What would you include in your dream utility?

[DeedlessIndeed]

Hi all,

I'm part way through a house renovation and the next project is moving the kitchen which is currently a long galley stuck on the back of the house (i.e, the short wall attached to the house).

With the kitchen moved, this leaves the long galley to be converted into a decent sized utility / boot room.

The room is approximately 5.5m x 2.5m. It is single storey and I'm planning on opening up the roof space so it's full height to the rafters and put in a couple of roof lights.

We have an original victorian dolly(?) (laundry airer on a pulley that goes up into the ceiling). But apart from that, I'm stuck as to what would be great to put in there.

Apart from the dolly, obviously I'm thinking, sink, washing machine, tumble dryer, some cupboards...

But then I'm imagining a fold out ironing board station (if this exists?), and fantastical laundry arrangements...

If you could plan your dream utility, what would it include?

Anyone redone a utility recently and have anything that worked really well? Or alternatively, anything that you regret?

A maid

Well, you asked!

Some kind of separation between the boot room bit with all the mud and the laundry bit with the clean clothes.

The washer and dryer under a counter which you can fold clothes on. Shelves next to the washer and dryer that fit a laundry basket for each person in the household plus one for random bits. Then stuff come out of the dryer, is folded and goes straight into each persons basket.

Tall cabinets for the hoover, mop and brush

Deep stone helves for vases and extra large serving dishes

A drinks fridge so when you have parties you have lots of space in the main fridge for food and all the drinks are still cold

Lots of hooks for coats, trays for wellies, a big sink with a pull out tap for hosing off muddy stuff

Under floor heating so everything dries quickly

A notice board for lists and reminders

Im sure there is more 🤣

The overflow freezer At the moment it’s in the garage, and what you need is always, always in it. Especially when it’s raining.

Oh I love the shelving with laundry basket idea...
And the tall cupboards for mop/broom/hoover etc would be a godsend to keep all in one place.

Socket in the tall broom cupboard for the rechargeable hoover.

A space under the cupboard for the robot hoover and it's docking station.

Permanent space for the iron so it doesn't have to get lugged about/left on the side.

Wall hung fold down airers as well as the dolly.

Huge deep stainless steel sink and draining board.

Pantry cupboard (unless you have a separate pantry).

Storage for other household stuff (basic tool kit, lightbulbs, cleaning products, cloths etc etc. - look at what you need and make a place for it all)

A hanging rail to dry stuff on hangers.

Extra dishwasher!

A garbage crusher, if you can find one. You put your bag in and it squashes it down to a quarter the size. Had one in the US and it was brilliant

A shower. Towards the muddy end. For dogs

Ooh, really?

We are still just about to have the kitchen done, and having our first ever dishwasher installed. I hadn't even considered a back up, but I HATE washing up!

Is a small back up a good idea? We are currently only 2 people, but the house is a larger family home and we are planning to have 2/3 children whilst staying here, so should ideally get it set up for a decent family size.

Large sink for hand washing items.

For the sink, size definitely is important, not sure whether stainless steel or a belfast sink would be best?

Belfast would look more stylish, stainless steel probably more practical.

One large one is probably fine. In our current house there is a small integrated one which is perfect for two of us day to day. But when we re-do the utility I'm going to plumb in our old full size one as a back up for high days and holidays. I think we ran the small one five times on Christmas Day 🤦‍♀️

A big sink with a shower type tap for washing dogs.

Dishwashers that is.

Sinks should be stainless, otherwise you still chipping vases and it getting stained.

Washing machine and dryer both up higher- so no bending to put clothes in and out

An extra deep sink to wash the dog in, along with a hose/spray attachment. We only have a small dog, 6kg, but would have preferred an even large sink than the belfast we have in there.

A shower spray tap thing - awesome for rinsing stains. I wish I’d stacked my appliances, either on top of each other or next to each other to minimise bending etc.

I live in North America where we all (mostly) have laundry rooms, so a UK utility more or less.

I have no idea why you'd need a back up dishwasher. We are a family of 6 and don't need a backup one whatsoever.

I second the shelves with baskets idea. We just redid ours to include that and it's amazing. We also built across our units so we could have somewhere to fold.

We have a pull down wall airer as well.

They have pull down wall ironing boards here so I'd imagine they probably exist in the UK. Very handy if you iron.

Units to store cleaning supplies up high and units below for things like the mop and Hoover would be a good shout.

A warm drying cupboard, so clothing dries overnight

Catering sink with drainers on both sides - excellent for cleaning large items/small dogs etc.

Cupboards all the way to the ceiling.

If you have a vented tumble drier put vent through wall (although heat pump tumble drier are probably more efficient.

Window or door ventilation that you can safely leave open a few inches.

Drawers.

Full height freezer and fridge.

Ceiling fan to help clothes on airer dry quickly.

Brilliant list but you forgot the maid 😂

We are hoping to build our dream house soon, so I have given this a LOT of thought!

I am going to have a double sink for handwashing. One essential for me will be a small folding rack over the sink for drip drying soggy clothes. We are going to raise the washer and dryer by about 30cm, which still allows for a worktop for folding clothes on top, and have a rail above for airing shirts.

We will only have skylights so will be putting a powerful extractor fan in the outside wall, one which switches on when it senses moisture.

Most of the advice I’ve seen about utilities is not to try and combine a boot room with a laundry room. I don’t think this is so relevant unless you have multiple dogs/guns/football players/commercial laundry contracts - most people would double this up

I like it to look like a room so I have art on the walls, everything hidden away except the coat hooks and boot racks, and proper units to house the washing machine, tumble dryer and matching cupboards. I like a Belfast sink and it isn’t difficult to clean at all. We have bench seats with storage inside which are really comfortable to sit on and you can chuck sports kit inside

One thing I would insist on is good wifi; if I am going to be ironing in there I want to be watching good trash!

My SIL had the baskets and shelves thing. I thought that was genius.

At my clever builder's suggestion I had a tall bathroom towel-rail type radiator put in mine.
Excellent for drying small bits and bobs.