, and none of the owners use them. I would love to have one. The one house was three stories high and had one. The owner said, "If I don't take the laundry down myself, I forget its down there."

 

[qsd-dan]

Would love to have one, but that usually requires a basement or a 3 story house. Probably a good thing I didn't grow up with one since my brother and I would be shoving each other down the shoot on a daily basis.

 

[jamiel]

Absolutely, have a 2 story plus basement and use it daily. It has openings in the bathroom upstairs (with the bedrooms) and an opening in the kitchen (wonderful to drop teatowels)

 

[rp2813]

I sure wish I had one. Our neighborhood consists of older homes, many of them large, and many have laundry chutes. I remember the one grand house around the corner growing up had a huge family, the boys were totally out of control and would regularly take the laundry chute down to the first floor, where it was accessed in the butler's pantry. Faster than the back stairs the kids were restricted to using, and it got you to the same spot. Thrills were cheap back then!

Ralph

 

[sudsmaster]

I'd love to have one. The idea of having chute access points in the kitchen, the baths, and the bedrooms makes a lot of sense. However in this house everything would land in separate little piles in the crawl space, and then it would be quite inconvenient to put on the knee pads and old clothes to go crawling in there to gather them up ;-) ...

One advantage to my current system: I have three big hampers in the master bath. One for whites, one for colors/clothes, and one for bath towels. This has worked out quite well, as this is generally all the sorting needed for the Neptune/Miele.

Throw rugs get gathered up when it's their time to be washed, and hence don't get their own hamper.

A chute system necessarily would dump everything in one big pile to be sorted through.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I have one in the bathroom on the first floor going to the basement. I wish there was one on the 2nd floor going all the way to the basement. I use it all the time for clothes and towels, sheets it's too small for blankets.

 

[mattl]

Yep, have one and use it from time to time. Some times it's just easier to carry the stuff down. Bedding I just bundle up is a sheet and haul it down to the basement.

When we were kids, at aprties at my aunts we used to sneak drinks,- non-alcoholic - down her chute to the basement where we kids would have our party. Hers was just a one story chute, so the risk of breakage was small, especially when we had someone stationed under the opening. Ah, fun times....

 

[jaxsunst]

My in-laws two-story has one. It has two doors opening to two different bathrooms. The clothes fall to an alcove next to the dryer (ancient BOL Kenmore). Having the two doors also makes it handy for passing things between the bathrooms.

 

[polkanut]

My parents have one in their house (1922) with access doors directly across from each other in the kitchen, and bathroom. They no longer use it since they moved their laundry room to the main level. We have one in our house (1925) too, it is part of the bottom shelf in our linen closet, but we too no longer use it since creating a main floor laundry room. And lastly, my dad's parents had a false bottom drawer in the hallway cupboard, directly across from the bathroom. My sister lives in the house (1956) now, and does use it.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

We use the laundry chute for the white/hot/bleach stuff. This way there's no dirty socks and underwear around the apartment. When it's time to wash the underwear it's all ready to go.

Ken D.

 

[dogboy44]

We had one

When we lived in Wisconsin, everytime I put something down it, I thought to myself, I love this!

 

[yogitunes]

Thinking about putting one in...but it will go into the hall closet, cut a oblong hole in the floor is the easy part, not sure what to make the shaftout of, could use 1/2 plywood or metal heater ductwork...and it will drop right into the basement laundryroom....anothe option is to put in the bathroom closet either slide the machines to one side or split them and place the shaft in the center, and then just cut a hole in the center of the counter top with a trap door...

 

[rp2813]

Yeah, the one thing about a chute is that, unless you do what Ken does and only use it for whites, you end up having to sort through everything that lands at the bottom to separate things. We have a hamper arrangement on casters, it has three sections that we use for towels, colors, and whites. It eliminates sorting.

 

[bobbyderegis]

I grew up with one. It went from the second floor to the basement, dropping the clothes & linens into a basket right next to the washer. There was a slight curve as it left the first floor, so hangers would get stuck.
Bobby in Boston

 

[mattl]

"Hangers would get stuck"???

Why put hangers down the close chute?

Anyway for anyone considering installing one, it helps greatly if it is not a 2x4 wall. Mine was custom built when the house was built and is considerably wider, yet things still get hung up from time to time. With laundry chute bigger is better...

 

[whirlcool]

We had one in the house I grew up in (1960 construction). It had a trap door on the bottom of it. When you wanted to do laundry you'd put a basket on the floor underneath it then pull on the rope and all the laundry which had gathered at the bottom of the chute would come out all at once.

My father always told us that he would beat the living crap out of us if he ever caught us even thinking about playing with the laundry chute.
This link leads to one of the reasons why....

