Washing machine location sparks online debate

[Still Waters]

Serious Q, where is your washing machine?

If you’re British chances are it’s in your kitchen, but a German woman has really rocked the laundry basket after claiming that the best place for a washing machine is in fact the bathroom.

Taking to social media, Twitter user Melis, explained that in Germany “It‘s the MOST NORMAL thing” to have the washing machine in the bathroom and not the kitchen where it “definitely doesn’t belong.”

Of course her tweet went insanely viral, lead mainly by baffled Brits who couldn’t imagine putting the household device anywhere else (well, apart from a utility room if you’re lucky).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/other/bathroom-or-kitchen-heated-debate-is-sparked-online-about-the-best-place-to-keep-a-washing-machine/ar-AACmVDn

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/debate-sparked-online-about-whether-kitchen-or-bathroom-is-best-place-for-washing-machine-090657795.html

[quiXilver]

I keep mine in a van, down by the river...

[Farmer77]

I would never buy or rent a house where the washing machine was in the kitchen OR bathroom. Interesting cultural stuff. 

[toast]

Germany here! Mine is in the kitchen but I also lived in a flat with a large bathroom so the machine was placed there. I also lived in a flat where there was a cellar especially for the tenants washing machines and dryers, including separate water meters for each machine. And, the most flats here with bathrooms with enough space for a washing machine have connections for water/waste water/power.

 

Edited June 4, 2019 by toast

[XenoFish]

Kinda makes sense putting it in the bathroom. If the kitchen is located near the bathroom. All the water lines would be located closer together. Would be easier to trace a leak and a lot less plumbing. I might have to do that.

[Stiff]

I guess it does make more sense if it's in the bathroom. After all, that's where you take your clothes off (unless of course your a naturist, in which case the kitchen would be just as applicable). Ours is in the utility room next to the kitchen. I certainly wouldn't want to cart the sodding thing up the stairs to one of the bathrooms though. I don't even like walking up them. I miss my old bungalow.

Laundrettes. Now there's something you don't see many of nowadays.

['Walt' E. Kurtz]

We have it in the bathroom

[+OverSword]

1 hour ago, Still Waters said:

Serious Q, where is your washing machine?

If you’re British chances are it’s in your kitchen, but a German woman has really rocked the laundry basket after claiming that the best place for a washing machine is in fact the bathroom.

Taking to social media, Twitter user Melis, explained that in Germany “It‘s the MOST NORMAL thing” to have the washing machine in the bathroom and not the kitchen where it “definitely doesn’t belong.”

Of course her tweet went insanely viral, lead mainly by baffled Brits who couldn’t imagine putting the household device anywhere else (well, apart from a utility room if you’re lucky).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/other/bathroom-or-kitchen-heated-debate-is-sparked-online-about-the-best-place-to-keep-a-washing-machine/ar-AACmVDn

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/debate-sparked-online-about-whether-kitchen-or-bathroom-is-best-place-for-washing-machine-090657795.html

In the states it tends to be in the laundry room

[Helen of Annoy]

Mine's in the bathroom. Where it belongs  

Everyone in my part of the world keeps them in bathrooms, maybe in the cellar if they have a combination of really large cellar and really small bathroom.  

 

Whenever I see a washing machine anywhere else (in films or photos) it surprises me a little. 

[Still Waters]

Mine is in the kitchen.

[Grey Area]

Mine is in the kitchen

Bathrooms tend to be upstairs with tiled, relatively brittle flooring with no firm foundation, washing machines are heavy and vibrate, I can imagine a reasonable amount of damage over years of usage, compared with a typically firm concrete floor of a kitchen.

Just my opinion though, does seem odd having it in the bathroom.  Add into that U.K. bathrooms generally do not have a mains socket.

[Helen of Annoy]

1 hour ago, Grey Area said:

Mine is in the kitchen

Bathrooms tend to be upstairs with tiled, relatively brittle flooring with no firm foundation, washing machines are heavy and vibrate, I can imagine a reasonable amount of damage over years of usage, compared with a typically firm concrete floor of a kitchen.

Just my opinion though, does seem odd having it in the bathroom. 

Well, they are heavy, so it's a pain to get them on higher floors in buildings, but I've never heard anyone had any serious damage on the floor from a washing machine alone. Unless the tiles were really worthless and/or laid on uneven surface. Such would be gone without the machine, anyway.

Also, we've got laws that require any load-bearing parts of any house must be built with reinforced concrete, because we're in relatively lively earthquake zone. 

And it just seems more logical to put something clothes related in the bathroom, than in the kitchen. But the kitchen would be fine too, when I think about it, every kitchen has water and electricity so there... why not. Only it looks so strange to me. 

    

Quote

Add into that U.K. bathrooms generally do not have a mains socket.

Then where do you plug in electric shavers, hair dryers, heaters and whatnot? 

[Stiff]

53 minutes ago, Helen of Annoy said:

Then where do you plug in electric shavers, hair dryers, heaters and whatnot? 

The only socket you're allowed by law in the bathroom in the UK (I think) is the shaver socket. Heaters, I'm guessing must be hardwired in, like the extractor fans and hair dryers and whatnots are demoted to the bedroom (or wherever). No facility for 3 pin plugs.

Edit: I've just checked and you can have sockets as long as they're 3 meters from the bath or shower. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Stiff

[aztek]

 i do not even have one, we have 20 washing machines and 16 dryers on the first floor of my condo.  some have them in apartments, but it is against building code, every time someone above or below me uses one i have hot water coming from cold faucet.

[Helen of Annoy]

49 minutes ago, Stiff said:

The only socket you're allowed by law in the bathroom in the UK (I think) is the shaver socket. Heaters, I'm guessing must be hardwired in, like the extractor fans and hair dryers and whatnots are demoted to the bedroom (or wherever). No facility for 3 pin plugs.

Edit: I've just checked and you can have sockets as long as they're 3 meters from the bath or shower. 

Ah, so if I decided to electrocute myself in the bathroom while visiting the UK, I'd have to use an extension cord? What if I trip on it and fall? 

 

But to be honest, when we were rebuilding our house and the electrician insisted we put enough of sockets in the bathrooms, it did seem like he wants to make sure an accident will happen   

[Still Waters]

My bathroom is upstairs and doesn't have any mains sockets.

[Helen of Annoy]

1 hour ago, Still Waters said:

My bathroom is upstairs and doesn't have any mains sockets.

So you really don't use any electrical devices, such as hair dryer for example, in your bathroom, or you use them, plugged into an extension cord? 

(I'm not saying you should do that, but that's what I'd do... ) 

[Robotic Jew]

Many of the places I've lived it was in the garage.

[Still Waters]

1 hour ago, Helen of Annoy said:

So you really don't use any electrical devices, such as hair dryer for example, in your bathroom, or you use them, plugged into an extension cord? 

(I'm not saying you should do that, but that's what I'd do... ) 

No. I don't do either.

[Stiff]

3 hours ago, Still Waters said:

No. I don't do either.

You're not bald though are you? 

[+Desertrat56]

When I lived in Germany in the 70's the bath or shower and washer were in the kitchen in my sister-in-laws apartment.  The toilet was outside next to the front door.  The building was so old there were not bathrooms.  I lived in a more modern apartment that had no washer and my friend rented one that had a washer in an alcove off the kitchen.  Space is premium in Germany.