Accept The Fact British Are Correct - Washing Machines Belong In Kitchen


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Thread Number: 82064 / Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Accept The Fact British Are Correct - Washing Machines Belong In Kitchen

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Post# 1060851 2/18/2020 at 02:19 (1,527 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes 4 Found this post from Buzzfeed 2017; good for a laugh. Things people get worked up about..... www.buzzfeednews.com/arti...

Post# 1060858 , Reply# 1 2/18/2020 at 07:41 (1,527 days old) by marky_mark (From Liverpool. Now living in Palm Springs and Dublin)
Checkrate/Likes 4 Ha ha well I read an article in a Spanish magazine saying that only the Spanish and the British often have washing machines in the kitchen and other countries find this strange! Around 85% of American homes have a washing machine (excluding communal laundry rooms). Until recently that figure was even lower. So 15% of Americans (50 million Americans) do not have a washer or dryer, presumably because they don't have a designated laundry area within their homes due to space or prohibitions -- installing Euro-sized front loaders in the kitchen just isn't a thing. I also find American laundromats to be nicer and cheaper, although I haven't been in any in New York -- what are they like, Launderess? In Spain 99% of homes have a washer, possibly because Euro machines are easier to accommodate. A study showed that 52% of washers in Spain are in the kitchen (so it's less common in Spain than in the UK, where many are also fully integrated with a custom panel). The rest are split between a laundry room (common here, even many small flats have them), basement, garage, balcony/terrance, bathroom, shed. I doubt that many Spaniards or Brits believe that the washer belongs in the kitchen, in an ideal world. But people are used to it and wouldn't find it strange. This is especially true in the UK. Some British homes have the washer and dryer in a utility room or a designated laundry room, garage, bathroom etc. But the kitchen is definitely the most common. So much so that even when it could be accommodated somewhere else, many British home are set up for it to go in the kitchen. Even brand new homes are sometimes designed with the washer in the kitchen, even though it could have gone somewhere else. In some other countries, like Italy and Germany, I think they very often put them in the bathroom (not that common in Spain or the UK).

Post# 1060884 , Reply# 2 2/18/2020 at 14:22 (1,527 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )
Checkrate/Likes 1 It's my understanding that they were put in the kitchen because most UK houses don't have basements to the extent they do over here. Houses that are slab or crawl space only built generally had a place for a washer/dryer, not being the kitchen.

Post# 1060886 , Reply# 3 2/18/2020 at 15:08 (1,527 days old) by Oliger (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Checkrate/Likes 4 My kitchen was last redone in 1972. The mother that it was designed for had a broken leg at the time. So the washer and dryer were moved up from the basement and into the kitchen. I see nothing wrong with it. I like the laundry smell, i like the added counter space. I like that it is right there. View Full Size

Post# 1060893 , Reply# 4 2/18/2020 at 16:48 (1,527 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Also find Americans have issues with oft European habit of washing machines (and or dryers) located in the loo (bathroom). Have tried to explain that in older housing stock that can predate indoor plumbing you don't always have piping (cold and maybe hot water, drain....) where wanted, so machines have to go where there is room and proper connections. That Buzzfeed article also is spot on in that Americans don't get idea of using clothes horses/airers instead of tumble dryers as routine.

Post# 1060897 , Reply# 5 2/18/2020 at 18:09 (1,527 days old) by appnut (TX)
Checkrate/Likes 2 I didn't come across this phenomenon any at all growing up in Houston, but when I was little I saw several houses in Dallas built in the late 1940s to late 1950s that did have the washer (and sometimes dryer too) located in the kitchen. And saw one house in Austin of the same vintage while in college.

Post# 1060905 , Reply# 6 2/18/2020 at 19:17 (1,527 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes 2 As noted upthread geographic location often determined where laundry equipment was located. In northeast where homes often had basements that is usually where washing was done long before machines (automatic or otherwise) came long. When modern equipment began to arrive it was natural to put it where tubs and so forth had been previously. That being said many homes built say from post war era on moved laundries to main floor either somewhere near kitchen or room off of it; Samantha Stephens had her washer and dryer off kitchen near door to carport. Of course in areas where homes with basements were rare or just didn't exist laundry equipment went where it could. Europeans did have the advantage in that post WWII things mostly swiftly moved over to front loading washers that could be built in anywhere. North American homes were still dealing with huge top loaders (and matching dryers) that took up quite a bit of real estate. As Americans have taken to front loaders more and more homes are moving laundries out of basements or even in/near kitchens, thus reflecting what has gone on in Europe for ages.

