dumb question about laundry :)

For those of you with washing machines in the basement... how do you do laundry with baby? Climbing up and downstairs with huge laundry baskets and baby? Dingy yucky basements? Right now our laundry room is on the main floor so I just plop baby down on the floor and she plays with the piles of clothes... but I'm not sure what I'll do in our new house with laundry in the basement...