Oh brilliant hazelligan-just brilliant!! My trick is when they insist on wearing the same dreadful, manky, faded, stained, damaged T-shirt/ top/ jumper/cardigan is for it to disappear into laundry purgatory. Procedure as follows ; Stage 1 Item arrives for laundering. Laundry Maid /Fairy aka ME leaves the offending article into the pending tray aka the floor. Pending tray is emptied with contents being place into suitable container aka black plastic bag. The item is then posted to America aka place black bag in the rubbish bin. Stage 2 If the item is ever missed, it'll be at least 3 wks before Laundry Maid is contacted re same - usually when she is off-duty + doing nothing aka relaxing. Laundry Maid will inform owner that she has no idea which item is under discussion + remainder of 10 min conversation will establish description of article - Are you sure it's black + not navy. It's got an airplane printed on it? Really? Finishing up with a promise to look for same in a timely fashion. 3 weeks later, the first conversation takes place all over again. This time the Laundry Maid instructs owner to search his own room thoroughly + whilst he's at that he can clean room, throw out rubbish, return crockery + cutlery to the kitchen area where the Kitchen Maid is on duty + change bed linen. This tactic is double-edged as although you get 1 clean room, a vast amount of washing-up + laundry is generated. However, owner has now forgotten about missing article. 3 weeks later, discussion is resumed but Laundry Maid now instructs owner to look for missing item in siblings' rooms, pets sleeping quarters, existing dirty laundry basket, ironing basket, all kit-bags + holdalls and back + boot of car. This often generates more crockery, more soiled laundry, stinking sports kit but at least the original offending article will not turn up. In the very unlikely event that the issue is ever raised again - repeat stage 2 all over again. But time consuming- but works a treat!!

We have a utility room and in there i have American sized machines. However, in the kitchen I kept ordinary sized washing machine. It sits a cupboard and has kitchen doors on it. It has a normal sized cupboard next to it with a door and then a Kitchen end panel ( breakfast bar width ) to make it look right. Therefore, you need to discuss what doors and end panels / side panels are available from the kitchen supplier to find out how it can be put together. Most kitchen suppliers do tall doors to hide integrated Fridge / Freezers and tall larder cupboards, so you just need for them to work out for you how it can be done with what they sell. I don't think it's going to be that hard ! The only thing to rember. is that if you are using a standard size washing machine and tumble dryer, they are different in depth to Integrated appliances, therefore, all cupboards will need to come out at the front to make them line up. Alternatively, to save on space, buy integrated appliances and keep all the cupboards standard depth. At the end of the day ask the Kitchen suppliers, they are the ones that are paid to solve these problems, but, yes it can be done !

Much better layout and use of space. You need to work out “what do you want in your utility room?” I have a single run of work surface with cupboards over it. It houses the boiler in one of the cupboards but all manner of junk in the others! Underneath the worksurface I have a freezer, a wine cooler, and two washer / dryers. These are all in one row. By NOT having a return on the work surface I have a back door into the utility room. You could do the same and therefore your problem is resolved. If you were to move your doorway of the utility room onto the other wall you could have the return on your worksurface if you wanted it, or you could use that wall as shoe storage. Instead of a door you could have an open archway, as I have, making the room more spacious and accessible to the kitchen. Our dog sleeps in the utility room and we use a foldaway stair gate to keep him in, so easy access to the room during the day, when we need it, but able to lock him in at night when we want to. We also have a dog flap in the utility door so the dog has access to the garden whenever he wants, a very useful feature!

Claire, I am so relieved you got the “don’t do it” message!😂. The combination machines truly are awful. Daisy’s constructed cabinet is a really good way of making them “integrated”, just make sure you consider any surrounding ventilation space requirements. We “semi-integrated” our freestanding units by creating a drawer front to cover the gap between the top of the units and the worktop. The drawer front is actually on a side hinge, so behind it we have low height but deep storage for breadboards, pizza stones, etc. I had intended to make actual drawers, but then realised it works just as well storing things directly on top of the units.