Before you think that I’m waxing nostalgic about the good old days, I got my first internet connected computer when I was 12 and I’m not 30 yet . The house was built in 1920, so it had the laundry chute and build in ironing board, as well as other conviniences that modern homes don’t have (built in nook in the wall for a phone, with a phone book sized cubby underneath for phone books- every house in the neighborhood had those and it really was handy as hell).

I think laundry chutes just went out of style because they were practical and expensive to put in, so like built in ironing boards, telephone nooks, and harvest gold appliances they fell out of fashion, were expensive for contractors to put in, so they stopped going into houses.

However, I wish I had considered a few things in advance. First, it channels sound from the basement upstairs. So careful with noisy basement appliances that you don’t want to hear upstairs! Second, I should have made it smaller, because there’s no need for an enormous chute, plus now I need to add a bar at the intake point so my child won’t crawl in and fall down.

I suppose fire could be an issue, but I don’t think that is really that big a problem.

I thought the laundry shoots went away due to either fire safety or child safety. I also like the idea – just wondering what restrictions they placed on you in order to satisfy building code.

Thanks for the blog!