Post# 1060909 , Reply# 7 2/18/2020 at 19:54 (1,527 days old) by IowaBear (Cedar Rapids, IA)
Checkrate/Likes 3 My washer and dryer are in the basement and sometimes the sun shines through a basement window right near them. Even slowly removing and carefully hand-cleaning the lint screen raises an amazing amount of lint and dust into the air!

Post# 1060910 , Reply# 8 2/18/2020 at 20:07 (1,527 days old) by countryford (Austin, MN)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Here in Arizona, basements are a rarity. So don't have to worry about the washer and dryer down there, since there isn't a down there. I have seen some kitchens with the washer and dryer in there, but that is also rare, just not as rare as basements. Our last house had the laundry room right off the kitchen. It was a galley kitchen and if you stood on the one end and looked to the other, you would look into the laundry room and see the washer and dryer. There was no door separating the two areas, just a doorway. The house was built in 1948 and had hookups for the washer only. Since we remodeled the house, we added a dryer hookup there too. Both machines fit nicely in there. Our current house (not for much longer) was built in 2006. As you enter the house from the attached garage, you enter the laundry room. It is a good sized room. If my father-in-law(who built the house) would have thought about it, he could have added a wash tub in the laundry room. Instead we have a second refrigerator in there. I have also seen some washers and dryers in the garage. Here you can do that. In the colder states, it would be a good idea because of freezing. I have also seen where the washer and dryer are on the back patio. I personally would not like that.

Post# 1060913 , Reply# 9 2/18/2020 at 20:47 (1,527 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)
Checkrate/Likes 1 My mother had her Kenmore wringer in the basement with 2 big concrete tubs for rinsing. Our first Kenmore automatic was in the kitchen with a Bendix dryer next to it. My first apartment I worked both Kenmore washer and dryer in that small kitchen. Next house I bought and there was a huge bathroom for those to be out of the way. 26 years ago I moved here and my 36 year old Maytags still chug along in the bathroom and are silent with the door closed, as the bathroom is where most laundry to wash is made.

Post# 1060917 , Reply# 10 2/18/2020 at 22:57 (1,527 days old) by washdaddy (Baltimore)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Not sure if this is still the case but---------* Back in the 80's had the pleasure of going to Hawaii for vacation. While there, noticed at the majority of hotels and tourist accommodations that had w/d setups were outdoors. Whether it was in a open air garage or in a walkway somewhere around the building. A lot of the houses also had that same kind of set-up. I guess because of the year round warm temps they didn't feel the need to have them indoors.

Post# 1060919 , Reply# 11 2/18/2020 at 23:34 (1,527 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage)
Checkrate/Likes Many places in Asia such as Thailand, Signapore, etc.. also tend to have washers located out of doors such as on a balcony, patio, etc... Owner's manuals for washers sold in these countries also often seem to contain warnings against allowing vermin (roaches?) to infest washing machine.

Post# 1060922 , Reply# 12 2/19/2020 at 00:28 (1,527 days old) by donprohel (I live in Munich - Germany, but I am Italian)
Checkrate/Likes 2 *Electrical regulations* One of the reasons why in the UK the washing machine is in the kitchen, is that it is forbidden to have electrical sockets in the bathrooms (exactly: you cannot dry your hair in the bathroom because you do not have a socket for the hair drier) it is only possible to have a "shaver socket" with an insulation transformer and delivering maximum a few milliampere (20, if I remember correctly). Again if I am not wrong, the reason why electrical socket are "forbidden" in bathrooms is that in the UK the wiring is made with the so called "ring circuit" that does not allow to use residual current devices to protect the users (and this is also the reason why in the UK all the electrical plugs have a fuse)

