If you have a utility room, what's its best feature?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

We have a utility room but it's in the same condition it was when we bought the house (poor and unloved) so this year is the year it gets its face-lift.

What is the best thing about your utility?

Ours currently houses:-
The fridge freezer
The washing machine
The tumble dryer
The boiler
The cat litter trays
A bin
A small amount of storage for loo rolls etc.

It's also the room which we access the outside space (can't really call it a garden!!) and the bathroom. So it's used as a walk through room a lot.

I want to get this right as I don't want to have to begrudge missing something.

I have a sink with draining board and 3 base cupboards, (plus extra freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer, ironing board hung on wall)

The sink gets used for emptying buckets of water (after cleaning floors or bathroom etc), cleaning paint palettes (daughter doing art exams), cleaning up after decorating, washing/cleaning shoes, and also can be used if kitchen sink in use)….

I also have a dehumidifier and 2 standing airers (airers put away when empty but they are rarely empty!)

I had a friend who had 4 very sporty teenagers. They had a shower in their big utility room along with the laundry equipment. Kids went straight into the utility room, stripped their dirty clobber, straight into the shower and into clean clothes.

We have a tall cupboard which is fine but i cant get get excited about it

My three best features of mine are:

-Victorian kìtchen maid pulley thing its just soooo handy

• An extra deep / wide sink with one of those taps thatdoubles as a hose/spray.

its amazing for washing pets, soaking things/ Cleaning gross stuff... just everything.

• extra deep counter top. we used standard kitchen counter on one wall and bought a breakfast bench which we cut down for the other wall. We inset the appliances so they were flush with the front and had a larger gap at the back. The meant we could have an extra deep counter which accomodated laundry baskets and still left a large space to sort and fold clothes. It works reallllly well for us

Ours is the size of an average kitchen. It has sink, work tops, washer, dryer, dishwasher. On the other side floor to ceiling cupboards which house the boiler and hold a lot of stuff. Space at the back for an airer.

Ours isn't technically a utility room as there's no sink, so it's a laundry room. We have washing machine, tumble drier, second fridge freezer, three tall cupboards, cat litter trays. We have a heated towel rail rather than a normal radiator, which I use to dry all the socks/ underwear. And a hanging rail along one wall for drying clothes on hangers.

Ok so mine doesn't have a sink so does that make it a laundry? I'm not going to put one in as it's in-between two rooms which have sinks.

We have an old fashioned pulley. Wouldn't be with it now. The room isn't that tall but it's not a thoroughfare for us. Larger things could be a bit of a nuisance if you walk through a lot. But frankly so good at drying towels/ bedding that I'd still recommend.

Ok so mine doesn't have a sink so does that make it a laundry? I'm not going to put one in as it's in-between two rooms which have sinks.

I don't really know, I just remember reading that somewhere when we were planning our extension! We still call ours the utility.

I'll never forget 4yo ds showing his friend round the house when we got it and he said "this is the nativity room"

Sink - so handy not to have to use the kitchen for things like emptying mop buckets/handwashing dirty items. Best thing in there though is the massive set of open shelves for all the dirty boots and shoes - riding boots, hiking boots, football boots, welly boots, gardening shoes, etc.

I have never seen this but sounds a brilliant idea. Ours stores everything from shoes to hoover/steam mop/microwave and dog food. The washing machine and tumble are in there too. We have a sink but I do wonder why we bothered with it now. I might take it out and increase the cupboard space underneath to be honest. I love having a utility though.

We took the sink out if ours as we have sinks in the kitchen and garage.

we have a tall cupboard for the hoover and ironing board - v handy, spare freezer (the freezer in the fridge/freezer isn’t that big), booze fridge, cupboards for overflow cereals, beans, baking ingredients etc.

we also have a 4 line indoor drying line similar to this www.dunelm.com/product/vileda-rewind-4-retractable-clothes-washing-line-1000161834?defaultSkuId=30675815&branchCode=0450&ds_c=Utility_Outdoor+Airers_%5BGOO-LIA-HOMEHYGIENE-OUTDOORAIRERS%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQiA9YugBhCZARIsAACXxeIMQeanJ-GRYJ2qOpNkX9dCWUuI1GxtbH_34lo8hNUuPNXn1jhJRh8aAgjUEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

a load of washing will dry overnight hung up on this - it’s great!

