AIBU to think UK houses and flats are badly designed when it comes to doing laundry?

[YellowBalloonsandOrangeBaboons]

Inspired by moving into an otherwise lovely flat, built in the 90s, which has no utility room (obviously), no space for a tumble dryer, no garden, and a rule for the whole development which prohibits drying washing on balconies. It's got me thinking about all the houses and flats I have lived in in the UK - at least 7, of very different sizes and types, and in different areas - and I have come to the conclusion that architects are spectacularly crap at designing properties as they never routinely seem to take account of something as basic as washing and drying clothes. The only one I have ever lived in that had a purpose-built utility room was built in an extension. Another was old and huge and had a room converted into a second kitchen-cum-utility room. Everywhere else, drying washing has been a monumental, daily pain in the arse.

I just don't get it. It's not a secret that UK weather is generally cold and wet for a good part of the year, meaning that even if you're lucky enough to have a private garden you can't really dry washing there for half the year. Hanging washing all over the house means excess clutter, looks terrible, and creates dreadful problems with damp unless it's hot enough to have the windows open. Now that increasing numbers of flats are being built with no gardens, the problem will surely only get worse. I get even more confused by new builds without gardens that have multiple en suite bathrooms but still no utility room. Why isn't designing somewhere purpose-built to dry your clothes considered a basic in architecture, in much the same way as designing places to eat, sleep and shower? It's rare to design a new flat without at least a second loo now, for example, so it's not like it's just a space consideration. AIBU?

I'd be fascinated to know whether other countries (especially ones without acres of space per property) share this problem, or whether there are any more modern solutions out there.

I'm in the US and most apartments have a closet which houses a tumble dryer and washing machine....so it really is possible to do it in a small space, it just needs to be planned properly! No one has a washing machine in their kitchen!

How many people struggle to find somewhere to hang their coats in a narrow hall?

We don't even have a hall. The front door opens onto the stairs landing and the door just stops short of the stair base as it opens. It is practically impossible to fit two adults in that little square if the door to the left (living room) is also shut (and it has to be so the dog doesn't get out).

@BluebellsGreenbells

All it needs is a ventilated cupboard with shelves and a hanging rail! Even in kitchens this is possible surely?

Add in a pull out ironing board and we’d all be happy as Larry.

We are at some point in the future going to be gutting a house and that is exactly what I plan to put in but upstairs and sound proofed.

British new builds seem cramped and poorly designed to me, unless individually built, which is why I steer clear.

My current house may not have ensuites with every bedroom but it has 12x6 utility room, a large airing cupboard with floor to ceiling laundry racks and a garden with a washing line on pulleys to lift washing up out of the way.

Yes! I am American and we obviously have tumble dryers always (although bizarrely if you rent, you rarely get even a washing machine which seemed terrible after living in the UK!). After 15 years in London we now live in a compact house in a dense city in the US and still have a full American sized washer/dryer, they are stacked in a very small cupboard and take up no space. Even if we didn’t though, our house is properly insulated and ventilated and we hang most things but they dry within hours.

Unless quite well off ( my parents had one a converted downstairs bedroom), my small house underneath worktop , standard, heated airer, if needed airer in hall.
English houses and space is expensive

Overseas in flats I’ve always had a cupboard in the bathroom housing a washer, wall hung dryer and large utility sink. Usually hidden behind slatted bifolding doors. I’ve always been mystified why people make do with the kitchen sink for washing smalls in the UK.

Even very small houses have a good sized combined laundry & toilet room. We are renting a good sized four bed house near London with no utility room at all.

Other countries don’t have the FEAR of having plug sockets in the bathroom despite having similarly high voltage.

The laundry cupboard also is where you store your hoover & mop bucket away from sight.

In Australian apartments I've seen the standard balcony drying rules are that it has to be hung on a purpose built recepticle no higher than the balcony railing & taken in after 24 hrs. I assume the last one is rarely enforced. That seems like a nice compromise between no drying space and having strings of towels and scungy knickers visible from the street.

I've lived overseas in two countries. Like in my UK home all of the flats were built before washing machines existed.

So the first flat had a communal laundry room. You didn't have to book but some people - oddly always the same nationality - weren't considerate enough to remove their stuff as soon as it was done. Having been to university with limited machines I ended up being the one who removed their washing into bin bags. After a moan to everyone including management they got the message to remove their laundry soon after it finished not an hour or two later.

In the second flat I had a washing machine in the bathroom but no tumble dryer.

To over come the issue that not all clothes tumble dry, the flats were well heated. So all my washing dried well within 8 hours. So I could do my washing in the morning before working. Leave my washing to dry then come back from work and put it away.

There’s also zero storage space or parking

@Porridgeislife over the years quite a few foreign colleagues of mine have been horrified by how builders in the UK are allowed to do any work without any qualifications, there as for decades in their countries certain trades have had to have recognised qualifications.

I still have a DIY book from 2006 which tells me how to wire things in a bathroom and kitchen. Due to Part P regulations it is more expensive for me to do that now and cheaper to call in an electrician. However I've had a couple of British colleagues who could legally do signed off electrical work who before the regulations came in were horrified by the dangerous standard of electrics in some of the homes they wanted to buy especially electric showers.

