What if something gets stuck? It's a great idea, but seems a little narrow for bath towels.

Just about to ask the same thing as PI.

Green. With. Envy.

My grandmother had one of these. She had a '40s ranch in Ohio, which also included a built-in pantry. Be still my heart! But anyway. . . The laundry chute was fan-tabulous. It only went down one floor, so was really just a hole, but much like this one, you opened a cabinet door in her bathroom and threw the dirty clothes in the chute. Due to the layout of her house, the laundry was located in the basement directly below the bathroom. A strategically placed basket caught the clothes and was only steps away from the washer. Unfortunately, there was no magical way to bring the laundered clothes back upstairs!

If you look at the pictures of the closet with stuff in it, you can see the scale of the pipe a little better. It looks like 16 inch pipe, maybe even 18. That can definitely take a bath towel, no problem.

Very cool, now all she needs is a dumbwaiter to bring the laundry back upstairs.

I grew up with a laundry chute in my home. Our first floor and second floor bathrooms were stacked and a large chute dropped clothes from the bathrooms (there was a swing door on the wall near the entrance) straight to the basement laundry room where there was a built in sorting area. I think all homes should have a chute and don't know why more don't. It is not expensive nor complicated and saves lots of time. Now if there was an easy way to get the clothes hung and folded and put back away...

I love these things.

Fortunately, my laundry is on the same floor as my bedroom.

Agree with Pi, especially with those bends.

I read her post when it first went up, and it sounded like they had tested it pretty thoroughly. It's a big pipe, I don't think it's likely anything will stick, as long as they don't stuff a duvet or something in it.

Laundry chutes might be handy but do nothing for getting other things up and down the stairs. If I ever build a house from scratch I'm including a fairly large dumbwaiter servicing all floors in a handy central location. Yes, I know it would be a kid magnet but you could figure out a lockout and should make sure it has self-braking just on general prinicipals. Much easier than carrying lumpy bumpy stuff up and down stairs. Add a simple cart on each floor to move the objects once they get there and life would be a lot simpler.

We had a laundry chute (and a built in pantry) in the 50's rancher I grew up in too. My mom said it was one of the things she was most excited about when they bought the house. As far as I know, though, it was never used, because it turns out it ran to the creepiest part of the basement, not where the washer and dryer were. Sad.

I have a laundry chute in my bathroom vanity. I cut a hole in the floor of the vanity, lined it with a plastic shower curtain to prevent snags, and my laundry drops into a hamper in the basement. Very easy and simple.

We have one (in Ohio!) and I never want to be without one again! Ours is only a skinny piece of duct 3x12or15 and i can get a queen sized sheet down there if i make it into a long strip and and big bath towels are the same way. Now, getting a 5 yr old to get a pair of shorts and a tee shirt not to stick is another matter! ;)

I have one in my bathroom that is made with galvanized metal ducting. It is GREAT. Nothing has ever gotten stuck.

Couldn't live without my laundry chute.

I had one growing up (in a house built in the 60's) that was made out of metal ducting - it went from a door in the upstairs hallway down to a little holding area with a door in the basement. We only used it for towels and sheets (since all our clothing was sorted upstairs as we took it off, and it would be silly for my mom to resort it once it was dropped down the chute). My house is a ranch with laundry on the main floor, so we don't have the option for a chute.

After expressing my desire for a laundry chute, I was told by someone who should know that they were phased out because they are fire hazards - they give fire a direct route through a building. A little Googling shows that this is a matter of contention, but they are still not allowed in some areas.

My friend's grandma had a laundry shoot, though it was a lot bigger than this. Big enough, in fact, for two eight year olds to slide down it and into the basement.

This is brilliant! Thanks for sharing!

I once saw a DIY show where the guy made a dumbwaiter by placing a garage-door opener vertically and attaching a shelf! There was a closet on the lower floor that he dedicated just to that use.

I've always wanted to make a chute like this, especially since my upstairs bath is directly over the laundry room. What stops me is silly; but I'd REALLY like a way to sort the laundry into colors and haven't figured out a good way to do that, yet.

Though I never understand it, I know some people who don't sort their laundry. A friend of mine like that had an opening in her bedroom closet floor that was directly over the washer. Keep the washer's lid open, and bam, you're ready to go!!

You know, I've just realized - rather than the complications of making a dumbwaiter (if you have only 2 stories to navigate) why not just have a shelf on the lower floor that's at about six feet; and a trap door above that you can open and just reach down to get the basket!

Ikea sells these laundry baskets that are mesh with a spring spiraling up the sides, so they're quite collapsible. Seems like that could be handy in this case.

... oh yeah, joists. Darn. You'd have to have skinny baskets...

I assure you, everything goes down with ease. Sheets, duvet covers, towels (we've tried them all) all slide straight through. It's amazing. :)

And thanks for the mention AP!

I knew a family who put in ine of these in a newly constructed home, mostly for their teenaged boys. Some time after moving in, one of the boys asked why his laundry was disappearing. He was putting it into the chute but it wasn't coming back to his room.

(I, too, suspect the one featured would clog. You don't want bends in something like that.)