Oh, and the boiler is in there too with a small radiator which is why things dry so well

Big sink with one of those pull out hose taps. Great for mucky jobs like oven trays, muddy boats etc.

We have a run of units, including a sink and worktop. Currently houses the steriliser, bottles and prep machine. We have an airer and we've built in and stacked the washing machine and tumble dryer. Behind the door there's an alcove (used to be a cupboard which opened into the hallway but we bricked up the doorway and knocked out the wall internally, if that makes sense. That alcove houses the vacuum, ironing board, mop, gas metre and fuse board. Oh and a bin! We have plenty of storage for laundry/cleaning materials, cat stuff, toilet rolls, shopping bags etc.

Definitely a double size sink. My baby bath sat perfectly inside it when DS was tiny, and it's a great size to bath a border terrier.

I like my Sheila Maid (DH also put a wall dryer in there so things dry quickly) and wheeled sorting laundry trolley. So once I've decanted the laundry bags in there every morning there's no washing seen in the house, which is a bit of a bugbear of mine.

We put a big sink in put tbh don’t use it that much…..cleaning the bbq racks, soaking pot plants…

the cat food wall is in there and his bowl.

love having the washing machine and tumble dryer out of the kitchen. It’s a small and not v well designed room which is more of a corridor than anything else…

it’s also got a v low ceiling and no room for an airer…
It is handy for locking the cat in when he’s being annoying.

We have a sink with a cover a bit like this we have a tap which can be swivelled to the side so I can use the space as worktop. The utility is tiny so every inch counts!

We also have a pulley maid which I love

As of today, a tray that sits on top of the tumble dryer (stacked on washer) that means kitchen roll and bbq tools can't fall down the back. (I had the idea and started cutting wood months ago but hadn't had time to finish it).

We also put shelves on the wall to the side for cleaning products and also have a plug to recharge the chordless vaccuum just over this light switch.

It is only a cupboard size but holds a lot and is so useful. And it has a door to close and keep a lot of noise within.

I wouldn’t be without mine but I wouldn’t like a tiny room with no space. For me the main benefit is being able to dry all my washing in there out of sight. I hate washing hanging around other rooms and taking up both physical space and headspace (never feeling I can shut off from it). So I left a lot of floor space in utility for washing stands. The boiler is there plus a radiator so everything dries really quickly also. Along one wall is a sink drainer and worktops. I store all the kids art and crafts on the worktops and the sink is in daily use for hand washing, paint pot cleaning, clothes soaking etc etc. underneath I have a washer and tumble drier and two cupboards for larger kitchen accessories and my baking things. Wall units provide extra storage for tons, dry goods, etc.

I think it depends what your priorities are and what you most value plus the layout. I really value the washing drying and sink plus cupboard storage. We don’t have direct access to the outside so I don’t really use it as a mud room. If it had a door that opened to outside I’d probably want more boot/wellie/wet jacket storage in there. Ideally I’d have both. I do try super wet jackets in there on wash stands but generally don’t use for the outdoor gear and we’ve no pets. I like having the washing out of sight though.

Ours is so small ... it houses the washing machine, sink, boiler, very small cupboard and a space for a shoe rack ... it's really just a walkthrough from the kitchen to the garden. It would be so much more useful if it was combined with the cloakroom. I've always thought a 'lootility' is a much more effective use of space.

Our downstairs loo is in ours, plus a washer/dryer. All laundry and cleaning stuff with ironing board hung on wall. It’s not huge but works so well.

Also sorry I didn’t mean to sound rude saying I wouldn’t want a small room - anything is a bonus right!! I just meant for me it is the wash stand space that’s key so needs to be bigger room.

My mum had high ceilings in hers and had a pulley. She used to be able to get so much washing on it and it was all up there out the road. I don’t have high enough ceilings for that but I’ve just seen the ones that come out the wall on here and now I’m for one of them if I can find a space to squeeze it into 🙈 ours is just a dumping ground, overflowing with washings at the minute. I need to get rid of about half of clothes or I’m never going to get to the end of the washings and start using the cupboards in there for storage and not just throwing anything in that I don’t know where else to put it