Place to wash clothes, washroom, utility room, kitchen etc, and why?

[ericmark]

My great aunts, grandmother even with a two up two down house had an out house to do the washing in. As to why, I guess down to firing the boiler, and not wanting coal smoke in the house? But by time I was a boy, the gaslights still on the wall but not used, and still a hatch at the end of the yard, but no muck cart to empty them, but it was not until post-war that houses were built without so out building for the washing and toilet.

Mothers house 1954 build the washing done in the kitchen, I do not remember what was used before the Bendix

I know it was bolted down to the floor, in the kitchen, note the soap lid on the top, so nothing could be put on top of the machine, my dad I know messed it up, putting Molislip in the gear box, which was too good of a lubricant when one had friction clutches.

My own first house, 1974 build, no outhouse, twin tub, so washing day no cooking done.

Next house 1980 build, most people used the garage as a washroom, we had an extension built, joined to kitchen, but not really washing in kitchen, it was really too small of a kitchen until extended.

This house build 1973 has a Utility room, but a much larger house, my sisters house, 1986 build, she has a utility room to do washing in. Not much bigger to my house at the time.

So not sure when we combined kitchen with washroom, seems it was a move to save space? The extension resulted in room for both washing machines at drier, and the utility room also room for washing machine and drier, Daughter first had garage turned into bedroom with room at back for utility/washroom, Daughter second uses the garage.

So in the main we have not done the washing in the kitchen, just two out of six houses. Mothers house still had a washer/drier in her kitchen when she died. Until the wet room made from toilet and pantry, she could have used the pantry as a wash room, but never did.

I will admit when buying a house, we never really thought about if food and washing done in the same room, and no idea if the designers had intended the utility room as a pantry or washroom, there was never any heating in the rooms, but did not really need it for either use.

So what is the normal thing, do we mix clothes and cooking? No house has a dedicated 13 amp socket for the washing machine, and BS 7671:2008 suggests over 2 kW fixed appliances should have a dedicated outlet. But the twin tub was on wheels so not a fixed appliance. Today driers only use around 650 watts, and washing machine and dish washer use maximum power for such a short time, no different to an electric kettle.

So should a washing machine go into a kitchen?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

So should a washing machine go into a kitchen?

From a noise, and ease of use point of view, and if there is a utility room (or similar), no, never.

Our large kitchen, is a kitchen/dinning room, setup, and decorated as such, oak with oak display cabinet. It's no place really to be combined with piles of washing. The utility, has a nice big sink, wide worktop, the washer, and a dishwasher. The latter was a mistake, as being via two doors, it so rarely gets used. Beyond that, is a large pantry, I created out of a one time long coal store. That was to replace a sorely missed pantry/store, converted into a downstairs toilet, when the utility room was created, which did away with the original toilet room.

The dinning room, originally was part of the living room, with a serving hatch, between kitchen and living room. The kitchen then had a coal fired range, also heating the hot water, but soon after build, replaced with an immersion, and a gas stove.

Time moves on, and we all use our homes differently, to how they were originally designed.

 

[ericmark]

Time moves on, and we all use our homes differently, to how they were originally designed.

Likely the biggest understatement. I have seen homes where the central heating is split, upper and lower floor, seems so short-sighted, as we found children would use bedrooms as an office to do homework, or a dinning room would not be used for years, so the design needs to allow for change over the years.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

When we turned our garage into a bedroom/wet room we made sure there was space in the design of the wet room for the washing machine.

 

[Tigercubrider]

Terrace houses often had an outhouse next to a coal store where a “copper” could have a fire to heat water for washing. If they were lucky, there was an outside toilet with a tap.

My house as a child was a post war semi, possibly just prewar? The washing machine was a twin tub that lived in the kitchen. I suspect that the washing machine might have bought for my birth? I know that we still had an old mangle in the garage.

Through my childhood we had kitchen based washing machines, after all, they needed water, drainage and electricity.

These days I have an extension with downstairs looking, freezer and washing machine but loads of friends still use the kitchen.
How dirty do your clothes need to be to not be ok to be in the kitchen for 5 mins?

A couple of friends had their washing machine in the bathroom (upstairs) as the room was huge, but getting it up there was a nightmare

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Terrace ho'dollyuses

Same here. It had the remnants of a small chimney, in a corner of the tiny scullery kitchen, but washing at first done in a , dolly tub, with a washboard, and posser, brought up from the cellar. That was, until we bought an English Electric single tub washer. We had a garage, my father built, on rented rail property, a mile and a half from home.

 

[Mottie]

Pretty sure we never had a washing machine until we moved to a brand new council house in 1971. I would have been around 14 years old. We lived next door to my Nan and shared a tin bath that hung on the wall between the two houses - bath night was Sunday. Dad first, then mum, then me, then my sister with a top up of hot water in between. I remember my mum and my nan washing clothes by hand. They used a scrubbing board like this:



And to wring the water out, I was allowed to use a mangle like this to get most of the water out.



We didn’t have an electric iron but a couple of irons like this:



One would be warming up on the gas ring while the other was being used and they’d swap them over when it lost heat.

Oh, and of course we only had an outside loo and it was bloody freezing in winter. No light at night, we had to use a candle and wipe our bums with newspaper. We lived upstairs in two rooms - my mum, me and my sister slept in a double bed - remember, that was right up until I was a teenager! Dad would sleep on the settee in our ‘Lounge' - I think there was only room for a settee and a fold up table. No central heating, just one coal fire and literally ice on the inside of the windows in the morning. Night time wee wees were done in a bucket by the bed! At the time it seemed perfectly normal as everyone in our street lived the same way.

When we moved to a brand new council house with central heating, hot running water, an inside bathroom AND an inside toilet downstairs plus a bedroom each, we thought we were living the life of millionaires. We tell that to our kids and they can’t believe people lived like that.