Chutes, Ladders, and Laundry

When Cody was growing up, his family had laundry in the basement and the coolest way to get it there: A laundry chute.

When I was growing up, I used to watch this movie, Dunston Checks In, where Rupert Everett chases a monkey around a fancy hotel. There's a part in that movie where Everett sticks his head in a laundry chute to coax said monkey out from hiding.

Clearly, both of our childhoods led to this moment: We were going to make a laundry chute.

Actually, it wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realized that houses could have laundry chutes. Dunston had always led me to believe that these were only available in luxury hotels. Thanks, Hollywood.

Anyway, we started with a cabinet.

This one!

 

This came from a Craigslist set of cabinets we got right after purchasing the house. They've treated us well! To see how we turned one of these cabinets into a bathroom vanity, click here.

 

We wanted the chute to be big enough to fit clothes into easily, but not so large that it would take up too much room in our closet. So, we removed the doors, cut off the edges, and turned it on its side.

 

Good start...but one side is bigger than the other.

Jig saws are my favorite saws to use.

Even!

 

It was a little short, so we built a stand for it. We also added trim pieces on the top for a more finished look.

 

It's starting to look like...something?

 

 

For the next step, we had to be ready for paint. This means my favorite part in all of woodworking: Sanding.

 

I'm so thrilled here.

 





 

All of that is completely sarcastic.

 

I do not like sanding, Sam I am. I do not like it on a boat, I do not like it with a goat. Okay, maybe it would be more enjoyable on a boat. I've never done that before. Regardless, sanding is not one of my favorite activities. BUT, it doesn't take very long when you have a good electric sander. All in all, I guess it's not that terrible. I guess.

 

The next day, Cody went to work and I stayed home to paint. We painted the bottom stand gray (the same color as our walls in the bedroom/closet. We painted the main part white (the same color as the trim).

 

The stand almost blends in to the basement floor. Look closely!

 

This is where I'm lucky to be engaged to an engineer. Cody designed the door to make it open like a mailbox. I would have had no clue how to make this work, except for moving the hinges to another side. So, I just let him do his thing on that one. After lots of math and drawing, here's the result:

 

Math! You can use it in the real world!

 

The next part was scary. We had to cut a hole in the floor. In our beautifully stained, recently finished floors! The horror!

  

Okay, okay. It wasn't that dramatic. We were nervous, though. Even when measuring and drawing out the square on the hardwood, I was holding my breath.

 

 

AAAAAAHHH.

 





To distract my nerves, I just held a vacuum cleaner and cleaned up all the saw dust.

 

 

Okay...not that bad.

 

From the picture, it looks like our clothes are going to fall straight into the sump pump. I think it's just my terrible photo angle. Plus, we'll end up framing that in, anyway. We couldn't think about that too much, because we were too excited to put our new product in the house! We attached our custom-engineered door, trimmed the bottom out with baseboard, and then marveled.

 

 

Whaaaaaat!

 

Of course, we had to test it out. But, we haven't built the laundry table to keep the clothes in a basket instead of on the floor (or in that pesky sump pump). So we used a ladder. Who knows? Maybe it would sort the clothes for us. You know, darks on top, lights down the steps?

 

(This is a video!)

 

Yeah, the ladder idea was just wishful thinking. However, we're super happy with the results. Dirty laundry is out of sight, and I don't have to drag it downstairs to clean it. Win-Win!