Utility Rooms

[aquacycle]

So, I'm going off on a rant here. What is the point in utility rooms? I can completely understand having them if a. you have no space in your kitchen, b. you have a large number of machines or c. you own top loading machines which can't be put under a worktop. But I was visiting relatives the other day and was at my cousin's house. They have an ENOURMOUS kitchen - they can't possibily fill all the cupboards they have - AND a utility room thats about the same size of my kitchen alone. What the heck is the point? What a waste of a room. They just have your typical front loading Bocsh washer and dryer - could quite easilly go in the kitchen. There seems to be almost a snobbery about having a washer and dryer in the kitchen these days. Another friend of mine has a massive kitchen and a utility room that she has to go OUTSIDE to get to - how annoying. Now, my aunt and uncle, they have a teeny tiny kitchen and the dishwasher takes up a lot of space, so they have a small utility room between the kitchen and the garage - I can completely understand that. But really, if you have the space in your kitchen, why waste a room on your washer and dryer? I've always had the washer & dryer in the kitchen and its never been a problem. I know someone is going to say "oh you can shut all your washing and mess away", I don't know how it's possible to make mess with washing - it goes out of the basket, into the washer, out of the washer, into the dryer/onto the washing line - what mess? End rant, thanks for listening lol.

 

[tolivac]

Typically in the US "Utility" rooms not only contained the washer and dryer-but also the water heater,water softener(if the homeowner has one)and the Heating-airconditioning unit.My house actually has TWO utility rooms-one for the Washer Dryer-its large-so I can collect a few more favorite Washers-and another utility room off the garage for the HVAC and water heater-also good for storing the lawn mower.Its the only home I have lived in that has two utility rooms.Most just have one.I suppose the US folks like the utility room because it keeps the noises from the washer out of the kitchen.Kitcens in the US are often used as a gathering spot for guests besides cooking.The guests may even help cook the meal!

 

[mrwash]

I noticed that you UK guys often have your washing machines in the kitchen. Here in Germany, thats uncommon. In an appartment building, you usually have a laundry room in the basement. If there isn't one, then the washer is usually installed in the bathroom. People who own their own house usually have a utility room. Even if there is space in the kitchen, it is just not common here in Germany. I have my washer in the kitchen but I just know one other friend who has it there, too. I think it is just a question how it used to be in different countries. Same thing with the fact that toploaders are preferred in the US and frontloaders in Europe.

 

[gizmo]

In Australia it is illegal to have a clothes washing machine in the kitchen. (it has been against building regulations for over 20 years.) It is a building regulation requirement to have a laundry tub/sink too, the idea is to encourage suds saving.
Having a washing machine in the kitchen is illegal because if you wanted to pre-wash out dirty nappies (diapers) before putting them in the washing machine, you might wash them in the kitchen sink.

The requirement to have a laundry tub is still on the books but is often not enforced these days, and in very compact homes the washing machine is often in the bathroom, but it is never in the kitchen.

In AU we don't call it a utility room, we call it a laundry.

 

[laundromat]

growing up,we had a utility room .The gas furnace and gas water heater were located there and those who either had a clothes dryer or freezer placed them there.The set up we had was the dryer(gas) was located there. It was so inconveniant because in order to use the dryer,you had to lug the heavy wash basket from our kitchen out to the back porch which would get you wet if it rained and,if it was cold and freezing,you'd slip on the ice and break your ass.That in itself made us decide,when the 1955 Kenmore dryer died and our Easy Rivera washer 's pump shit for the last time,we were getting one of the many Combination washer dryers that were available.We got the sears top of the line Lady Kenmore gas combination washer dryer.It was installed on 11/22/63.The verry day President John F.Kennedy was asassinated.Everybody there was crying.Even the delivery men couldn't get there soggy eyeballs off our Zenith Space Comand TV.

 

[rolls_rapide]

The UK electrical code specifically forbids washing machines in bathrooms. The only high current appliances allowed are heaters and even then, they have to comply with certain distances from baths, etc. Shavers and toothbrushes may only be plugged into the shaver sockets.

The kitchen was the traditional place for washing appliances, until the Fifties, when the 'Burco' electric boiler usurped the copper coal-fired boiler in the wash-house in the backyard.

After that, the twin-tub was a vast improvement in the Sixties.

