Laundry Room Design Tips for Senior Care Facilities

Whether you are managing a nursing home or a senior care facility, you have a daily need for clean laundry.

From bedding to linens, to kitchen and bath towels, scrubs and residents’ clothing, the wash pile never stops growing.

Here are a few tips to help you find the right laundry room design to help your staff stay on top of this important task.

There are many steps involved in providing effective laundry services in senior care facilities. They each require a designated space to safely and effectively launder the types of soiled linens and clothing your facility creates. By identifying each step, you can best choose the most appropriate laundry room design and the space required for it.

Since each step flows into the next, your laundry room design should allow for an easy progression from step to step, and station to station.

Step 1: Laundry Collection

While the collection of soiled laundry takes place outside the laundry room, it is important to consider the type of commercial laundry equipment you use for this important step. This way you can design an appropriately sized space for it.  

• Tip: Measure the size of your laundry bags, hampers, and collection bins/trucks and calculate how many of each need to be in the laundry room at any given time. Be sure to consider room for both filled and emptied receptacles.

Step 2: Sorting & Weighing Soiled Laundry

Sorting commercial laundry goes beyond separating whites, lights, and darks. It must also consider things such as the type of fabric, its use, and what soiled it. Therefore, it is important to include enough room for laundry staff to separate laundry items according to these considerations when preparing the laundry room design for your facility.

• Tip: Have a dedicated area for safely separating soiled laundry. This area should have good ventilation and enough space to prevent contaminants from spreading.
  

•  Tip: If you weigh your loads for optimum efficiencies, place scales in the sorting area on the way to the washing machines.

Step 3: Wash Laundry

Once laundry has been separated, your laundry staff will choose the appropriate chemicals and commercial laundry equipment to use. These include washers, extractors, and dryers.

• Tip: Machines should be placed in order of use, i.e. washers first, dryers last.
  

•  Tip: Your laundry room design should incorporate storage space for cleaning products in an easy-to-reach location near the machine it is meant for.

Step 4: Fold & Distribute

As any parent will tell you, the laundry is not truly finished until it is folded and put away. Therefore, your laundry room will require tables for folding and space for clean distribution carts.

• Tip: Consider how much laundry goes through your facility each day to determine how much space and how many machines and other commercial laundry equipment you require for each area of your laundry room.

One Final Tip

Connect with Harco Co Ltd, Canada’s leader in laundry systems since 1961. We can help you with your seniors’ facility laundry room design and help you select the most appropriate commercial laundry equipment for your needs. Contact us today!