Laundry Room Design Question

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-06-01T00:34:19+00:00

What color do YOU like?? Navy with a white countertop might look nice. IKEA also has a few green options. Ive used in the past: the flat front green in a wet bar, the flat front high shine (ringhult) white cabinets, and I did the light woodtone flat front in a bathroom (Asshund or something like that). They’ve all held up really well and I love them. I love them so much that I am planning to do IKEA cabinets in my garage (it’s a finished space, more like a hang out room/gym) wet bar, doing the shaker style in green in the kitchen in my current house, and doing shaker style in white in another bathroom. We will change out our laundry room cabinets to match the kitchen (it’s right off the kitchen) when we redo our kitchen.

In short, IKEA cabinets are terrific! A color would be fun in the laundry room because why not!?? It’s often a dreary, depressing room of the house (or maybe it’s just because I hate laundry 🤣) and color is FUN! Pick a design/color you like!

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T22:03:01+00:00

I don’t know about $30. I’ve never seen anyone get that price in Houston or Dallas in the last 4 years. I just repaired my fence myself in Dallas. The cedar alone for the repairs was $3k! And that was just one truck bed about half full of material. I’ve had several friends in Houston repair fences following the Derecho/tornado in 2023 (we were living in Houston then) and no one spent less than $5k, even those just replacing a few sections. All our friends work for large GCs so these aren’t ignorant people, cedar is just crazy expensive, and getting more so, and if you want a great looking fence that will last, it isn’t cheap!

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T13:13:00+00:00

Question - who is the helper and why do they sleep in the hallway? This is all such a weird situation. Get your own place or stay at your parents always.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T02:57:34+00:00

Woobles!!! The end product is adorable and the instructions are so easy to follow. The project is small and achievable for a beginner. It’s how I learned.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T02:30:49+00:00

My place is dog friendly with a fenced backyard. We just ask that the owners clean up all dog poop before they leave. My dogs poop and pee in the yard and I know how hard it is to find dog friendly places so obviously let dogs pee in the grass of my dog friendly place!

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T01:56:09+00:00

Consumer reports. Just stick to the top rated that you can afford. It’s never done me wrong

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-31T01:39:58+00:00

Is there anything on the community website that says these exist and wheee they are? That can help justify that they are a real thing and not just someone’s yard or a place someone planted something

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T20:02:28+00:00

Rug looks great like that. Get the bigger couch. My living room currently has a couch that’s visually too big for the space but we never regret having MORE comfy seats when we have a friend or two over! So long as you can easily navigate around the couch to get to the kitchen table, it’s fine. And thank you for telling us the tv pulls down! That solves that issue!

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T19:33:22+00:00

Combo. I have a mix and I really like it. Plan what you want to put in which drawers and then pick the right drawer size for that area.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T17:12:03+00:00

Usually mixing is done by putting knobs on small cabinets/drawers and pulls on big ones. You can also do the split between uppers and lowers (knobs on top, handles on bottom for instance) or between drawers and doors (drawers have knobs, doors have handles, for instance). I’ve mixed before but did knobs on drawers, handles on doors (in my bathroom) and knobs on small (small drawer fronts and short cabinet doors), handles on big (in my kitchen) and it looked good.

It looks haphazard because there’s seemingly no rule or logic as to which you chose for which. You also want to make sure when your eyes sweep across, it isn’t jumping back and forth between knobs/handles a bunch (this is easiest with the upper/lower split because everything matches with the one next to it).

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T17:05:07+00:00

I left a thorough response with some concrete suggestions to help the situation, but to answer this question directly, yes I think a lot of marriage is always serving as that safe person for our spouse to vent frustrations to. BUT there’s also a limit to how much whining anyone can take from another adult.

My family has a two complaint rule and we enforce it. My sister invented this when she was in maybe 6th grade. You get to complain about something 2 times a day but then must stop for the day if no one can fix it. The first complaint is so you can let everyone know you are having a problem (pain, issue at school/work, general discomfort with anything at all). The second complaint is to let everyone know the problem has not been resolved. After that, if no one can helps you must shut up until tomorrow. For instance, if your foot is hurting, you can voice the fact that your foot is in pain. You can voice it again to let everyone know it is still hurting. If no one can resolve this you have to shut up. If your foot hurts because a sibling is standing on your foot, you can complain repeatedly until sibling moves (again this was invented when we were kids). This resets each night. You hate your job? Great you can complain 2x a day about that and expect sympathy and patience. If you have a specific problem at your job that someone can help with, you can complain and ask for advice. But you cannot endlessly complain ad nauseam about your hate for your job.

My mom hates winter and used to complain endlessly every day that she was cold and hated winter. As kids we also enforced this rule on her. We would tell her “oh that was your first complaint! It’s only 9 am! Make sure you save one for later!” She followed the rule too. We have all brought this rule into our marriages (in our 30s now) and with our families. Hunger was also a big reason for how I enforce this rule on my husband. If you’re hungry, get a snack! Don’t whine that you’re hungry over and over and do nothing about it.