Post# 1060925 , Reply# 13 2/19/2020 at 03:55 (1,526 days old) by iej (.... )
Checkrate/Likes 5 It’s nothing to do with ring circuits or fused plugs. The UK was just slow to adopt RCDs and very conservative about bathroom wiring regulations. It went from not really requiring RCDs at all, to requiring them on every circuit. A modern UK installation (post 2000s) is likely to use RCBOs (combined breaker and RCD) on each circuit. Ireland, which uses the exact same sockets and allows (but doesn’t always use) rings has required RCDs since the 1970s. However the bathroom regulations remain just as strict. Ring circuits are just like a power bus fed from both ends. They’re protected by an RCD in modern British installations and would be on a 32amp breaker. The plug contains a fuse rated usually 3, 10 or 13 amps and these are mandatory in all plugs and devices that fit a UK or Irish socket outlet. So your human protection is the RCD, your building wiring is protected by the breaker and the flexible cable on the appliance is protected by the local fuse in the plug. There’s just generally a very conservative approach taken to bathroom wiring and there isn’t really a technical argument that makes the requirements any different. That’s just how it is. They’ve always also required shuttered sockets (going back to the 1940s) and grounding has been absolute and universal. You won’t find any ungrounded sockets as they don’t make them and a 3rd pin is always required to open the socket’s three pin receptacles, whether you need a ground or not. Some designs actually require the ground pin (longer) to enter first followed by equal pressure on the line and neutral. Older designs are opened only by the ground pin. Wall mounted light switches are also generally not allowed in bathroom areas (unless very large and located 2m+ from the wet areas). Typically light switches are located outside bathrooms. In Ireland, you’ll tend to find the washing machine in the kitchen in smaller and certain eras of homes. However it’s far from universal or the default place for it. A lot of homes have dedicated utility rooms, which might be off the kitchen. If there’s space, like houses in less built up areas, these can get pretty large and would often also contain things like a full height or chest freezer and so on. Most recent era apartments also tend to have a dedicated laundry space. Calling it a laundry room would often be a bit much, but they’re usually a large laundry closet that can accommodate the two machines and usually located off a hallway, not the kitchen. The garage is another common place for washers and dryers. Also like the description of Hawaii, you’ll sometimes find washing machines placed semi outdoor locations like enclosed and covered yards or in sheds or utility rooms built next to houses. The climate here, especially on the coasts (where most people live) hardly ever gets to freezing temperature. You might get a touch of grass frost now and then but temperatures cold enough to worry plumbing are so rare that nobody would think twice about locating it an unheated area. This may be different in parts of Britain that get a tiny bit colder, but if it happens here I would suspect it’s something you might also encounter in southern and southwestern coastal England too, although you’d have to verify that. In Spain it wasn’t unusual to have the laundry located on the balcony of apartments. They often have very large balconies, often with enclosed spaces at either end and built in storage. However as you tended to dry clothes on the balcony on racks, it made sense to have the laundry machines in a closet at the end. We had a washer and a dryer out on the balcony, neatly built into a big closet with a pair of full louver doors. At one side of the balcony there was a louvered section which was used for drying laundry and so on and wasn’t visible from the street. The rest of the balcony was used for dining mostly but it wrapped the full way around the entire apartment and was actually really nice and useful outdoor space. Our bedrooms opened onto it too. So you could just open large doors and bring the outside world in and you’d awnings and shutters to keep it out when it was hot. The AC units were also hidden in that balcony area with the louvers. Spanish climate also varies from regions that get pretty cold winters to ones that are warm all year around, so that tends to influence laundry setups. In the north or Spain high spin washers and dryers were much more common and you had to think about frost protection. In southern Spain using a dryer would be absolute madness as it’s usually perfect drying weather and there are absolutely no hang ups about putting a rack on a balcony or outdoors. When I lived in France the location of washers was fairly varied too. In houses it was usually the garage, or in dedicated laundry space, or in warmer climes even semi outdoors too - like just off the backyard in a small shed or whatever. It’s climate dependent though as you’d find they impossible in parts of France that get cold winters, but down on the Mediterranean coast and even the southern parts of the west, it’s similar to Spain or Italy in terms of climate - never really gets seriously cold. Most of the time the weather is idyllic. In apartments in France they were wherever they fitted - that could be a kitchen, a closet, under the bathroom (in a console), stuck in the bathroom etc. The top loading, tall and narrow tub varieties were common in old apartments in city centres as they take up relatively less floor space and can be squeezed into tight areas, yet do the same job as a front loader. They even had dryers in the same top loading format. Those machines are available in the Irish and the UK market but they’re very very rarely purchased, yet in France I would say