I was having a chat with some friends and we were talking about how, in the U.S. at least, washers are usually on the left and dryers on the right and why that might be. Someone pointed out that we wash first and then we dry. But then someone else pointed out that we are sort of primed to think in left-to-right terms already since that’s the direction in which we read. So here is my question:
Are washers usually on the right and dryers on the left in the Middle East?
In US.
Given they need different types of hookups, the washer hookup goes wherever the plumbing is, then the dryer is put in the remaining space, wherever that is.
Given that the average laundry room is generally not in the exact center of a house, it makes sense that the washer would consequently often be closer to the room entrance (because that’s more central to the house, where the plumbing is)
Not in the US; in NZ most houses will have a “wash tub” - essentially a sink in a metal cabinet specifically for doing “dirty” jobs like laundry. That will have water hookups for the washer, so that goes next to it where there is space, then the dryer will do next to that or on top of the washer.
The last few places I’ve lived in have all had the tub in a corner with space on its left, so it’s been dryer, washer, tub. Annoying, my dryer door opens to the right and the washer to the left, so it’s harder than it should be to move clothes between them
I think my biggest takeaway from this so far is that dryers are just not a thing in most of the world. So TIL that.
Could also be the flow of the house. Every house I’ve been in where the washer and dryer are side by side, the washer has been closer to the entrance of the wash room and the dryer is farther (and usually towards the back door). My thought process would be dump the clothes in the washer and then kick the basket in front of the dryer to pull them out later and get it more out of the walking path. (unless there’s room on top of the dryer)
Been living in the US for almost exactly 40 years, never had a dryer on the right. Mostly Chicago and Detroit. I don’t think I would like the opposite. Is this really a norm I wasn’t aware of and somehow never encountered
My dryer is on the right, but the direction the door swings makes it better that way. If it were on the left I would have trouble moving the wet clothes from the washer to the dryer without hitting the door all the time.
Do the doors open away from each other? So that you can m9ve stuff from one to the other?
I have a 2-in-1 due to space restrictions.
My washer loads from the top.
I suspect it has more to do with handedness- which is also partly why English and most western languages are written left-to-right in part because western writing systems were developed after ink or paint became the dominate means of writing over, for example, cuneiform clay or wax tablets. The reason for the switch was that ink would smudge in left-to-right.
In that regard, it might be “easier” to move things from left to right for most people (sorry lefties,) also most manufactures set it up to be moved in that direction and arrange the hinges to be set on that; and while it probably doesn’t really matter, it’s the order they went with. (for the record, you usually can have the doors swapped if you need to.)
(sorry lefties,)
Now I wonder, as a lefty, if this is why I always hate the time I have to put everything in the dryer?