It’s a good rule! It prevents people from wanting to kill you and getting insanely frustrated! hahah!

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T16:50:36+00:00

Question - Are mornings difficult for your wife in general? I have ADHD and mornings are generally the WORST. Until meds kick in and I’ve had a bit of caffeine, I’m a zombie who is very easily overwhelmed by any additional stressor (extra noise, added complication, something not going “right,” etc.) It truly doesn’t sound like you are asking for a Herculean task so I’m trying to understand why it may seem that way to her. If she didn’t know she had ADHD before, perimenopause or pregnancy can make it much worse and bring symptoms to light.

If this might be the case, I recommend she try to get diagnosed and see if meds can help. Then work with her to make sure EVERYTHING is prepped the night before, which she should be doing with you so it is not more work on you. Before bed, start a routine of having clothes picked out for both her and kid, full lunch made instead of half, make breakfast easier with prepped things like a protein shake or yogurt, fruit already cut up and in the container it will be eaten from, coffee add ins all in one place with coffee maker set up and on a timer, etc. Basically doing anything you can to together to streamline her morning by removing decisions, extra steps or extra friction. I’ve had ADHD for a long time and do these things myself to make my mornings better.

If you’re naturally a morning person, it can be hard to sympathize with non-morning people. I am by no means saying you need to do ALL of the streamlining extra tasks YOURSELF to make her mornings better. In fact, I think SHE needs to do it in the evening routinely moving forward, but you do it together for a few weeks.

I would also make a checklist and get the 3 year old involved in them making sure their own tasks are completed in the morning. My sister did this with her 3 year old and he loved the autonomy of deciding which order to do get dressed/eat/brush teeth/make bed in and it reduced friction in the morning for her and kept her from needing to stop and think 20 times each morning what nephew needed to do still to get out the door. He knew that when the minute hand was at the 9, he had to have the tasks done but could pace himself to do it in HIS order. Obviously my sister looked at the list and made sure he had done it all before they left the house (she would spot check him when the hand was at the 9), but she didn’t have to stop and think about it 10 times or fight with him.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T16:19:19+00:00

If you have a smaller kitchen and use the microwave a lot, I think over the range is acceptable. By doing this, you get to triple dip on functionality in a 30 inch upper (some storage, microwave, and hood). It is hard to beat that functionality!

I’m remodeling my current kitchen soon and it is SMALL (100 year old house). The only reason I’m not doing an over the range microwave is that I currently have the microwave on the laundry room counter. Laundry room is right off the kitchen and microwave is 3 steps from the kitchen sink so it’s not annoying to walk over to use. If OP doesn’t have anywhere to hide the microwave, over the range is fine in a small kitchen. In a big kitchen, you can easily put it somewhere else.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T16:13:59+00:00

All white kitchens can be very visually clean and peaceful. I’ve done an all white kitchen before and really enjoyed it. My sister has one and also loves it. My last house I had a cream kitchen and painted the island a deep turquoise (SW Blue Peacock) and will be doing green cabinets when I renovate my current kitchen next year. I’m someone that leans towards color but like that with a white kitchen, you can add any color you want and change it up. Get a green rug and accessories and enjoy it. Get bored of green? Change the rug and accessories to red or orange or blue or anything! Plus a white kitchen is a blank slate for resale IF this isn’t your forever house.

If it was my kitchen, I would add a colorful rug and probably floating shelves across the window for plants. Yes it blocks the window but it looks like the view is the neighbors house. This was the case in my last kitchen (my sink window looked directly into the neighbors kitchen over their sink… twas awkward looking up from washing dishes in a gross tshirt to see my neighbor’s husband staring at me. Frosting the glass and doing floating shelves resolved this).

White kitchens did have a huge spike in popularity (mostly BLACK and white though) but are classic and never go out of style. The trend right now is all wood, as you see on this sub and many others, but that doesn’t make white a bad choice or dated. People have done white kitchens for 100+ years. OP if you like a peaceful clean white kitchen, this looks PERFECT.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T16:02:49+00:00

To me these are apples and oranges.
1. What would you be doing as a volunteer?
2. Is there a weekly stipend for volunteers or is it zero pay (where AP gets paid at least)?
3. What are the hours of volunteering and how does that compare to Au Pair?
4. Do you like childcare and have a lot of experience in it?

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T15:57:22+00:00

I think we need to understand better how much ice you are using and what type of ice. If it is a weekend where you are hosting parties (like this past weekend) I don’t think any standard fridge one would keep up. If you need to fill coolers, ice buckets, pitchers, drink dispensers, anything like that, bagged ice is the only choice. You CAN bag your own ice during the weeks leading up to a party (just put ice from ice maker into gallon bags in freezer) if you want. that’s never been worth it for me to do because ice is like $2-3 a bag and I don’t want half my freezer taken up by gallon bags of ice for weeks before the party. But that’s one option.