@Knockoneofftheshelftowin

I don't know why utility room/washer/drier isn't upstairs (in houses, obvs not flats/bungalows) Everything apart from teatowels or tablecloths goes back upstairs. Why take it all downstairs to then hump it all upstairs again?

for access to hanging it out in the garden. also not much room upstairs, and cannot have electrical appliances in bathroom. and how would you get washing machines which have very heavy concrete base, up the stairs, often with tight turns. and vibrations and noise upstairs are not good. need a solid base for washing machine, extra stresses on floors. usually only the kitchen has such a base. or a purpose build extension room/garage nearby.

We live in a flat, we have a utility room with our washer, drier and clothes horse. I’ve only ever lived in flats, in the UK they have always had either a utility room or the washer/drier in a cupboard under the stairs.

When I lived in the states I never had a utility area or a specific space for a washine machine (nevermind tumble drier), in one flat the washing machine was in one of the bedrooms, in the other there were two washing machines and one tumble drier in the basement, there were well over 50 flats. Have you ever competed for washing machine time with 50 other households?! It was also pricey, I think if was about $2 a wash, the tumbler was $1 for every 20 minutes.

@JesusMaryAndJosephAndTheWeeDon

I agree.

I am in a 3 bed 1990s house.

Tiny kitchen, definitely no room for a dryer (no room for a dishwasher either) and it is so tight that we were restricted to only a couple of brands of washing machine and our fridge freezer barely fits (we can't open the door fully).

Garden is small and overhung by mature trees that were subject to a TPO prior to the development.

No utility room. No central heating. No fires or stoves.

So how the heck are we supposed to dry washing without making the house damp?

Then there are the houses down the street who have a Wheely bin store that is up three steps 🤦🤦🤦

? no central heating in a 1990s house ? that must be unusual. how do you keep warm.

@alexdgr8 you can have electrical appliances in a bathroom but the electrical socket needs to be 3 metres from a tap. Most bathrooms in the UK are too small.

I actually only know one couple with a bathroom big enough but they have a utility room. They live in an old house where a room was converted into a bathroom rather than space being taken off other rooms.

@alexdgr8 electric storage heaters.

Not everyone in the UK is on mains gas or uses oil/lpg instead

@Lockdownbear

Laundry rooms were down stairs as a throw back to people hanging clothes out.

that is not a throwback. that is what most people do. it is a main reason why i would not like to live in a flat. i would really miss being able to hang out clothes. it is one of life's simple pleasures for me.

Yes uk houses (ones from past 30 or so years) are badly designed. I live in a 4 bedroom that's the size of a 3 they just made the bedrooms smaller. 3 bathrooms (I would prefer a utility room) and limited storage. Literally aside from kitchen there's a tiny cupboard under stairs, a airing cupboard a above stairs cupboard in box room and a small cupboard under the sink in bathroom. Also tiny garden

[quote RedWingBoots]@alexdgr8 electric storage heaters.

Not everyone in the UK is on mains gas or uses oil/lpg instead[/quote]
is it expensive to heat a whole house by storage heaters.
i hadn't realised that they were used in quite new homes.
my brother has one in a flat that is a conversion, part of a 1930s house.
it seems inefficient to me, but it would be too costly to install central heating.
i tend to imagine houses beyond mains gas are old rambling ones far out in the country, with agas/ open fires/ back boilers.
hadn't realised that new-ish builds would have to have storage heaters.

I’m able to put a clothes.horse out on my balcony and it is just at the height of the railings, so hidden from view. Just lucky though!
When we did work on our kitchen we moved washing machine out and created a wash cupboard adjacent to the living room - installed a super quiet Washing machine you can hardly tell it’s on !!! Builders extended the plumbing - I didn’t even think of it as a possibility until they suggested it.
All expensive solutions but really recommend finding any space that isn’t the kitchen to stack washing machine and drier if you’re redecorating.

Yes, I am American and I don't understand the way the British do things. In my house I have always had the washing machine and dryer in the basement. We don't hang out clothes much, I am sorry to say. We just don't. It would be pretty impossible in the winter, too cold. But the rest of the time, few people do anyway. I just wouldn't like to have my dirty clothes that close to my food. It seems unsanitary to mix the two processes.

@PrincessNutella - but not putting outside due to cold doesn’t have to equal tumble dry. Hence why most places in Europe have large basements for hanging laundry in ( communal if apartments). It’s snowy most the winter here, but the tumble dryer is only used for bedding really. Hang everything else on racks indoors in utility room

What about a ceiling pulley drying rack? I don’t know how that works with low ceilings but we are lucky to have high ceilings and it’s great. Dries really quickly. Most old tenements have them either in bathroom or kitchen or occasionally hall.

I'm in the US ... No one has a washing machine in their kitchen!

My parents have washer & dryer in their modern condo kitchen in expensive area in California, Opposite the fridge-freezer, next to a food cupboard, 5' from the cooker.

Thinking of other American houses or condos I know... garage is main place. Overwhelmingly the appliances go in the garage. Even condo owners often have a garage. NOISE is a main reason to put appliances in garage, TDs are very noisy.

My parents barely have 2 parking spaces, never mind a garage.