they’ve 25%-30% of the market. Older apartments in cities like Paris can be extremely squeezed in, much like what you might encounter in Manhattan, but often with far grander exterior architecture and much, much older. In general in Europe the locations are very varied but you’ll find the front loader almost absolutely dominant and the top loaders are also a H-axis drum and effectively just a tall narrow front loader with a loading hatch in the drum instead of a porthole door. Also front loader capacity in Europe varies due to depth of the machines. They may look the same from the front but compact models are far shallower and are often found in apartments, especially the kinds of places tourists rent. So you’ll get reports of tiny Italian or French washers but these often aren’t what your typical household has. Full capacity European machines have no issue devouring a large hamper of bath towels in a single load. They just use deeper and sometimes tilted drums along with ladle lifters and/or recirculating pumps to ensure a good result with a full drum. I still find a lot of Americans seem to think that machines need a lot of empty drum space, which is true if you’ve an agitator washer that has to suspend the clothes in water to move them. However a drum based machine will have no issue being stuffed full as the water moves through them as the drum turns and there’s just no issues with turn over. The one thing I would say though is even big capacity European dryers in standard cabinets are a bit too squashed. Our full capacity Miele T2 does a fine job drying, but if you load it full of towels they will expand a bit and come out a tad squished if you don’t remove them quickly after the cycle ends. In general those heat pump dryers seem to handle big loads no problem at all though as they’re not all that hot, the drying largely being about forcing moisture out of the recirculating air rather than just heat. I’d have to say since I got it my clothes are in way better condition and last much longer as the drying process is just much more gentle and involves no extreme temps. As for the British being correct, I wouldn’t agree that the kitchen is an ideal location for laundry. It’s not gross but it’s just annoying to have it there. Washing machines and dryers make noise, so they’ll always be a bit annoying if you’ve dining in the kitchen and if you’ve a dryer in a kitchen you can even suck in kitchen odours (and vented dryers in kitchens weren’t unusual). The logic was the kitchen had plumbing and usually a backdoor with access to the garden. Beyond that it isn’t really that sensible a location. The other thing that is quite interesting, and I would assume this applies on the UK too, was that houses build before the 1950s here in Ireland tended to have impractical kitchen and laundry architecture. I read a report about it once and it was quite simply down to the fact that laundry and cooking was done by women and very few women were involved in architecture at the time. So designs tended to reflect the notions of some pipe smoking guy born in the 19th century who paid little attention to the practical aspects of what went on in kitchens and laundry areas. A lot of 1920s and 30s homes here tended to grossly undersize the kitchens and have no dedicated laundry space, yet they would put a lot of emphasis into spacious living rooms and dining rooms. Many of those homes would have long since have been modernised and now feature bigger, brighter, show piece kitchen and dining areas. As the century went on you see the emphasis focus more and more on the kitchen and the Bauhaus and modernist designs, which had a big female input began to appear. Kitchens became bigger and more practical and then became major show pieces, eventually becoming the centre piece of most homes and very much part of the living space. So there’s been a lot of social impact that tracks not just changes in technology but the empowerment and change of role of women, the role of men too, with sharing or household duties and guys being far more involved in raising kids and keeping house and the transformation of cooking from an out of sight utilitarian thing into more of a lifestyle and fun thing that’s at the middle of a home. That accelerated in the 60s, 70s and at this stage the kitchen is really the middle of life and cooking is a more of hobby than a chore - hence the endless line up of cookery shows on tv and men having no issues getting wrapped up in what Mary Berry is doing on the Great British Bake Off etc etc If you go back to Edwardian or older homes the kitchens in large homes would have had servants even in relatively middle class homes owned by the local doctor or a lawyer or whatever. It was out of sight out of mind and meals appeared on the table either delivered by a maid, a butler or a hard working home making wife. That all disappeared in the 1900s with raising living standards and income equality hiring servants on low wages became impossible and the role of women and men became more and more equal. The divides became less present and the kitchen became everyone’s space and cooking and cleaning tasks are shared and supported by tech. So I would generally say the big, modernist European kitchens with open plan and show off appliances tends to be about that social change and a growth towards equality as much if not more than to do with changes of tech for appliances and construction systems. You’re also seeing that change towards people purchasing appliances with all the enthusiasm they’d put into buying a car. It’s about the specs and the tech and the designs. Compare that with the 1950s sexist old “buy your wife a Hoover” type adverts... Anyway! That’s my take on European washer and kitchen social geography lol This post was last edited 02/19/2020 at 04:31