The automatic came into its own in the Seventies and Eighties. Mum got her first automatic in 1980; gran in 1982. They both said that they should have had them years ago.

 

[rolls_rapide]

My mum remembers when she was very young (early Fifties), of moving to a new house that had a Burco boiler installed as 'fixture and fittings', as supplied by the local Council.

Before that, her parents had a flat in an old tenement that shared the wash-house on different days. The coal-fired copper boiler sat in this wash-house.

 

[whirlcool]

In our other houses we have had small laundry rooms, usually in a hallway or off the kitchen.
In this house, there is a utility closet in the kitchen on the wall opposite of the hob, cooker and sink and dishwasher. There are doors on it so when you close them, you don't even know the washer & dryer are in there. The WP TL machine and dryer just fit in there.
Most of our neighbors have their washing machines and dryers in the garage.

 

[jeffg]

The first time I saw a W/D in a kitchen was on a TV sitcom (maybe "I Love Lucy"?), and I remember being disgusted by the idea. The thought of storing, handling and cooking food in the same room as dirty socks and underwear is pretty gross.

In my family's house we used the laundry room for hamper storage as well as a W/D, and I'm glad we didn't have to put up with that smell in our kitchen.

 

[mielabor]

Here in the Netherlands, most people have their washer either in the kitchen or in the bathroom. I live in an apartment that was designed before the advent of washing machines and I have it in the bedroom as my kitchen and bathroom are too small.

BTW
I just discovered this video about living in Amsterdam in the last century. The first part shows situations that are a bit before my time, my memories start at 2:40. There are some brief scenes of indoor life and washing, but no washing machines (except for the wringer on a boat at 6:43. The kitchen at 5:13 is the same that my sister had in her apartment in the 1980's with sink next to the toilet. The toilet was in fact so small that you had to leave the door open when sitting there... But, she did have an automatic washer there and it was placed in the living room next to the kitchen. It was a Zanussi top loader of the smallest size available. Another kitchen at 7:37 shows a typical cooker that many people had. Ovens were uncommon. My grandmother saved some money in the 1930's by making her own bread dough and having it baked by the baker! Even the apartment blocks at the end of the movie were not designed for washing machines. Some had "lavets" (see 12:39), terrazzo laundry tubs that could also be used for personal cleaning. Only in the 1970's new houses started to have provisions for washing machines: some had it in the bathroom and some had it in the kitchen. I think that nowadays the trend is to have the washer in the bathroom.

 

[electron800]

I think it's a cultural/ personal preference

I prefer to have my washer in the kitchen, although the bathroom would be handy instead of lugging washing downstairs. Laundry rooms are an unecessary luxury in my opinion.

When I stayed in a holiday home in Florida, the washer and dryer (DD whirlpool) were in the garage. To me the idea of the possibility of washed clothes being dropped onto the dirty, dusty garage floor, and the clothes being dried in air sucked in from the garage, is a bit unsanitary and inconvenient.

As for a basement or outside shed, I'd find that pretty inconvient, lugging clothes outside or up and down yet more flights of stairs, let alone the fact that basements are almost non-existant here.

Matt

 

[rolls_rapide]

Kitchen appliances

I like to see the machines on display in the kitchen - so does my mother. We don't like the thought of hidden or integrated machines. Anyway, most of those integrated appliances need special doors, and it seems that modern machines can't take the decor panels from yesteryear's integrated machines.

 

[gowest84]

In the American Southwest...

The washer is outside with the Water Heater and the dryer is the sun. In many of the houses built in the 50's, the washer might be in the kitchen or in a little room off the backyard and only room for a washer.

It makes some sense out here since the majority of the year it's dry and warm. The water can be used outside and keeps the lawn and flowers in bloom.

My condo has the stacked washer and dryer in the kitchen for the simple fact is the plumbing is all there and behind the wall is the bathroom so everything is shared.

 

[ronhic]

Australia

Gizmo is undoubtedly correct for Victorias regulations, but each State and Territory have their own.

It is common practice in NSW and the ACT where there may be no specific laundry in a flat to install washers and dryers in the bathroom with waste directed into a standpipe or plumbed into the handbasin waste via a 'spike'

Personally, we have a laundry which also doubles as the 'dogs bedroom'. I've owned flats where it is in the kitchen - UK and in the bathroom - NSW. From my own experience, the bathroom is preferable to the kitchen. Firstly, whilst most of us don't deal with badly soiled items some people do and whilst germs don't just 'jump' from floor to bench it just isn't as practical as using a bathroom

....and soaking is not as easy in a kitchen.

