Should I put my washing machine and dryer in the cupboard under the stairs?

[WhereToPutTheLaundry]

I have a small kitchen, in a not tiny but not generously sized house. I want to redo the kitchen this year, and maximise storage. Currently the washing machine and dryer are in there, both under counter. I hate it because they take up valuable space, spills get on the front of them, and I just think it's a bit yuck moving clean and washing out of the machine in a kitchen.

Kitchen is 3.8m x 2.4m. I considered having them stacked one on top of another in the corner by the door, but I also have a tall fridge which I cannot do without, and a boiler on the wall in another corner. The room is north facing so I wouldn't want any of the tall stuff near the window at the other end as I want to maximise light. But having 2 tall things, one next to the other, will make the room feel smaller.

I have space to put them under the stairs in the entrance hallway and it's right next to the downstairs loo so plumbing would be fine.

They would fit next to one another, leaving space beside for coats to hang, and space on top for bags/shoe rack etc. I also have a coat rack on the wall in the hallway and in practice the shoes people wear daily are lined up under the radiator for ease of putting on and off, rather than put away in the cupboard.

The hallway is narrow - I think approx 1.1m wide along its whole length and the under stair cupboard opens onto it halfway along.

Would this be a mad idea? Should I suck it up and leave them in the kitchen?

Can post some pics later when I'm home.

Sounds like a really good plan, as long as the dryer is a condenser, or plumbed in. We have ours in a cupboard off the kitchen, it works well.

My concern would be that there might be some extra humidity from them in a confined space. I'd probably go for it but monitor the humidity and if necessary find some way to ventilate a bit (possibly change the door to a louvred one?)

Might work. I have a condenser dryer in my shed but the shed still seems to get hot and steamy so not sure if that would be the case in your cupboard

The other thing that might be an issue is if having them there would make other parts of the house noisy.

Sounds like a great idea, just make sure there’s ventilation in the doors in front of them

Not necessarily a no but just to consider practicalities of possible humidity but also safety / accessibility - if they catch fire is it going to cause an issue with creating areas you may not be able to get out of?

My ex actually did something very similar to this in my mum's old house. Worked well, she did have a square hallway though so there was a bit more space. When mum used the tumble she was able to leave the door open a bit to reduce the condensation. But it worked well.

My washing machine is in a cupboard under the stairs - although that space is actually in the kitchen. The door is the same as the kitchen unit doors, but I don’t have the tumble dryer in there - not enough space.

Our washing machine is in a cupboard under the stairs - it works well & has its own plumbing & ventilation. I wish we could fit the tumble dryer in too but the curve of stairs means it's too low.

The fire service recommend not to do this as they are two appliances that often catch fire and are left on unattended or whilst everyone's asleep and can prevent you leaving the house. It's particularly dangerous if you have wooden stairs.

Thanks for views so far. I have thought about noise - it would be more open to upstairs but less so to the living areas. It's an integrated garage behind the cupboard, and nothing directly above it (obv), but I don't often use the machines other than during daytime hours so sleeping not an issue.

If the machine caught fire then it's under the main stairs and next to the hallway to the front door. So that's no great. I do have flat roof outside the upstairs hallway window so that's another, if less convenient, exit route. Hmm

It's a condensing dryer and I would have it plumbed in because I hate emptying the drawer.

Our washing machine bleeps loudly and continuously until you switch it off! You can hear it from every room. Plus we never run it overnight. But we don’t have the tumble dryer in there.

Are you detached or in a terrace? Our neighbours washing machine is against our shared wall and no amount of sound proofing in the world means we can’t hear it at 6am.

Several flats that I have seen recently have the washer and dryer in a cupboard in the hallway. Probably like this because of the open plan kitchen/diner/living room.
It works well with no condensation problems.

Not detached, but stairs are in middle of each house (semi) so no neighbour sound issues.

Main worry I hadn't considered is the fire thing.

Have you checked how easy it is to get plumbing into the cupboard (including a drain) - the washing machine will definitely need it

My kitchen is small and had both the washing machine and tumble dryer in it. When I had the kitchen redone, I kept the washing machine in the kitchen but put the tumble dryer in the garage. I now have to go into the garage to do the drying but that sort of encourages me to hang the washing out in the summer instead of transferring to the machine next to it.
It is useless trying to dry the washing outside in my area as it just doesn’t dry.

Do you have an old water tank cupboard? My Tumble dryer fits in there, it sits on a piece of worktop as there are some hot water pipes at the bottom so I put a hanging rail so non tumble dryer things could dry in there too, the door is the same as my internal doors and I leave it open when in use as it's a condenser and the vent would be covered otherwise.

You also have to have the electrics put in properly and not just run an extension lead.

I think plumbing is not a problem because the downstairs loo sink is on the other side of the cupboard wall so it would just be a case of drilling through.

I definitely couldn't cope with dryer in the garage 🙈

Do you have any more information on this/source? I can't seem to find anything.

I do have an old tank cupboard - but it's upstairs, right next to one of the bedrooms, so would be loud, and I'm holding that space for whenever I have to get an ASHP and need a tank again because the loft is converted so that is the only possible space for that.

Re. Fire - I have a mains operated very sensitive smoke alarm in the hallway right outside the cupboard door. If a fire ever did break out it would certainly not have time to do anything to the stairs or even the hallway before everyone in the house was up and out. The smoke alarms are on every floor, all connected to each other and make a hell of a racket. No one would sleep through it or be out of range of hearing the din they make.

I've just measured the hall and it's wider than I thought- 128cm next to the stairs.

I wonder if it’s possible to fireproof the cupboard, by lining it with a concrete board, particularly the roof of it, under the stairs?