Post# 1060929 , Reply# 14 2/19/2020 at 06:41 (1,526 days old) by Unimatic1140 (Minneapolis)
Checkrate/Likes 2 When I was kid in New Jersey both sets of grandparents had a washing machine in their kitchens. Neither had dryers as they would hang clothes on the shared lines behind their apartment buildings. I love having a Unimatic washer and Filtrator dryer in my kitchen!

Post# 1060930 , Reply# 15 2/19/2020 at 07:06 (1,526 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.)
Checkrate/Likes 3 One of RJ's rental refurbs, a "modern" brick-veneer house built in 1961 has washer plumbing in a corner of the kitchen with (previously) no provision for a dryer. One of the previous owners set up for a dryer in the (one-car) garage. RJ revised for a stacked frontloader set in the kitchen. I have space for three usable washers in my master bathroom, with two currently in there ... but that's an entirely different thing, LOL.

Post# 1060932 , Reply# 16 2/19/2020 at 07:29 (1,526 days old) by chestermikeuk (Rainhill Home of the RailwayTrials Merseyside,UK)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Washers In The Kitchen* It would be interesting to see if we did a poll of AW members how many where used as a kid to see the washing machine being used in a kitchen, perhaps you where sat at the table being fed while it was working and up close and personal versus kids who`s parents had the laundry downstairs in the basement away from everyday view and enjoyment ? We never had a table in our family kitchen so as kids if we where in the kitchen while mum was using the twintub you would be under her feet and chased away to play. My grans on the otherhand had a big 1950`s formica table n chairs and we always sat around watching the wash process and being paid a "Penny a Sheet" to catch the clothes coming out the back of the wringer - then gran would take us to the local sweet shop to choose from the penny tray !! Happy Days !! View Full Size

Post# 1060937 , Reply# 17 2/19/2020 at 08:27 (1,526 days old) by arbilab (Ft Worth TX (Ridglea))
Checkrate/Likes 1 Notice it took 13 replies before anyone mentioned France, somewhat underwriting the impression that the French don't wash. Never had W/D in the kitchen. Next wall over, or garage. TX, OK, CA, and HI houses. Pbgh and KC had basements.

Post# 1060960 , Reply# 18 2/19/2020 at 12:33 (1,526 days old) by perc-o-prince (Southboro, Mass)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Growing up, we had the laundry in the basement with the heating plant. The rest of the basement was pretty much finished with a bar, sitting area, etc. When I moved to MA, then we moved to NH, it was laundromats or shared coin-op in the building. Back here in Southboro the washer was in the downstairs kitchen for water feed/drain ease, and the dryer was off the mudroom for venting ease. What a PITA to carry the clothes from one room to another! When the local Miele showroom closed we bought one of the new stacked units they had on display and they're now in the kitchen. Much nicer! Chuck

Post# 1060967 , Reply# 19 2/19/2020 at 13:22 (1,526 days old) by LowEfficiency (Iowa)
Checkrate/Likes As a USA midwesterner, it's just a common and convenient thing here for houses to have laundry chutes too. Doesn't matter if it's a single-story with a basement, or a multi-story home, many of the last 100+ years of houses have them. I don't know if this prevalence is a cause or an effect of our preference for dedicated rooms for laundry, but having the receiving end of a blind laundry chute be in a kitchen space seems like it could be problematic. And having it empty into a garage would be difficult for sure, if not flat-out forbidden by building codes.

Post# 1060972 , Reply# 20 2/19/2020 at 13:55 (1,526 days old) by iej (.... )
Checkrate/Likes 2 *France* France is a real treasure trove of mid 20th century odd washing machine designs. Google around for them and you’ll find a lot of very unusual, often glass door topped, fairly large horizontal drum top loaders with pretty unusual controls and styling. I would also say that France probably has the largest selection of obscure laundry detergents I’ve seen anywhere, including the US. It’s also the only place I’ve ever seen a washer made specifically for doing expensive lingerie, complete with styling. A French bijoux washing machine by designer, Chantal Thomass and Vedette for the boudoir: fr.fashionnetwork.com/news/chant... Take a look through this YouTube channel for the old washing machines of France : Link to a 1965 automatic top loader by Vedette (with a controller that has clearly seen better days and is making a lot of noise) I wouldn’t say it’s remotely fair to stereotype France as not washing. If anything it just washes with a certain je ne sais quoi and a ton of complex herbal scented laundry products that look more like they would belong in L’Occitane than a laundry aisle. This post was last edited 02/19/2020 at 14:29