 

[circlew]

The house I own and am currently renovating, built in 1952 (which we moved to when I was 2), has a laundry chute. Am under strict orders from my two older Nephews (now mid & late 20's) that I'm not to remove it. Not sure if I'm going to be able to keep it as new HVAC ducts are going to be run thru this area. It is located in the hall closet near the bath & B.R.'s. It is just a square door in the floor that lifts up for items to fall into a basement closet with raised floor. Have removed the basement part already. The two boys would always climb up or down it when visiting, as my Sister & I had done before them. There were cross pieces in the framing for us to step onto, and the drop was no more than 5.5 feet or so, so no more dangerous than climbing trees which they were always doing. Will keep it if I can without having to make major modifications to the HVAC system, even thought it has alway be at the opposite end of the basement from the laundry area.

 

[j2400]

I've never had one, but I've used these in the past...my grandmother had one, and she insisted that bath towels would be used ONE TIME and ONE TIME ONLY. I can remember visiting her, and dutifully stuffing towels into the chute.

As I think of it, I'd like to have one of my own, and theoretically could do it--the house I'm living in has the laundry area in a small basement. I wonder if my landlord would mind me putting in a laundry chute. Or more than one...I could have several, so that everything will be sorted by color for the wash.

 

[travlincub321]

I never knew there where actual chutes going down through the walls... I just thought it was a metal lined cavity... My neighbors had a laundry chute andwe used to throw things down it.. LoL, there 1st floor door was by the kitchen table and when his mom wasnt looking he'd dump his dinner down there for the dog to eat..

 

[jamiel]

Am told that (at least in SE Michigan) that they are against fire codes.

 

[danemodsandy]

We Had One:

When I was a kid. It had its pros and cons. It was certainly nice to have a way to get dirty laundry to the laundry room without effort, and even nicer not to have the smell of a hamper anywhere in the living areas of the house. But the trade-offs were a colossal sorting job before you could begin washing clothes, plus you really had to stay on top of laundry, because anything left in the basement area too long could get to smelling pretty mildew-y.

 

[iheartmaytag]

they are against fire codes.

I was told that as well. The open chute will act as a chimney for flames in a fire. I assume there are some fixes to this, but I haven't seen new homes built with them installed. Though Sure would be fun to have one.

 

[polkanut]

I like the false drawer type that my grandparents had. There is a hole cut in the center of the drawer bottom which matches up with a hole cut into the sub-floor. Grandma had a basket underneath to catch the laundry thrown down.

 

[launderess]

IIRC, Yes

Laundry chutes are against many local commercial and residential new fire codes.

When one worked in hospitals, many of the older ones had laundry chutes for sending soiled linen down to the laundry, or an area where it would be collected, not sure how many new hospitals are but with them today if any.

Basically as the other poster stated, laundry chutes can act a a chimney and send any fire right through a building.

At least in hospital/commercial settings, there was also the point of keeping "germs", dust and what not from soiled linen being dispersed up and out the chute each time items are sent down. Some old hospital design books dealth with this by various suggestions for construction and or methods for keeping the chute clean.

Same applies to rubbish chutes found in many older apartment buildings that once emptied into an incerator or rubbish heap. Ideally they should be steam cleaned once a year, but that rarely happens. They are however an excellent vector for the bad odors, fumes and germ laden air from the rubbish below to rise up and pervade a building. In some parts of the city where the building is lax about emptying the compactor or otherwise taking out the rubbish from the bottom of the chute (indoor incerators long since banned), tales of vermin "climbing" their way up is not uncommon.

The last bit can make for a rather interesting surprise to anyone opening the chute door! *LOL*

Didn't the Brady household have a laundry chute?

 

[rp2813]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if there was a chute arrangement in my household, avalanches would be a regular occurrence upon opening the chute door in the laundry room.

We tend to let things stack up and process full loads.

Did I just say that?

 

[qsd-dan]

We tend to let things stack up and process full loads. Did I

Nothing wrong with that! I pretty much do the same, I just separated everything into 3 basket categories (cold, warm, hot) and wash when there's enough laundry in one or more baskets to do a full load in the Maytag.

 

[scott55405]

My parents last house, built in 1998 they bought in 2000 (so they must still be allowed some places) where my dad still lives, has one, a nice wide one. Maybe that's so small children can't get caught? It's in the hall between the bedrooms and right by the main bath.

Our first house also had one, it was a much smaller, narrower duct like thing but it worked fine. The house after that had a main floor laundry.

 

[mayguy]

Our '68 split level home had one. I took it out a couple of years ago since I found it not worth while having it.

It was in the 3rd bedroom across from the bathroom. Well, we get undressed in our master bedroom so no point of hauling the clothes to it. Also, the chute was in a 2x4 wall, and could not put jeans down into it with up being stuck in ti. It did land on top of the washer so if I had a top load washer, it would fall right into the tub.

 

[hooverwheelaway]

We have one.

Here, Harriet, our live-in help (ish) is throwing some towels down the chute, and checking her busy social life on the calendar.

 

[toggleswitch2]

.
Oh Fred for sure I thought your wedding dress was not to be white--- but red--- SCANDAL!

*LOL*

Maybe she's saying "Who's the bug dummy who put the thermnostat in the kithcen and made the chute so tiny!"

(DUCKS AND RUNS!)

Who luvs ya baby?

P.S. is that a "new" fridge?