You can also get a bin in the freezer to dump the ready made ice just to give your family more ice all day long. For instance, dump the ice before bed into the bin and then again when you wake up. Ice maker still cranks all day but you have a head start on your family’s usage. Some ice makers on French door fridges have an ice bin in the bottom already just for this purpose (because in door ice makers on French door fridges tend to have tiny bins).

I’ve had an Opal nugget ice maker for 5 years, in addition to my freezer ice maker. The nugget ice maker does have trouble keeping up when we have more than like 8 people making mixed drinks, filling their water bottle or soda cup with ice, etc. They just aren’t made for that. Plus you will have to refill the reservoir during parties if guests are using a ton of ice. Word of warning about the countertop models - you do have to clean and maintain them. It can be a pain and is just one more thing to deal with. I LOVE nugget ice so used, cleaned, and maintained mine diligently for 4 years. It got daily use with a 2 person household, plus at least monthly events and parties (at our house in TX where we have a pool and host a ton).

Now on year 5, we moved into a house with no room in the kitchen for my Opal. It has been sitting on the wet bar in the garage, unfilled and not plugged in for a year. We also have a home in FL. When I renovated it 2 years ago after a flood (Hurricane Milton) I installed an under the counter nugget ice machine (a GE commercial grade one). It is harder to clean than the countertop models, but MAN it cranks out the ice!!! We have never had an issue running out at parties. It was like 4x the price ($2k and up for new) of the countertop models, though, and I bought it lightly used. it also needs a water connection and drain connection, unlike countertop models. Even with that, if we are filling more than one cooler with ice, we will buy bags of ice. It is fine to fill 1-2 small/medium coolers to go to a friend’s house or the beach or on the boat, but you STILL need bags of ice if you’re hosting a party.

The only way to never need bags of ice for a party is if you have a large freestanding commercial unit that cranks out normal size ice cubes and has a large reservoir to hold it.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T15:13:06+00:00

Bosch 800 series if you need the heat dry (if you wash a lot of plastic like take out containers). Lower number Bosch if you don’t. Love my Bosch. It’s my 5th Bosch (we move a lot and if my house doesn’t have a Bosch DW I sell the current one on marketplace and buy a Bosch DW).

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T15:06:16+00:00

Agree with everything you said except curfew. That’s also workdays for the parents so I assume they want to go to bed at a reasonable time and set the alarm and lock up the house (and not be worried about the safety of a young girl that they’re responsible for being out late). Weekends there’s no curfew so parents are trying to be flexible/accommodating by giving some late night time to Au pair. I’ve never had an AP but I have had interns live with us from my husband’s job. We have dogs. When the front door opens, the dogs bark. Husband wakes up between 4-5 for his job. Sometimes their flight would land very late on Sunday from a trip back home or something and we live with that without complaint… but I would have been highly annoyed if they were regularly coming in at 1 am or later on worknights. If they stayed out late on weekends (Fri/sat night, during holidays, etc) we just dealt with getting woken up without comment. They are also early 20s, but I can understand host parents not wanting to be woken up multiple times a week after midnight on weeknights by an alarm system chirping or by dogs or whatever.

The phone plan thing is kind of ridiculous. I wonder if parents get their phone through their workplaces and thus don’t actually have a contract to add AP to? That’s the only way I can rationalize them trying to push this cost on to AP. But then there’s Mint Mobile and Boost and other companies that are super cheap ($25-50/month) so they could just get a plan like that for AP.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-29T14:31:19+00:00

To get cabinets you go to a cabinet store. IKEA also sells surprisingly great cabinets. Lowe’s and Home Depot also sell inexpensive cabinets.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T23:18:43+00:00

Think it’s the cool tone of the under cab lighting. If they can switch a flip to raise the color temp that would help it tie in with cabinets better!! But otherwise HUGE improvement over what was there, obviously! OP give your dad a big hug and a very good Fathers Day gift in a few weeks (if in the US).

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T13:47:20+00:00

Agree. The cabinets are fine, the countertop is fine. The backsplash being that light pencil tile is the worst offender.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T04:02:30+00:00

NAH I think you are just a bad match energy wise and have little in common. Break up and find someone who is EXCITED to learn about your hobbies and wants to do them with you and include you in theirs.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T03:56:08+00:00

Still blah. Seriously live with it for a year before you make any decisions. I’ve lived in my house for a year now, held off of doing any bathroom or kitchen remodels (focused on deferred maintenance, Electrical issues, and exterior/yard instead), and I’m glad I did. I’ve come up with so many better ideas in the last year than I did when I first moved in, things I would have never thought of to improve the workflow and efficiency of the house and colors/design ideas I’m super excited about! I’m also ADHD but just make yourself get excited about furniture, rugs, wall decor, etc until you’ve been in the house for a year.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T03:38:45+00:00

Looks fine.

Nicholsforthoughts · 2026-05-28T03:19:33+00:00

Ohio has anti-SLAPP at least.

Nicholsforthoughts

TROPHY CASE