Welcome to the 821st Metamorphosis Monday! The laundry room in this 86-year-old house I purchased at the very end of May, is located down in the basement. Over the years as I’ve checked out homes that were listed for sale in this area, the laundry room was pretty much always in the basement, usually in an unfinished part of the basement. I have to wonder what the original homeowners of the homes in this historic neighborhood would think if they could see the laundry rooms in homes being built today. I wonder if they would be puzzled why we spend time and money making laundry rooms so nice, or if they would love and appreciate them just as much as we do.
When I first saw this laundry “corner” in the basement, located just a few feet away from the furnace, I wasn’t that surprised by how it looked since this is pretty typical for this area where the homes are close to or over 100 years old, but it did get the wheels turning thinking about how I could, hopefully, one day, make it more inviting. There’s a gosh-knows-how-old, very dirty, rusted, utility sink right next to the washer. I’ve gotten a few quotes on having it replaced, but I haven’t taken that step yet since I’m toying with making a much bigger change in that area first. That’s another whole can of worms, so definitely a post for another day! Today, I’d love to share a DIY fix I made involving the dryer. When looking at this photo below, do you see anything wrong with the dryer?
Shortly after the delivery guys left after dropping off my new SpeedQueen washer and dryer, I noticed that the dryer door opened the wrong way.
It’s kind of a pain to move clothes from the washer to the dryer when the door opens out toward the washer, instead of away from it. I knew that doors on refrigerators could be switched to open a different way, so I figured that probably applied to dryers, too. I did a quick search on YouTube for how to change the way a dryer door opens on a Speed Queen washer, and immediately found the tutorial I needed. The first time I watched the video, I was not in the frame of mind to do the switch right then. It looked a bit more involved than I had expected, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it right at that moment. So I bookmarked a link back to the video knowing the day would come when I’d be mentally ready to tackle that project. That day came just a couple of weeks ago.
I won’t go into minute detail here since I’ll share a link to the video at the end of this post, but the process starts with removing the door from the dryer. After removing the door by unscrewing the hinges, the next step was to remove the top and bottom hinges from the door itself so they could be moved to the other side of the dryer.
First, this plastic cover had to be removed since it covered where the hinges would ultimately be installed. After removing the plastic cover that hid the holes on that side of the dryer, I popped the cover over the holes on the other side where the door had been originally mounted. Notice the little latch hole toward the bottom of this photo. Fortunately, dryers come with that hole on both sides since dryer manufacturers, Speed Queen in this case, anticipate that the door may need to be changed at some point.
One of the biggest parts of this project involves removing that whole interior panel seen on the inside of the door—the silver panel with the white, filter-like thing attached. That interior panel has to be turned 180 degrees and mounted back to the door. This whole reversing-how-the-door opens thing isn’t hard, there are just a lot of little steps. Really, the whole process from start to finish only took me around 25-30 minutes.
In the tutorial video I watched, the DIYer removes two screws that are along the side of the door nearest the handle, but he left out showing the step where he removes the two screws that are located along the bottom of the door. The photo below shows the location of the two screws that are on the side near the handle. After I removed those, I had to rotate the door and remove two more screws that were located along the bottom. Once all four screws holding the interior panel were removed, I was able to rotate that panel 180 degrees and install it back onto the inside of the door. Not sure how it is on other dryers, but on my Speed Queen dryer, there’s a lip at one end that the interior panel slips under, then the panel can be screwed back into place. I found I needed to slightly adjust/shift the panel a small amount to line the holes on the interior panel (the silver panel) back up with the holes in the door.
Another step that I thought needed a bit more clarification than what is shown in the video is moving the clasp (or whatever it’s called) to the other side of the door. In the video, moving the clasp is mentioned, but as he starts attempting to do that, the filming stops. In the next scene, the clasp has been removed and is being inserted on the other side. I’m guessing he stopped filming because this little clasp is a challenge to get out! It’s in the hole in the door super tight and I found it impossible to press in on its sides. The sides of the clasp are literally down inside the door! The way I was able to remove it was by taking a metal fingernail file, inserting it down one side of the clasp, and pressing inward until I was able to get one side out.
Once I had one side out, I rotated the clasp where it was catty-corned in the hole (see photo below) and it lifted right out. Relief! Then I was able to install it pretty easily in the hole on the other side of the door.
So here’s how things looked after the switch. The door opened and closed perfectly, thank goodness!
I washed clothes today and was really happy to have this task off my very long “to-do” list! If you need to do this with your dryer, I would suggest doing a search on YouTube for your particular brand of dryer, something like, “How to switch how the door opens on a XYZ dryer.” If you don’t see a video tutorial for your specific dryer, check out the video I followed because I bet most dryer doors are designed in a similar way. You’ll find the video I followed here: Speed Queen Dryer Door Reversal Tutorial. I’m so thankful for the clever DIYers who make these videos for us neophytes out here! Do you have a dryer that needs its door switched?
Looking forward to all the wonderful Before and Afters linked for this week’s Met Monday! Pssst: Did you know Between Naps On The Porch is on Instagram? You’ll find me on Instagram here: Between Naps On The Porch. Like to know when a new blog post is up? Subscribe for email updates (it’s free) and your e-mail will never be shared. Subscribe for free post updates here: Subscribe.
