# Forum Home Renovation Laundry  Ideas for small laundry

## popcorncx

I live in a two bedroom unit that was built in the early seventies, the laundry is unchanged:   
The space is 1470mm wide, back door on left, interior door on right. Sink drain goes out the wall to the left, stop tap for hot water is further up the wall above the cold tap for the washing machine. Floor still has original lino tiles. 
What has bugged me is that there is no storage (cupboard under trough awkward, so stuff lives on window sill) and I want a broom cupboard. But I need to minimise any expenditure... 
I'm thinking that my only real option is to have a smaller tub to let the washing machine move over and allow a narrow cupboard on the right hand side. Could possibly have another cupboard above the washing machine, but would want to allow for a dryer mounted up high on the left. 
One option appears to be to replace the tub and cabinet with a smaller version such as Eureka 35 Litre Compact Tub and Cabinet which is 380mm wide and then fit a narrow cupboard on the right. 
Another option is a more integrated look with that same layout, but with benchtop across the washing machine space, a compact tub set into the bench and a matching cupboard below the tub. 
What is usually done with allowing space for washing machines? Do you commit to a front loader under the bench, or do you allow for a top loader? What dimensions should the space be? 
I always turn off the taps to the washing machine, both because that's what my mother said to do, and because this washing machine has a slow leak in the cold water solenoid. I came home one day to water over the floor. But if you have concealed washing machine taps, I assume people just leave them on all the time? 
A flat pack cupboard from Bunnings is too wide at 450mm wide (their other option is 600mm) while it looks like Flat Pack Units - Allboard Distributors: Allboard Distributors has a 400mm width as standard. 400mm for the cupboard should leave 690mm for the washing machine, but would need a plumber to move the taps across. More plumbing work or non-standard cupboard size, I don't know which is cheaper. 
I think I will stop rambing now... thanks.

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## nww1969

Have you thought about doing away with the laundry all together and putting the front load washer in the kitchen near the 
sink to utilise the under bench drain/water connections. 
You can buy 1/4 laundry tubs these days which may give you some more room.
I put one of these in recently.  Compact 27 Litre Laundry Sink Trough TUB Cabinet in Ferntree Gully, VIC | eBay

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## goldie1

I did this one  recently. Total width is 1200mm. 
BTW your mother is very wise. The under sink  washing machine taps are 1/4 turn and no props 
to turn of after use.

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## GraemeCook

Good Morning Popcorncx 
A friend had almost the same problem last year - very limited budget, and the front-loader washer and dryer would not fit beside the laundry trough - space short by about 100mm.   His laundry trough looked like yours and was 600 x 450 mm. 
We just rotated the trough 90* and made a new base for it. (The old side is now the front.)   Then made a two-bay unit like Goldie's, and it works well. 
After seeing Goldie's a new trough would have made the work easier and it probably would look better.   
Fair Winds 
Graeme

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## popcorncx

From comments on here and further research I have decided against replacing the current sink and cabinet with a narrower sink and cabinet. If I am going to do anything it will be a built in cabinet with bench over the washing machine. This will tie in with how the kitchen looks. 
So on the left would be a 400mm base cabinet, small sink set in above that. On the right will be a 400mm wide broom cupboard. In between is a space a little bit over 600mm wide for the washing machine. All the plumbing would need to be moved around, so money... 
One thing I am struggling to get my head around is how much a sink will cost. I am finding very little online about a small sink that would go above a 500mm cabinet, and the ones I can find are above $400, or the ones at a lower price are now discontinued. The ones on eBay for under $100 are tempting.

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## GraemeCook

Good Morning Popcorncx 
You seem to be on the right track.   Hope it goes well. 
When you get the melamine sheet for your cabinet make sure you get HMR - High Moisture Resistant - the core has a distinctive greeish colour, and its the same price as standard melamine.    
You might have to shop around to find it.  When we redid our kitchen two years ago we were repeatedly advised by Bigchain hardware stores that HMR was either unabtainable or not needed - absolute lies or ineptness or both! 
I also found that 18mm melamine was a little more foregiving of errant screws than the standard 16 mm stuff.   In my case the 10% extra cost was a saving - zero screw break out and no wasted panels.   
Fair Winds 
Graeme

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## GreedySmurf

> One thing I am struggling to get my head around is how much a sink will cost. I am finding very little online about a small sink that would go above a 500mm cabinet, and the ones I can find are above $400, or the ones at a lower price are now discontinued. The ones on eBay for under $100 are tempting.

  One suggestion would be to look at GraysOnline or similar. I redid our kitchen and laundry from scratch, amongst other things we got Blanco brand sinks for less than 100 bucks each. I think their business model has morphed a little, this was when they were still doing on-site auctions, but I think you can still gets sinks, etc from them. They will often be ex-display units or seconds, but neither of the ones we got had any noticeable blemishes or imperfections.

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