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From apartment complexes to hotels to holiday sites, there are plenty of places that require a communal laundry room: a place for everyone in the area to wash and dry their clothes, preferably in a comfortable and clean environment.

However, this isn’t always the case. Instead of setting the standard, some laundry rooms are perfect examples of everything you shouldn’t do when it comes to setting up a communal laundry area.

This guide is here to help show you the light when it comes to laundry.

Keep It Close

In larger buildings or complexes, it can be hard to make the location of your laundry room convenient for everybody. Keeping it nearby lifts or staircases means that residents don’t have to travel too far before they find it.

If your building or facility is very large, you might want to consider having several smaller laundry areas throughout the grounds, to make sure your guests, customers or tenants don’t have to trek back and forth with full baskets of laundry.

Make Sure Everything Works

Nothing is more frustrating than lugging all of your dirty clothes to the laundry room and loading up a washer, only to discover that a $2 coin is jammed into the coin slot and no amount of pushing or prying can get it out.

Having someone on hand who can regularly check your machines for damage, and providing an easy way for residents to contact you if they find something is broken, will go a long way in getting the tenants of your building to trust you and your services.

Prioritise Safety

Make sure your laundry is safe. Consider your guests: Position it in a well lit, easily accessible area. Put it in view of passersby – this will discourage thieves and likely make it easier for your guests to access. Keep in mind what your laundry area will look like at night – many people do their washing after hours. Ensuring that your laundry room is well lit and is in an area that can be easily reached will make tenants feel a lot more secure about visiting.

Also, consider your assets: Make sure your laundry is secure – whether that includes giving residents a key or installing a coded access lock. Coin and cash laundries are vulnerable to strong-arm theft. Consider cashless systems like credit card readers (which also improve profitability and make life easier for your guests). Also, consider advertising that no cash is left on the premises at any time.

Promote Cleanliness

If you have a cleaner that regularly goes through the foyer and other common areas, consider employing them to keep your laundry room up to standard, too. With people bringing bags of used and dirty clothing into the room daily, it doesn’t take long for dust and dirt to build up, and people want to feel as though the place they go to clean their clothes is fresh and clean.

Providing bins and placing signs that ask residents to remember to throw away any rubbish they bring into the room can also help to keep the area clean and tidy.

Make It Easy to Use

As technology has advanced, so have washing machines. One of the biggest recent advancements in laundry usability is pay-by-card washing and drying. Laundry is one of the only industries where coin/cash payment is still popular – and it has become a hassle for people living in a world that has otherwise transitioned to a card. Installing a card reading machine – or fitting existing machines with card readers – means no more fumbling around for spare change. It also means no more counting coins for the owner or property manager.

If you still have coin operated machines in your laundry room, give your tenants the ability to make change out of their notes. The easier the process is, the more likely they are to be happy with your level of service.

Add a Social Element

Laundry might not be the most thrilling chore in the world, but it doesn’t have to be the most boring, either. Providing ample and comfortable seating, games for children who might be fidgeting while their parents wait, and even an area with free coffee or tea could all contribute toward making your laundry area a place where people are happy to spend their time and socialise with one another.