Where's your laundry? Utility room or kitchen?

[Nellymay]

Hi we have recently moved and are in the process of getting a new kitchen and trying to decide where to put our washing machine and tumble dryer. In our last house we had them in the kitchen and in this house we have a small utility room made rom partitioning off the back of the garage with shelving and cupboards and space for the wm and dryer. You accessitbyfgoing out the back door and along a short pathway.
Dh would like to incorporate the washer and dryer into the kitchen as he doesn't like the idea of going outside in the winter and rain and snow etc (he does most of the laundry :) ) I prefer it to be in the utility room as I don't want the kitchen cluttered up with dirty laundry baskets etc i don't want to losecupboardspacefor wm anddryerin the kitchen

What you do? What do you think is the best option utility room or kitchen??

Utility room. We had to go outside to the dryer in our last house but it didn't bother us (washing machine was in the kitchen) but here we have both in a utility room that we don't need to go outside to. It is bliss.

In my new house I'm having an upstairs laundry room converted from a bathroom (of which it has too many). Very American .

We don't have a utility room, but we have a sort of middle ground between kitchen and utility room - the washing machine is in the cupboard under the stairs and the dryer is in the shed. The laundry stuff is out of sight and we can keep the washer door open, but we do get rained on a bit sometimes dashing to the dryer! It's only a few steps away though.

Kitchen, definitely. In the states, I had a utility room that I had to go out of the house and across a breezeway to my attached utility room and I hated it. Didn't like going out there at night - had to be dressed, obviously, shoes, etc. Especially a pain in inclement weather.

In the kitchen, I can wander over in pj's and bare feet with no worries.

I suppose I'm used to it but we've lived in 6 houses since we first bought, and all but the 1st one (a small mews) has had the washing machine and dryer in either the garage (accessed from house) or utility room - but without exception, it has always involved going out of the back door, along the side of the house, and into the utility room. Even in the freezing cold and the rain, its never been an issue.

Now I have a family (of 3 children) I could NEVER contemplate having the washing machine and dryer in the kitchen but maybe that's because I have piles of washing everywhere that don't get moved for days

Looks like a vote for having it in the utility room. Now I need to persuade dh that its a good idea!......

The dirty laundry is mostly strewn across DS1's floor.

HOwever, the washing machine, drier and airers are in the Futility Room.

our washing machine and tumble dryer are in our detatched garage. Was a choice between a dishwasher or wm in kitchen....

It's fine.

I'd like to buck the trend here. In our last house our washing machine was in the bathroom, then it was in the spare room, now in our current house we've just had it moved into the dining room (although in a fancy pants unit so you'd never know it was there). I would have it in a utility room but our house doesn't have one. Failing that I'd have it in the kitchen but our house is too small for it.

Can you put a covered walkway in so the weather doesn't become such a problem ?!

My laundry room is about 50m away from the house. Its not a problem at all.

I've had a hosue with a utility room accessed from outside and it was great and kept the clutter out of our tiny kitchen, but was a PITA when the weather was really bad or in winter, when the pipes froze and I couldn't use my washer.

Maybe as a compromise, washer in the house, dryer in the utility room, so it wouldn't make your house too hot on muggy, wet summer days. If that leaves space for an airer to be put up in the utility room, then you have drying space for smalls, when the weather's lousy.

Mine are in the utility, which is actually a glorified back porch accessed straight from the kitchen. It's convenient and keeps the noisy machines out of earshot. Go for a laundry separate from the kitchen, you won't regret it.

Mine's in the cellar - but with soon to be three floors to bring things up/down I NEED a laundry chute.......

I'm not in the UK though- but most houses here have a designated laundry/drying room in the cellars!! Those I know who live in flats without a proper cellar use bathrooms for laundry - it's most definitely not the done thing to have your washer in your kitchen.

Utility every time.

Utility.

Unless you have a massive kitchen.

This is probably a stupid question but if you hang out washing in an integral garage will it dry ok even if its really cold/damp outside and therefore the garage is cold/a bit damp? Wondering whether to install one of those pulley clothes line things in our soon-to-be new garage...

Utility room, definitely.

We bung everything in ours in addition to the washer and dryer - makes is look tidier than we are.

Trigglesx your description of where your utility room was sounds exactly like the one in "Hallowe'en" - a well creepy film.

I'm in Australia, where all houses appear to have a laundry. We're lucky in that it has vented heating so gets toasty warm, thus avoiding the drying washing all over the house syndrome. No tumble drier, never need one, nor in the UK either. We had a utility room in the UK too.

echt hahaha.. now, of course, I'm going to have to check the movie out again, as I don't know. basically I had a ranch style house, with a breezeway between the main part of the house and the utility room, which was all under one roof (with the utility room by the carport). It was in Arizona, and a fairly common arrangement there.

I have also had an attached utility room that was part of the entryway, which was much better.

IMO, anything that requires me to go outside, put shoes on, or otherwise faff about just to do the laundry is a pain in the bum. I am often doing laundry late in the evening and don't want to actually unlock the door, go outside, or get dressed to do so.

My washing machine is in my kitchen and dryer in my futility. Pain in the fucking arse. Stupid crap builder who we bought the house from didn't bother to put in plumbing for a washing machine in the utility room extension. Twat.

Never noticed when we viewed the place. Lots and lots of shortcuts have been made.

We've always had them in the kitchen until we we moved in to this house, I don't know how we managed without a futility room for so long - no piles/baskets lying around, no squeezing past one another etc it's grand our futility room is called 'dads cupboard' as dp does all the washing thank god and keeps his tools etc in there.

Utility here too.

I have stuck our washer and drier in what was once a loo upstairs (I felt that having 4 loos in the house was too many to clean)!
It is really nice having them close to the bedrooms and not in the kitchen, the only downside is lugging sheets/towels downstairs to be dried on the line and not being able to wash at night (too close to DCs' room).

Can you not have some sort of covered way between the back door and garage with a plastic roof, as the interim. My grandparents had something like that so they didn't have to go out in the rain to the outside loo! . Honestly there must be a tidy, modern equivalent.