Post# 1060994 , Reply# 21 2/19/2020 at 17:56 (1,526 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)
Checkrate/Likes I can’t understand why anyone would object to having their washing machine in the kitchen, as long as you have one thats what really matters. When my family moved to the country when I was 13 the washing machine was in the kitchen. The home was built by a man from Germany, and I guess perhaps he chose the kitchen for the washer because thats what he was familiar with. The washer that came with the home was a 1961 TOL Lady Kenmore, with a suds saver and a porcelain laundry tub in a cabinet was next to the washer. Since Mom had already bought a new MOL Whirlpool in 1962, and the driveway needed grading, she traded the Lady K with a friend that had the heavy equipment to grade the driveway as a barter for the driveway work. We used the 62’ Whirlpool until 69’ when she bought a new Maytag Model E wringer, which was also in the kitchen. The dryer sat on the unenclosed back porch, exposed to the weather, also a 62’ Whirlpool MOL. It lasted until I believe 1971. At one point my stepfathers family lived with us, 11 people between us all, and those machines did multiple loads 7 days a week. When I had my Maytag A50, which I used from 77’ to 81’ I kept it in the kitchen and used it at the kitchen sink. This was very convenient, way better than schlepping the laundry to the laundromat. I had a portable Whirlpool dryer in the kitchen too, when I used it I opened the kitchen window a crack and vented it with flexible vent hose that I stored behind the dryer. For the last 25 years in our current home we’ve had the washer and dryer upstairs, in a closet between the bedrooms, the best setup in my opinion. Having them in a garage would be my least desirable location, but if that was the only option, I could live with it. Eddie

Post# 1061119 , Reply# 22 2/20/2020 at 17:08 (1,525 days old) by GusHerb (Chicago/NWI)
Checkrate/Likes Having the washer & dryer in the kitchen is common to me. My grandparents house where my mom grew up was a slab home where it was in the kitchen. My parents home has them in the kitchen, my dads rental units have them in the kitchen also. An apartment my sister lived in some time back had a stacked set in the bathroom, I thought that was convenient also. I personally like the idea of a laundry room next to the kitchen.

Post# 1061128 , Reply# 23 2/20/2020 at 17:36 (1,525 days old) by LowEfficiency (Iowa)
Checkrate/Likes 1 >> I can’t understand why anyone would object to having their washing machine in the kitchen Not at all? People launder all kinds of things that have no business being anywhere near food and food preparation surfaces.

Post# 1061129 , Reply# 24 2/20/2020 at 17:44 (1,525 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.)
Checkrate/Likes 3 “People launder all kinds of things that have no business being anywhere near food and food preparation surfaces. “ Certainly this is true, and if you have your washer in the kitchen common sense dictates that you would keep anything that was a possible contaminate away from the food and food preparation surfaces. In all the time my family or I had washing machines in the kitchen no one ever became ill as a result of the laundry being washed in the kitchen. Back when my parents were children many families even bathed in the kitchen as a matter of necessity. There is such a thing as being too germ conscious and as a result failing to have natural immunities to common place bacteria. The same goes with the over use of antibacterial soaps. Eddie

Post# 1061136 , Reply# 25 2/20/2020 at 18:41 (1,525 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)
Checkrate/Likes 2 I've only know a couple houses that had laundry equipment in the kitchen. My neighbor V. had her Kenmore dryer (electric) in the kitchen near the back door, with her Maytag wringer washer in the basement. The dryer was mainly used if the weather was unfit to dry on the line. In 1972, they added to the house, and the new Kenmore 800 set in Avocado was placed in the new laundry room, which is also a storage/play area. This room adjoins the kitchen. The other house belonged to a friend when I was in school. The washer was in the kitchen next to the sink. They didn't own a dryer at the time. I think the original laundry was in the basement, but the mother was very heavy, and had trouble with steps. Clothes were hung to dry in an enclosed porch. Until I reconfigured the basement in the renovation, the laundry was in a large multi-purpose room, which we used for storage and had our ping-pong table in. The new laundry room is a small part of that area, and is approx. 8' x 10'. I have no desire to have laundry facilities in the kitchen. In addition to having dirty items near food prep areas, I don't want my freshly washed clothes to pick up cooking odors - who wants clothes or linens that smell like onions or fried okra? Nearly everyone who can afford to place their laundry where they want it will have a separate room for such. I've never seen a washer or dryer in the kitchen of what I'd call a luxury home.