My bathroom adjoins my kitchen. When I had the contractor redo them a few years ago, I made him leave a small hole in the back of my bathroom closet floor, so I can nudge all my laundry "down cellar" with my foot. It makes all the difference in the world! Instead of having to gather up wet and dirty laundry, walk it through my kitchen and mudroom, and then toss it to the basement (to lie in a heap at the bottom of the stairs)... I just throw it in the closet.

The only thing better would be to go back to the luxurious world I had before: a second-floor master bath wtih attached laundry room. Unload clothes, put clothes in bureau, FINISHED!

I agree with PI. That elbow in the pipe doesnt help either. I guess there is always a plunger nearby.

My Dad put a chute in the house he built in the early 1960's. Very useful.

The first house my partner and I bought came with a laundry area in the family bathroom upstairs. THAT is now my standard for perfection. When we built our new house, we put a small laundry room -- only big enough for side-by-side washer and dryer and space to stand in front of them -- on the bedroom floor. I hope I never have to climb stairs with a laundry basket again! (My back isn't up to it any more!)

I also grew up in Ohio and had a laundry chute. We used ours all the time. The house was two stories + basement. There was a door on both the second and first floors. It had a cover at the bottom so laundry wouldn't end up on the floor if a basket wasn't there. Sometimes stuff would get stuck at the first level, and you'd just open the chute's door and push it down.

I would be money that at some point it gets clogged. I grew up in a ranch home with a laundry chute that was about 10" x 14". It went from the wall to the basement and my mom had put in an extension so laundry didn't have to drop from the ceiling. I don't know if my parents ever got things jammed, but as a teen I tended to just stuff things in there and more than once I got a wad of clothes or towels or sheets stuck in there and had to pull back and then reform to get them through - and ours didn't even have a bend!

Amy, I'll take that bet. doesn't get clogged, I assure you. :) The inside of the PVC is crazy slick, and the weight of the clothes, towels, etc force everything straight through. It works even better than I imagined it would.

I would be concerned about how to clean it over time. Dirty things go down in, and after a while it will inevitably get dirty, no? I don't know, I don't see it as a big deal to haul down a hamper full of dirty laundry. I get grossed out thinking of even crevices that can't be cleaned properly, in a house.

I second 1001petals' concern; even though I realize it's not like I'm scrubbing out my laundry basket every week I can at least see the dirt (if it collects) so I know when to clean it. I wouldn't be able to tell with a laundry chute, especially one that's been there for decades. And depending on the size of the chute, wouldn't it be a hazard if a kid climbed in?

@1001petals & @amandapdx, Well, I mean, it is dirty laundry going down the chute, right? So at worst, it gets a little bit dirtier before getting washed? I don't see this chute getting terribly cruddy, anyway-- more like getting polished by regular use. Kinda like worrying about the cleanliness of your waste water lines, IMO-- just a leetle bit too far down the list of things I need to be worrying about, I guess.

My house has a laundry chute (and a cool catching-crib in the basement)..and a coal chute...but, also what is utterly brilliant and totally needs modern revisitation: a milk door! It is a cool little cabinet/pass-thru where the milkman would deposit your dairy delivery. The milk door is at mid-wall in my garage--and at floor level in my kitchen. It would be awesome if the milk door were bigger so I could set grocery bags in it...then grab em from the kitchen...with no stairs in between. Sigh...for now I use it for things like bottles I am too lazy to carry right out to the recycling bins.

I had a laundry chute growing up. It was in the bathroom and was a hole in the floor in the vanity and I always dreamed of jumping in there and landing in the wading pool in the basement that held all the clothes. Such good memories.

My sister's house has one of these (from kids' bathroom upstairs to laundry room), and it's fairly small. I imagine having a bend in there adds another measure of safety, so a tiny kid couldn't get in there. But stuff doesn't get stuck. It drops into a high cabinet that fits a laundry basket, so it doesn't go very far.

House Voyeur: a wading pool to catch the clothes! That is BRILLIANCE!

Barbieq ---

Just remembered my grandmother's house had the milk door thing, too! As well as a mail slot.

How old am I? No laundry chute,but a "window box" where the milkman left milk, in glass bottles!

I think this is so brilliant. I thought it was much cleaner until I saw the closet photo - it's quite big! I'm so jealous.

And I have literrally never cleaned my laundry baskets. They're still white. I'm sure your tubes will be just fine! And you'll never put clean laundry in them so who cares.

Totally with you on that, MAYNELANDER. Half tempted to put something like that in when we extend the back of our ranch w/ basement. Will make bringing boxes of party stuff up out of the basement a lot easier!!

I have a laundry chute in my 1930s A&C bungalow. It's in the base of the linen closet (which doesn't go all the way down to the floor). It takes up the front and center third of the first 'shelf' with a fitted lid hinged along the back. And the laundry in the basement is directly under the bathroom, so the total enclosed area of the 'chute' is only about three feet down or so.

I have managed to clog it up with the entire set of queen sized sheets, four pillowcases and a mattress cover all at once. But a few 'shoves' and everthing went through.

I dunno...I still have to walk downstairs to actually do the laundry and I still have to carry all the clean laundry back up the stairs. I don't feel like this would be a valuable addition to my home. Plus, with how little exercise I, personally, seem to get, carting the laundry downstairs brings me one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.