AIBU to argue a tumble dryer is more important than a downstairs toilet

[user1471462428]

I have a three bed townhouse. Top floor has en-suite,middle floor has a family bathroom and ground floor with a small toilet. I would like to rip this out and replace with a small laundry washing machine, tumble dryer and a pulley maid. My mum thinks I will devalue the house doing this and it will be inconvenient for the kids. I’m looking to move in the next five years but don’t want to be running to the laundrette to dry clothes till then. AIBU

Good dehumidifier, excellent for clothes drying. Definitely keep the loo.

What sold our current house to us is the downstairs toilet (and the dishwasher!)

We built an extension at a later date which we use as an office / utility and our tumble dryer is in there.

We hope to add a conservatory at some point.

I'd go with a drier over a downstairs loo personally. You are still there for 5 or so years so your enjoyment of your house trumps resale value for now. If you can leave pipework in place, you could reinstall a downstairs loo at the point where you put the house on the market maybe?

Or how big is it? Can you fit both in? Mine is a combo downstairs loo and laundry room.

I would prioritise the downstairs loo - I wouldn't be keen on visitors having to go upstairs to use the family bathroom. Is there a cupboard under the stairs or anything that the drier could move to?

Loo for me as I always avoided using a drier when we had one. (Do actually have one but it's being stored in the garage currently).

Having said that, we are currently staying in a three storey townhouse without a toilet on the ground floor. It hasn't been an issue in the slightest apart from not having a second sink downstairs when 5 of us come home and need to avoid the children touching anything else before washing their hands.

People without driers. Where do you dry your clothes, towels and bed linen in the winter?

on a line in the attic.

Your Mum is right. Can you speak to a plumber and find out a way to cap the toilet pipes etc so you can convert the room but cheaply reinstall your toilet when the time comes?

Heated airer and dehumidifier?

My dsis temporarily converted her downstairs a toilet. She had a frame built to support a worktop above the toilet and put her dryer on the worktop. When she put her house on the market (in summer) she removed the frame and stored her dryer in my garage until she moved -

Think I’m forgetting visitors as haven’t had anyone in the house for a year apart from friends son.
No
I don’t use it myself as it’s too cold. Currently thinking of stacking the washing machine and tumble dryer and get a toilet with a Basin on top. But still thinking about it

Get a washer drier, they work fine. You don't need to dry everything in a dryer, especially if you have a Kitchen Maid ( ours is in on the landing on the first floor) and radiators that you can hook a drying rack onto.
Don't lose the downstairs loo, especially if you are about to start potty training!

@Comefromaway

You don;t have a tumble dryer at all?

Yes, I'd say thats pretty essential.

it definitely isn't.

I'd rather have a downstairs loo than a tumble dryer.

I'd go for a tumble dryer every time. Especially if your lounge is on the middle floor.
I only have an upstairs bathroom, guests go up to it. Hardly the end of the world!

Would the tumble dryer fit in without you ripping out the toilet. So when you sell you just remove the tumble dryer.

can you put the washing machine and tumble dryer on the first or second floor instead, maybe have a little laundry area? You can stack the machines if neccessary. My parents have just moved into a new build and there's some folding doors in the upstairs hall with the laundry machines behind and it's so useful - saves lugging everything up and down the stairs!

Or take out the loo and put it back when you come to sell.

Oh your post made me smile. Ive had decades of trouble with this issue because Ive lived in such varied housing and in various countries. Its a modern issue as boilers, water tanks and airing cupboards are a thing of the past. I think you need both loo and laundry - and if you're moving within 5 years then its probably best not to spend too much (on plumbing and electrics). Try a combo - replace the washing machine with a single machine that does both ie washes and drys (look for one with a big drum - the drying load is always smaller), put a condenser in a nook/stack it on top of the other/worktop. I lived in a narrow 4 storey town house (a house share) and it was desperate. Initially we all used the laundrette - which is sooo time consuming, expensive and inconvenient, we'd be there until the early hours of the morning as if you left it unattended your clothes often disappeared. In the end we installed a machine on the stairs (the staircase platformed when it turned and we squashed it in there). If you have a spare room/contained space think about a dehumidifier with an integrated heater/add a heat source (it turns the room into a big tumble dryer - (it must be an enclosed space to do that). There are also heated drying rails/racks which you just plug in - lakeland do them - they are brill. And surprisingly outdoor drying works most of the year in the UK provided its undercover ie away from the rain eg a cover over a side return with lines or a Barantia wall pull down drying line or you can get fabric covers for arial driers on the lawn - ridiculously ugly but effective. Altho when the winter frost comes the clothes do freeze ....

Toilet every time. Brought up two kids, one with SEN and not toilet trained until 6. Never needed a dryer in 25 years.

If you wouldn't need a pulley airer as well as a dryer, could you have a "utility cupboard" anywhere?

I've never had a tumble dryer.

@swg1 my mum feels she has a say over every aspect of my life, but this one did make me think she might have a point. The past couple of weeks have been a nightmare with minus degrees weather and the boy I foster has started wetting the bed. It’s only been four nights this month but feel like my washing has quadrupled.

@redcandlelight

People without driers. Where do you dry your clothes, towels and bed linen in the winter?

on a line in the attic.

Back room, or front room if the stove's lit.

I’ve always lived in older houses and never had a downstairs toilet, so buying a house without one wouldn’t make me think twice. However, I love my dryer and if I didn’t have somewhere to put it I may think twice

If it's one or the other I would choose tumble drier. Never understand this thing for loads of toilets.

I've never had a tumble dryer, and I'm still here to tell the tale.

I've had a downstairs toilet, but it was our only toilet at the time (old house with strange layout). I've never had a downstairs and upstairs toilet, unless you count the outside toilet at our current house, which is pretty useless as an actual toilet (draughty, unheated, no light and crucially no washbasin), and just ends up being used as another storage shed.

If someone could wave a magic wand and give me one or the other (and space to put it in) I think I'd probably go for the tumble drier. But ask me again in the summer, when it's great drying weather outside, and I might say something different. I don't have the washing issues you have - that would almost certainly swing it for me.