If you've got a utility room and a boot room...

[Karcheer]

which is bigger? And what do you have in them?

we are doing some work on our house.
We have an existing utility with a door to the back garden.Which is off the kitchen.
We then have a larger room that used to be a kitchen, no external door.
I was originally thinking this should be a boot-room with dog shower, room for their crates, storage for coats boots etc.
But with all the rain we've been having lately im wondering if the larger room would be better as the utility? I'd still have to have the dog crates in the bigger room but could move washing machine/tumble dryer in there and have room to put clothes horses up if it rains (I wouldn't be able to do this in my current utility)...

Im really unsure how to split the "jobs" of these two rooms...

thank you.

I don't personally have a boot room in my current house, but if I were you I would want boots, dog shower etc in the room with the door to the outside as then you can hose off muddy paws/boots before they have gone into the house.

I would definitely also want more space for things like airers and the such if I could have a large utility.

Surely you need the boot room to have an external door.

Definitely boot room with external door. Utility and boot room are almost interchangeable so just put what you need in each room! Similar dilemma here, boot room is smaller but next to external door and the larger internal room will be the utility.

Our bootroom is essentially our back hall. It's got built in bench with wicker boxes up top and deep drawers below. Drawers for shore, hooks above bench for 4 kids coats and bike helmets etc, baskets for winter bits and bobs, gloves, scarves, plastic trousers etc.

Utility is off the kitchen and has the laundry stuff in it. Baskets for each family member, sink, washing machine and tumble drier. All cleaning products and tools and medicine cupboard.

Ive a walk in larder too so that helps.

The room for muddy boots and muddy dogs needs an external door surely? The room for laundry and ironing does not.

@Happyspud I’d love a walk inlarder but that’ll confuse things more!

I’ve attached a floor plan, the two rooms in question are on the left of the image.

I’d prefer the boot room next the door otherwise both rooms will get muddy as they walk through the smaller room.

Rather than clothes horse consider a ceiling pulley. Lakeland and Shiela Maid both do one. Just make sure you mark the ceiling where the joists are over, as you have to fix it into joists. I can hang a whole load of washing on ours and it is up out of the way.

We also put a high level shelf across the wall, above the door, into the utility room to put kit bags for all the kids activities on. All kit gets washed and put back in relevant bag. Saves hunting the house for hockey socks.

Given you would have to walk through the kitchen to get to the boot room if the utility stays where it is, I would have the boot room next to the kitchen (with external door), then move the utility to the bigger room.

I would move the island forward if possible to fit a larder?

And switch the utility and boot room.

You absolutely need to boot room to have an external door! Otherwise you will be traipsing through with boots and wet dogs to get them cleaned off.

Our boot room is much larger then our utility and has external door. It's larger because it was purpose built by us. It has a massive amount of hanging for coats (you always need more than you think) plus storage for shoes and boots (again you need more than you think) under a bench. We also each have a basket for hats, gloves etc. There's the dog wash area plus storage for dog paraphernalia (towels, shampoo, food, poo bags). W also happen to have a second fridge -freezer but only because that made sense to put it there, plus overflow storage for things like bulk kitchen towels, loo roll, bin liners etc.

The utility room is small by comparison, doesn't have external door, but washing machines, a drying rack and the downstairs loo. I personally wouldn't want the drying rack in the boot room so my knickers are on display!!

Despite it being a boot room ours is actually really smart. So we use it as the main entrance to the house.

@nowaitaminute we aren’t redoing the kitchen. I hadn’t planned on redoing the utility but thinking about the practicalities has made me question these two rooms roles.

@Daisydoesnt with a totally blank sheet of paper I’d make the boot room bigger but I’m stuck with this floor plan (I’m definitely not having an extension). I’m definitely erring towards swapping the two rooms it’s so good to have validation I’m not going mad haha!

our utility is larger and has external door to take out the washing. Our current boot room doesn't have an external door but will do when we get around to it. I think its more important to have an external door to the boot room really if you have dogs.

We only have a utility room, but have a ceiling pully for clothes and it is FAB. It lives over the ironing board which is permanently up, so it is easy to pop in a do a couple of shirts whenever.

@Karcheer I'm having similar (working farm) and have opted for a tiny utility with a washing machine & tumble dryer. The boot room is where the dirt is kept. I'd rather have a small wall mounted airer in the utility and occasionally have larger ones in the hall or kitchen, than constantly have to rewash clothes that have fallen in the dirt. The washing machine is currently located right next to the door with constant traffic & mud.x

Utility is for everything of that nature.

