Laundry Room Management Tips

As an apartment complex manager, you are responsible for its daily operations. It’s up to you to ensure that tenants are comfortable, safe and satisfied with their living experience and complex facilities, including the laundry room. The job comes with its challenges, but building relationships and creating a sense of community can also be rewarding. As such, you are probably on the lookout for trustworthy commercial laundry services for apartments, searching for laundry management tips to increase its efficiency or looking for ways to upgrade the laundry room.

In this post, we’ll discuss laundry room management and the different ways you can make your apartment laundry room more efficient.

Laundry Room Management Factors to Consider

There’s a lot that goes into setting up and managing an apartment complex’s laundry room. Some of the factors to consider include:

• The size of the property and laundry room
• Choosing the right laundry machines
• How often you can upgrade the machines
• Resources for machine maintenance
• Payment methods for using the machines

Keeping these in mind will help you figure out the best laundry room set-up for your complex.

Property and Laundry Room Size 

The first and most limiting factor to consider when figuring out how many washers and dryers you need is the size of the communal laundry room. However, the size of the property and the residents also play a major role:

• Size and layout of complex: How many units, floors and buildings are present? If you have more than one building, you may need to consider creating more than one laundry room that’s accessible and creates minimum disturbance.
• Number and demographics of residents: Typically there is one washer and dryer pair for every 10 units in apartment buildings, although the typical family structure in your complex can alter this resident-to-machine ratio. Families and working adults will use laundry facilities more often than students and senior citizens.
• Measurement of machines and space: Standard washing machines tend to be around 27 inches wide and 35 to 43 inches high. You’ll also need to consider the dimensions of any doors and openings, cabinets and drains in the room.
• Extra necessities: You’ll also want space for a sink, flat surfaces for folding laundry and chairs for people to sit and wait in.

The Right Laundry Machines

When choosing laundry machines, search for dependable commercial brands that are designed for bigger loads and higher demands while also being energy-efficient. It’s also better to have more washing machines than dryers since drying cycles tend to take longer than washing clothes. 

Every type of machine comes with its own set of benefits and disadvantages:

• Top-loader washing machines: These come with lower initial costs and take up less space, but are noisier and use more energy and water, increasing costs down the line.
• Front-loader washing machines: Front-load washers have higher initial costs but are more accessible and require less maintenance, decreasing costs in the long term. They often take bigger loads and use less water, making clothes easier to dry.
• Top-loader dryers: These are budget-friendly models that need less space than front loaders.
• Front-loader dryers: While they have higher initial costs, some front-loader models are stackable to save floor space.
• Stackable washer-dryer combos: These models may cost more and tend to use more energy and water than conventional washing machines and dryers. Some models require professional installation, but they save on floor space.

Renting vs. Buying Equipment

Now that you have a better idea of the type and quantity of laundry machines you need, the next question is whether you should rent or buy the equipment.

When you rent the laundry appliances, you can expect them to come with:

• Recurring fees with machine offerings and customer service.
• A service agreement to help with repairs and damages.
• The ability to swap out and upgrade machines.
• Easier to budget monthly costs compared to unexpected repair costs.

Buying the machines and equipment comes with:

• More hands-on control over the equipment.
• Higher upfront costs, but no recurring fees.
• The responsibility of maintaining and repairing machines yourself.

When it comes to apartments with laundry rooms that are used quite often, it may be easier to rent laundry equipment and use laundry room management service providers. They usually provide the laundry room equipment needed from leading manufacturers at a discount that could work in your favor financially. 

Repairs vs. Regular Maintenance

Many apartment maintenance staff are able to handle minor repairs on laundry equipment, but may not know how and when to maintain the machines regularly to increase their useful life. Most commercial washing machines and dryers are built to last 10 to 15 years — around 5,000 to 8,000 cycles — provided you establish a maintenance schedule and make sure to check all critical components to keep them in top working condition.

Wear and tear and frequent breakdowns can affect any equipment’s life span, especially when they’re used more often than regular in-unit machines. Plus, maintenance and repair costs go up as these machines age. Instead, working with someone who provides commercial laundry services for apartments can be a convenient way to keep up with your equipment’s maintenance plan. Additionally, a full-service laundry management company can handle any emergency repairs, so you can rest assured that your laundry room will remain functional.

Laundry App for Apartments

With everyone using cards to make payments, fewer people carry around cash. This creates a big headache for those who only have access to classic coin-operated machines. They also come with a variety of problems, such as coin jams and a higher potential for vandalism. Fortunately, many new commercial washing machines and dryers can accept tokens, coins and cash, as well as debit and credit cards.

Another great system for modern laundry rooms is using a laundry app to make payments. Depending on the demographics of your tenants, using laundry equipment with more than one way to collect payment will make the laundry room accessible to the majority of residents. The Speed Queen Laundry app is one of the few innovative laundry technology options that delivers customized possibilities for laundry rooms, which include:

• Flexible payment options: Pay using a debit or credit card or add to the in-app laundry allowance.
• Machine availability: See which machines are available and get notifications when your cycles are done.
• Service notifications: Get automatic service reporting notifications for all self-diagnostic equipment.

Make Laundry Rooms More Efficient With Caldwell & Gregory

If you’re looking for managed laundry services for your apartment complex, Caldwell & Gregory can help. We provide full-service laundry room management solutions for all types of apartment buildings with communal laundry rooms. Property owners and managers trust us because we take the time to hear them out. With us, you will also get the attention from our sales and service teams to keep your tenants happy — and your machines running!

Get in touch with us through our online contact form and let us help you find the right solutions for your laundry equipment needs.