Metamorphosis Monday: Metamorphosis Monday is a party that’s all about Before and Afters. Please link up your Before and After projects like DIY projects, room makeovers, craft projects even recipes. Please do not link up Table Settings, save those for our Tablescape Thursday party on Thursday. If you are participating in Met Monday, you’ll need to link your post to the party using the “permalink” to your MM post and not your general blog address. To get your permalink, click on the name of your post, then copy and paste the address that shows in the address bar at the top of your blog, into the “url” box for InLinkz when prompted.
YOU ARE a whiz, kid!! GOOD JOB!!!! It “can be” done. KUDOS!!! franki
Gotta love those YouTube tutorials! Thanks, Franki!
It may have been easier to switch washer and dryer positions.
Unfortunately, that couldn’t be done due to where the dedicated electrical outlet is for the dryer and where it vents out, and where the connections are for the washing machine. In most laundry rooms, I think that is more or less fixed.
Also, in these old houses, the washing machine has to be right beside the utility sink because that’s where the water drains to, which is probably one of the reasons why the utility sinks always look so disgusting in these old houses. I’m really hoping to change that in the future and have it connected where it drains into the rest of the plumbing.
Yes…that is how they were set up. Years and years ago, my aunt was housekeeper in a Catholic rectory. She would wash the altar linens – that were not really dirty – and save that wash water in the utility sink…then put it back in the washer to wash the regular clothes. I forget how she got it back in the washer…that was over 60 years ago, but thinking of it now I realize she was being “green” and saving water !
Wow, she was trying to save them some $$$ on the washing. Very thrifty!
Thats’ because the first electric washers had a discharge hose that hooked over into some kind of drainage receptacle! Might as well have a utility sink to catch the wash water and use it for hand washables!! I am 82 and I remember all these things from helping my Mama! Love your spunk!
Thanks, Rebecca!
XXX
That’s amazing! I swear, there is a YouTube video for just about anything!
lol I know, it definitely seems like that. Love that!
Good for you for figuring that out instead of living with it ! I wish I had my top loader washer back…front loaders were in the unit we moved into…brand new, and I like them, they work well – but I miss putting clothes and other things in and letting them soak before washing. Thanks for sharing all you are doing with your doll house…it is such fun to follow your journey.
Thanks so much, Ann! I wish I could go faster, so many things I really, really want to do right now.
WOW!!!!! That’s amazing, Susan! GREAT job on that. Sometimes it is those little annoying things, once changed, make the biggest impact. Well done, ma’am.
Thanks, Michele! Yes, those little things do make a big impact.
XXX
You did a super job changing out the door. YouTube to the rescue. Unfortunately the delivery people should have asked you if you wanted them to change it out. Takes them about 2 minutes. They’ve done it for me several times we’ve moved. Hope you’re enjoying fall up north! Thanks for having us over.
You know, I wondered about that. I had terrible delivery/ installers. As soon as the guys arrived, the lead installer told me that he had forgotten all his tools and asked if he could borrow mine. I only had screwdrivers, but had just the day before purchased an adjustable wrench. I guess he wouldn’t have been able to hook anything up if I hadn’t done that.
Plus, they didn’t come with the correct vent and he ended up using the old one that was here after I stuck my arm down into it to clean it out. It was covered in thick lint, so it took a while to clean out.
Then he was unable to level the washer. He simply couldn’t figure out how to do it and blamed it on my floor. I had a plumber coming over the next day and he leveled it for me, took him about 2 minutes to do it. It was such a bad install/delivery experience, I complained to the business where I bought the washer/dryer and they refunded me the installation fee. I’m kinda glad he didn’t do the door change, not sure I would have trusted him.
Gotta love YouTube! There you did it again Susan! I even learned what neophytes were from your post (I had to look it up). I think you missed your calling as either a teacher or handywoman because you are definitely BOTH!!! :o)
Somebody once told me that you could probably learn to be a brain surgeon with YouTube videos! I’m pretty sure I’ll never want to do that, but I might want to switch an appliance door someday! Thanks for the great tutorial, and of course, for hosting! Hope you have a lovely week!
Hahaha! Probably true! Well, if you ever need to switch any appliance door, I betcha there’s someone on YouTube teaching us how.
Susan,
I Love You Tube!!
Thanks so much for hosting this wonderful party!! I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into it along with visiting all the links!! I hope you are having a great week!!
Hugs,
Deb
Debbie-Dabble Blog
Thanks, Debbie! Have an awesome week!
Susan, I love your dollhouse and I’m so happy that you found it. I have certainly enjoyed your adventures getting it ready. The fact that you could do the work on the dryer is amazing. Thank goodness for YouTube. The repair man who came to look at my dryer has told me that it’s too old to repair. I need to buy a new one and I’d like to look at a speed queen I live in Dunwoody, Georgia and would like to go to the same appliance company that you bought yours from. Would you please tell me who that is? I have had a negative experience similar to what you did with the first dentist. Would you please send me the name of your current dentist? I know you liked him and he was fair.
Thanks, Lalia! Sure, I’ll email you that info now. So sorry you are having such a negative experience with your current dentist…I know how awful that is!