Post# 1061139 , Reply# 26 2/20/2020 at 19:19 (1,525 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )
Checkrate/Likes Most new houses over the last 10-20 years that I have looked at have their laundry equipment located in a hallway off the bedrooms whether it be a single or two story house with a basement. The days of laundry in the basement seem to have ended.

Post# 1061287 , Reply# 27 2/22/2020 at 15:54 (1,523 days old) by cornutt (Huntsville, AL USA)
Checkrate/Likes 2 Growing up in the Southeast USA, I saw basically two patterns. Pre-war homes put the laundry equipment wherever it would fit, and the plumbing/electrical could be extended. My paternal grandparents enclosed a small back porch off the kitchen and made it the laundry area. Most of post-war homes built before 1970 had the laundry area in the garage. I think this might have stemmed in part from a (sometimes justified, in the early days) suspicion of automatic washers and the possibility of flooding. Also, many of the young couples buying these houses did not have dryers initially. It was fairly convenient to take the laundry out the garage's back door to the clothesline. I only recall seeing one house in the area in that era that had laundry in the kitchen; it had a place for a combo. IIRC it was a Philco. Some houses had the "laundry closet", a closet off of a hallway that was just large enough for the machines themselves. It would usually be enclosed with louvered bifold doors, although sometimes it was just left open. They were always dark, and installing a machine in one was a pain. The WTF one, for me, were the houses that had carports instead of garages, and had the laundry in a detached room off of the carport, not heated and not connected to the house. A lot of these were built in the 1970s. We lived in one for a while. In the winter, it was miserable having to go outside to take the laundry back and forth. And sometimes you couldn't do laundry because the plumbing froze. I remember having to replace the taps for the washer because they froze and then started leaking. Why the freezing didn't damage the washer itself, I can't explain, but it never did. The water heater was also in that room, and I think it heated the room somewhat. In the late '80s / early '90s, there was a fad around here for having the laundry be in the master bedroom closet. Everyone I knew that had one of these came to hate it eventually: it made the closet damp, the noise meant you couldn't sleep in the bedroom while a load was running, floors often weren't sturdy enough to prevent vibration, and any water leak or overflow was a disaster. Our laundry is in a room next to the kitchen. That's where my wife wanted it.

Post# 1061290 , Reply# 28 2/22/2020 at 16:38 (1,523 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Southern laundry areas* My Aunt Doris moved into a house in Jackson, MS in 1963 that was a couple years old, and it had a double carport with the laundry room at the back. I remember it having a wall mount electric heater. I didn't ever go there in winter, but the room got extremely hot in summer. Their next house had a nice laundry room off the first floor hall. When I was a kid, I saw lots of wringer washers on porches in the rural areas.

Post# 1061291 , Reply# 29 2/22/2020 at 16:50 (1,523 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)
Checkrate/Likes So much for "one, if by land; two, if by sea..." I've seen and been in lots of basement-less houses, including seeing an all-GE Harvest Wheat-appliance set... But this kitchen-laundry was set in a sort of recessed-adjacent walk-over space--by the kitchen! -- Dave

Post# 1061300 , Reply# 30 2/22/2020 at 18:47 (1,523 days old) by mark_wpduet (Lexington KY)
Checkrate/Likes 1 *Growing up in NC* My grandma had her GM Frigidaire in her bathroom! And the dryer was on the service porch along with an additional refrigerator. When I lived in Knoxville TN in 1995/96 before moving to Lexington, the apartment I rented had full size washer dryer hookups in the Kitchen! Actually, I had forgotten all about that until this post brought back those memories.

Post# 1061304 , Reply# 31 2/22/2020 at 21:12 (1,523 days old) by gizmo (Victoria, Australia)
Checkrate/Likes *Australia* In most of Australia it is illegal to install a washing machine in a kitchen. I have seen a few, however - depends if your local building surveyor is willing to turn a blind eye. You can have a "dishwasher space" at the building stage that ends up having a washing machine installed in it, but there will be another place on the floor plan that was designated a washing machine space and it won't be in the kitchen. All homes are required to have a laundry trough or sink to facilitate suds saving, even though I don't know of any suds saver washing machines on the market any more. (and not in the last 20 years...) Again you see homes without laundry troughs quite commonly, but technically it is not allowed.

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