Utility room upstairs

[Babydo22]

Has anyone moved their utility upstairs to have an open plan kitchen dining area? If so, would you recommend or do you regret it? I'm considering making our 4th bedroom into a utility room give us more space downstairs. The 4th bedroom is currently an office but we only work from home a day each now so it's not getting used as much as it used to.

Do you have an outside space where you dry clothes? I do and I wouldn't want to be carrying loads of washing downstairs.

Do you iron clothes? Where would you do that?

Will the floor cope with the weight and vibration of a washing machine?

How would plumbing and drainage work? And ventilation if you have a tumble drier?

Love the idea of this but would hate to have to use tumble/airer all the time - would be sooooo heavy to carry wet washing downstairs all the time to get it to the line! What I really wanted in our extension was a laundry chute, but couldn’t make it work.

Yes do it.

had this in my last house and it was fab. All clothes, bedding towels etc are upstairs anyway so hoiking everything down to wash it makes no sense if you have a choice.

But don't you have to carry it up and down the stairs anyway??

Also realistically how many days a year can you get it all dry outside?

Not when it’s wet, no.

We live in Scotland so unfortunately don't get much chance to dry outside 😂 Maybe a few times a month if we are lucky. Currently my washing machine is down stairs but dry clothes upstairs in our bedroom which I hate! Iron is kept in a cupboard upstairs but brought down to the livingroom to iron. Moving upstairs is definitely move practical for us just the other things you mentioned that we need to consider.

So right now we carry the wet clothes upstairs to dry. We live in Scotland so don't get much chance to hang outside 😂 a laundry chute sounds cool

Thanks, very much makes sense in my head. My main concerns are the noise and where the vibrations would damage the floor. Do you have any experience of this?

I really miss my upstairs laundry OP.

Ironing pile, iron and board all out of the way. I had a shelf for each DC and they collected their clean clothes from there and put them away.

No washing in the kitchen and no carrying towels and bedding downstairs.

Not an issue for us but you can buy pads to put under the washing machine to absorb vibrations. I think Amazon have them.

We have done this, no regrets. Utilised plumbing from next door bathroom. Can be noisy but no more noisy than when they were downstairs tbh. We dry clothes outside rarely, and it's great as all our clothes, bedding, towels are stored upstairs.

I have a utility cupboard upstairs, we converted what was previously a separate w.c. (so much smaller than a bedroom). It has washing machine and tumble dryer, stacked, plus the ironing board, iron, washing baskets and dehumidifier. No room to actually put the airers up so I still do that in another room (also upstairs). I can't say the noise or vibration is much more noticeable than when we had the washer in the kitchen. At least I can close it the cupboard door when the washing machine is on!

I have a tumble dryer upstairs as my utility isn’t big enough for a washing machine and tumble dryer! Tbf I actually prefer it now as I use a woven basket to take all of the wet clothes upstairs and the clothes are going upstairs anyway! I would do it

My DS1 lives in Canada….his laundry room is upstairs it looks like a cupboard off the landing…you open it and in there is a worktop with washer dryer and cupboards x 2 underneath…..then above is an airer…there’s also space down the side for an ironing board……then you close up the concertina type doors and you would never know it’s there ….there’s a boiler in there so the clothes dry quick on the airer ( knickers and socks etc)

I'm planning to do this - but in a 3 story town house so the laundry/utility will be on middle floor. I mostly tumble dry, but I guess there will be times when I have to take things down another floor to dry outside, but that's not much to worry about.

I figure most laundry comes out of bedrooms - either clothes or bedding, so it makes sense to wash closer and the combination of food and washing in a kitchen is pretty illogical. The noise and vibration is a non-issue to me - what's the difference between having an upstairs washing machine and living in a flat where you sleep on the same floor as the washing machine?

@Tupster totally agree. I'm now sold and just have to convince my husband 😂