Pimp my laundry room: 6 upgrades we'd like to see

By Lucy Cohen Blatter | March 31, 2015 - 10:15AM

Let's face it: Apartment building laundry rooms—if you're lucky to have one—aren't exactly enticing places to hang out, despite the fact that you probably spend loads of time there.

Seth Breitman of SEBCO Laundry Systems, which installs laundry rooms into residential buildings, encourages clients to think outside the laundry room box and hopes more of them would be up to adorning their spaces with murals or paying attention to the details. "A lot of these things don't cost much extra," he says, "but they just make it that much more pleasant."

We couldn't agree more. Here's our wish list for upgrades:

Wi-Fi

During particularly busy times of day in the laundry room, it's usually best to stay parked in front of the machines so you can keep track when one frees up. If yours had Wi-Fi, you could actually get some work done (or binge-watch Kimmy Schmidt) while you wait. Lots of laundry systems use the internet for their Smart cards, anyway.

Treadmill or elliptical machine

This might be a liability (kids and exercise equipment don't mix, for instance), but we can dream, can't we? Imagine if you could actually get a workout in while you wait for your loads to be finished. That's the stuff time management dreams are made of.

Book exchange

Lots of buildings do this, and we think it's a win-win. Put an old bookcase downstairs and ask people to put their books down their for swapping.

Lounge-style chairs

While you're at it, why not throw in some comfy lounge chairs, too? Wouldn't it be nice to run out, get a coffee and relax while you wait for the laundry to be done?

Arcade games

We'd love it if our buildings followed one Greenpoint laundromat's lead and installed arcade games in the laundry room. Maybe your partner wouldn't mind pulling laundry duty so much if he could vie for the highest Pac-Man score at the same time?

Magazine subscriptions

Don't know about you, but we cherish the quality time we get with Us Weekly and People while in the doctor's waiting room. While our clothes get cleaned, we can catch up on others airing their dirty laundry.

What's on your wish list? Drop us a line.

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