If you have two rooms for "utility purposes" then one would be your boot room and the other your laundry room. Boot room in a modern house would need a external door and low sink etc. Laundry room would benefit from an external door to take out baskets if you like to do that or else it would just have a washer, drier and a pulley airer.

In the utility we have washing machine, tumble dryer, pulley maid airer, large sink, loads of wall and base units for storage and two full height larder units (which one days I want to remove and replace with a drying cabinet.

In the boot room we have shower, toilet, sink, storage for shoes, coats and sports kit. At the moment no external access (although its right next to the utility room which does have external access) but I'm removing the current window to make a doorway since the dog creates excessive amounts of muddy mess. It will be handy since it will lead directly into the kitchen garden (so also useful for bringing in gardening stuff and dumping garden produce for washing). Im also putting a warm water tap right outside the doorway for washing off the worst of the dog mud.

We are at the ideas stage of reconfiguring and extending our house, and on my wish list are boot room and utility room.

I would like an exterior door for each, for the reasons stated above in relation to the boot room, but also because I dry washing outside a lot where possible and so I would like an exterior door to the utility.

My hope is that everything in the utility would be clean - so a sink, washer and dryer for laundry, ironing stuff, heated airer, swim kit, all the cleaning stuff etc. The boot room would ideally have a sink too (for washing of wellies, boots, running kit etc) and we would keep coats, footwear, sports kit (when washed), beach and picnic stuff etc in there.

Brilliant thanks for all your help. I’m going to have the old utility as a boot and the new room as the utility.

I think it is a false distinction.

We have a hallway with an exterior door. I guess you would call it a boot room. This has storage for boots, gardening gloves, overalls, some sports kit like bike helmets, hockey sticks etc. This is the most convenient place for all that stuff. Tiled floor, part tiled wall, turtle mat, heavy duty hooks and racks along the wall. The general rule is that things go here if:

• the thing can be stored so access is not blocked (is a wide hallway but still a corridor not a room),

• the thing is taken in and out of the back door but not used in the main house.

- the thing gets dirty/muddy/wet so you want minimum ingress into the rest of the house.

We have a room off it with no direct external door. It is what I think you would call a utility. It has laundry stuff (machines, drying racks, baskets, washing powder, stain devils etc); a huge sink; a secondary freezer; cat stuff; a big cupboard (for cleaning products / light bulbs / torches / batteries / stock pots / small tool kit / extension cables, etc); a long worktop with the food mixer and some other infrequently used bulky annoying but still wanted appliances.

We frequently come in through the door, take off and stash boots and gear, go through to laundry space, strip off chucking the mucky sports kit or gardening clothes in the plastic basket by the washing machine; hang up wet jackets / hats / gloves / umbrellas on the drying racks; wrap oneself in a towel for dignity and go upstairs for a shower.

Carrying a washing basket of clean laundry through between the machine and the exterior door is no bother.

We call the entire area "the utility" or "by the back door".

I desperately fitting in a larder...🤣🤣how about this?? It will make the boot room slightly smaller but still functional with the right layout I reckon.

@nowaitaminute

I desperately fitting in a larder...🤣🤣how about this?? It will make the boot room slightly smaller but still functional with the right layout I reckon.

I do have a larder cupboard in my kitchen if that helps I would love a real larder but I cant see how it’ll work...

Definitely swap, so room with external door is the boot room AND put a door in the internal wall leading through to passage /utility. A Functional Zone!!

I wouldn't try to cram in a pantry/larder. It isn't big enough and you'll benefit more from the boot room space.

Section off a part of your kitchen as a pantry, i.e. a tiny room, with pocket door, instead of a larder kitchen cabinet. I have one. Is brilliant. Hell of a lot cheaper and better than a larder cupboard too.

Mine is more like a coat cupboard size, with space to step in but not walk in iyswim, u-shaped shelves all around floor to ceiling. All food and some pots are stored inside easily and that's even with us bulk buying.

My friend has one where they took off the end of the kitchen to be the pantry. It has a door at the end wall near the corner, you go in and it is like a narrow corridor with shelves along one side and the end wall, quite narrow to walk down but still space to turn around with an armful of packets. This has the effect of ahrinking the kitchen floor space but the wall of the pantry is a normal stud wall, so except for the door, they could fit normal cabinets and worktop.

The Americans do this better than us.

If you have a pantry then you need fewer kitchen cabinets because the cabinets won't have food only crockery and such like.