So for practicality, give me the bathroom or a laundry...

 

[launderess]

Methinks Ultitliy Rooms In The United States

Replace part of the functions of basements for homes that do not have them, and of course in apartments/multi-family buildings.

There was and probably still is however a trend to bring laundry appliances on the ground floor from the basement. This saves all those trips up and downstairs fetching laundry and or going to say the deep freezer. This was quite true before tumble dryers were common, as one had to lug all that wet laundry upstairs and out onto the lines.

For homes with laundry appliances in the basement, and without a laundry chute, one had to collect the washing perhaps two stories up (the second floor where normally the bedrooms and bathrooms were), fetch it down several flights of stairs to the basement, then fetch it back up one flight to the lines, then depending upon where one did one's folding and ironing, either back down the basement and up again to the bedrooms. THAT is allot of work.

Laundry in Europe has for the most part in one way or antoher always done in the kitchen or scullery because it required vast amounts of water and access to a way to heat all that water. Even when homes began to have indoor plumbing with hot water, the heating of said water came from the range in the kitchen, and hot water was usually only sent to the bathroom for bathing such. Women still had a "copper" or huge pots for boiling laundry. Therefore it came as a logical extension when automatic washing machines came upon the scene to put them in or near the kitchen in Europe/UK.

Since European and UK housing stock is on average much older than what is found in the United States, the retro-fitting to carve out a "ultility" area from say a 1700's house or a 1800's Paris apartment building requires some planning.

 

[fl1012]

In my Parents house we have a small Utility Room next to the kitchen, kinda between the kitchen & garage. The Utility Room houses the washing machine, dryer & freezer. If we had all these appliances in the kitchen there just wouldn't be any cupboards left!

I like Utility Rooms, before we had ours i got really annoyed when my clothes were dotted around the house and people kept brushing past them and knocking them on the floor etc. Seems pointless washing something, only for it to fall on the floor 10 mins later. I think it's nice to be able to have a dedicated space for laundry and to keep the laundry basket, clothes airer, ironing board etc.

If we had a huge kitchen, it probably wouldnt be so bad, but to be honest, a kitchen i feel would be big enough for all the appliances would only be available in about 10% of UK houses. It would literally have to be a massive room for me to not consider a Utility Room necessary. It's on my list of criteria for my next house definately.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"and soaking is not as easy in a kitchen."

I honestly don't know of anyone who soaks anything anymore - that went out with the terry-towelling nappies. With modern machines and detergents, it has done away with such a need.

 

[wringer_clean]

Interesting discussion.
Personally, I have no problem with a washer & dryer being in the kitchen.
My aunt & uncle build the home they raised their family in during the early 50's.
At that time, in the midwest, most people had their laundry in a corner of the basement.
Theirs was just inside the back door, right next to the broom closet I peaked in all the time.
I remember my aunt running loads of laundry and thought how convenient to be able to do it while moving around the kitchen.
In my new apartment, I have a stacked washer/dryer unit in a large closet within the kitchen and absolutely love it!!
It's soooo convenient.
The machines are behind large sliding doors so I can close out most of the noise while I tool around the kitchen doing whatever.
IMHO, most utility rooms are toooo small and don't give the room for an average family to lay out loads and really move laundry through the machines.
Really, the only draw back to laundry in the kitchen is having enough room to stage numerous loads (for the ave. family.)
As a soon-to-be-single person, I have no issues with laundry in the kitchen.
Pat

 

[passatdoc]

more Australian regulations

For Gizmo and others...while visiting friends in Darwin, Northern Territory in the late 1990s, they had a most unusual laundry room. It was cinder block construction and it had a BATHTUB as well as a laundry sink. After the devastating cyclone in 1974, the building regulations were changed. That cinder block room is designed to withstand very high speed winds (i.e. it's their storm shelter) and the bathtub is to be filled with water ahead of any approaching storm as a water storage reservoir in case water supply is cut off after a storm. Of course this doesn't apply to QLD NSW SA WA VIC but it was interesting to see as a visitor.