What's in your utility room? And do you do ironing/hang laundry in it?

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We are planning a big house renovation/reconfiguration and thinking of a utility room. At the moment we don't have one so not sure what they are for though I know MNers love theirs

So obviously washing machines usually go in a utility (ours are in a cupboard at the moment). Plus cleaning stuff, hoover, broom etc. I'm thinking an extra small freezer would be useful. What else? We live in town and don't have pets or do lots of gardening or sports so don't really need a "mud room" type set up. The utility would be quite a long way from the kitchen so not ideal as a place for kitchen equipment or larder.

Also do you hang laundry out in your utility room? And do ironing there? At the moment we do all that in a spare bedroom upstairs, I'm not sure a utility would have the space. Which is pushing me towards keeping the washing machines in an upstairs cupboard... but then what is the utility for??

Any thoughts welcome!

We have a small utility come downstairs loo in our london terrace. It's not ideal but very useful. I keep ironing basket/spares of loo roll/cleaning gear/swimming stuff/wellies/buckets and spades/wet gear in mine. I'd iron but it's too small so that happens in spare room. Ditto anything not tumbled - there is an airer in the spare room too. Mine is same floor as they kitchen but far enough away I don't keep kitchen stuff in it. I'd have lots of flexible storage in mine if I had the space - you don't have to allocate now but useful to have the option. Make the cupboards big enough to fit standard size laundry baskets though. I'd love to be able to hide those

And I never fold in there - mainly because there are rampaging children elsewhere in the house. I tend to fold while they are eating/playing and then leave the basket at the bottom of the stairs in the vain hope t makes its way into the wardrobes without any further effort from me.

I love my laundry room. It's in a separate room off the kitchen
Washing machine
Tumble drier
Spare freezer
Cupboards for cleaning stuff
Ironing board, permanently up
Shelia Maid
Radio
Special cupboard built over some warm pipes for hanging ironing
Door, for shutting myself away

If I was doing it again, I'd have the office where the futility room is and the laundry room where the office is, upstairs. No more lugging all the laundry downstairs just to take it back up again.

Large freezer & washing machine. Metal shelving (IKEA) which keeps overspill of tinned food/wine as well as cleaning and DIY stuff. Ironing board, hoover and mop also lives in here although I don't actually iron in here as it's long and narrow. One end also has a downstairs loo and small washbasin. The last was put in when we had a major bathroom revamp which meant we were without a loo for 3 months. Has been a godsend though and I'm glad we did it

I can see the benefits of doing laundry upstairs but only if you don't hang washing out in the garden.

See emwithme that's why I prefer option 2! but we couldn't have a proper laundry room upstairs, it would need to be a laundry cupboard plus using guest room to hang/iron.

We don't yellow - garden is pretty small and we aren't around enough to bring it in if it rains.

Taking notes of all the stuff people keep in their utility rooms. Very useful thanks.

Mine is a bit crap because DH insisted on putting a shower in it along with the downstairs loo
It's next to the kitchen and has washing machine, tumble dryer, freezer, microwave, vacuum cleaner, steam mop, brushes etc, a small cupboard for stuff for the garden and shelves for stuff we bulk buy, muddy boots, football kit etc.
I wouldn't iron in there if there was space because I need TV to get me through ironing!

the futility room is close to the front door, so shopping often gets unpacked in there, and shovelled into the giant FF

It also contains sink, washer, dryer, iron + board, kettle and mugs, tea and coffee, cold drinks for garden, greenfly spray etc. Barbie meat also goes in the FF.

The real kitchen is further away.

Mine has washing machine, dryer, sink, cupboards for storing the animals food and a bank of tall wall units on the other side that includes a laundry sorting area (drawers for lights, coloured, dark and wool washing) plus a laundry chute from upstairs so all washing is just chucked down the chute from upstairs and sorted in the utility. We also have cupboards for all cleaning stuff, first aid, ad hoc rubbish and a full sized wine fridge

I don't iron in there because I like to iron in front of the TV, but it's lovely to have everything in one place. You might be able to incorporate the laundry chute idea - I've seen someone do one from the kitchen to the basement below in a similar tall narrow house.

Laundry chute! Oh tiffin. I would love a laundry chute. I have tried to imagine where one would go in ours but it's Victorian and suspect it would involve rebuilding half the house, at least if we wanted it to run from bedrooms to basement.

Ironing in front of TV is a very good point.

We've got an old house and it was surprisingly easy to put in, they just made a hole in the floor and ceiling - it runs between the joists and then built cupboards around it. We're lucky that it's just two floors and that it happened that the design meant the utility was directly below our dressing room, but it's really fabulous!

I had a friend that had one with a messy play are with a wall of chalk paint one of those a boards for painting sink at children's height draws for glitter paper pens crafts and a table for kids the rule was they could use what ever they wanted when ever but the mess had to stay in that room and be cleaned up at end of the day