Where's your washing machine then?

[Patrick Thistle]

Big brouhaha over Kirsty Allsop saying having a washing machine in a kitchen is "disgusting". Clearly she has a big house with a scullery. But seriously, what's the big fucking deal?

[Gangster Octopus]

It's all the fault of the Americans, apparently...

[Fussbudget]

In the kitchen, obviously. Is that clearly less hygienic than in the bathroom, as she suggests? I don't normally shit or remove tampons in the kitchen.

[WOM]

That's (one of) the oddest things about watching UK property shows; the laundry in the kitchen.

[WOM]

In the kitchen, obviously. Is that clearly less hygienic than in the bathroom, as she suggests? I don't normally shit or remove tampons in the kitchen.

It's the 'normally' that makes this sentence sing.

[Fussbudget]

Pretty common in France too.

Edit: the washing machine in the kitchen, not the shitting in the kitchen.

[WOM]

"It's a listed home, of course, so you'll need to get used to walking around stooped over for the rest of your life, or banging your head on the lovely beams."

[Stumpy Pepys]

Washing machines in kitchens is pretty unusual in Germany. They're usually in the bathroom or in the cellar.

[WOM]

Cellar almost exclusively in Canada. Sometimes in a mud room off the kitchen or 'side' entrance.

[WOM]

In newer homes, sometimes off a main washroom in the upstairs bedroom area. Makes sense. Less hauling laundry up and down stairs. I know people who have a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement.

[Guy Profumo]

What sort of maniac would put a washing machine in the bathroom?

(Or any other electrical equipment for that matter?)

[Giggler]

Isn't it illegal to have a plug socket in a bathroom in the UK? So you couldn't have one in the bathroom?

I saw an adult art film once, the set of which featured a washing machine in the little hollow of space between the end of the bath and the wall. I was amazed.

[ad hoc]

In the bathroom. But that's normal here. In our old place the outlet pipe wasn't plumbed in and we just ran a specially designed hose into the toilet bowl (again this is pretty normal)

My parents' machine being in a normal British house, is in the kitchen. I don't find either of these things odd. And to be honest I don't think I've ever really thought about it before.

Mind you I am the sort of person who simply doesn't care if the toilet roll hangs down the front or the back, or which order the knife-fork-spoon sections are in the cutlery drawer. Things which clearly drive some people to distraction

[Stumpy Pepys]

What sort of maniac would put a washing machine in the bathroom?

(Or any other electrical equipment for that matter?)

Every German bathroom has plug sockets. I'm unaware of anyone electrocuting themselves.

[ad hoc]

Indeed. Romania too

[Fussbudget]

What sort of maniac would put a washing machine in the bathroom?(Or any other electrical equipment for that matter?)

Isn't it illegal to have a plug socket in a bathroom in the UK? So you couldn't have one in the bathroom?

We've done this before. It's illegal in the UK but plenty of other countries allow electrical sockets in bathrooms and somehow manage not to have millions of people electrocute themselves with hairdryers. Not sure how Allsop's advice about the washing machine would work in the UK without being able to plug it in though.

I'm sure I've pointed this out before, but the UK regulations for plug sockets actually seem pretty inconsistent as there is one right next to our sink in the kitchen.

[ad hoc]

How is a plug socket so much more deadly than a light fitting?

[WOM]

We have plug sockets in bathrooms here, but you need to have GFCIs on them so you can't electrocute yourself.

I can't see how the water/electricity thing is more dodgy in the bathroom than in a kitchen.

[WOM]

How is a plug socket so much more deadly than a light fitting?

I think it's about plugging in an appliance near a tub, like you're going to kill your spouse as they bathe, a la CSI. Or something.

[ad hoc]

British bathrooms do tend to have electric razor outlets though and presumably you could just as easily fry someone with a razor as with a hairdryer

[Fussbudget]

I believed for a long time (because my cousin had told me so) that Claude François had died of electrocution by playing the electric guitar in the bath. Imagine my surprise etc.

[Kevin S]

If my washing machine had a fault and flooded the floor, I'd far rather it was the kitchen's ground floor tiles than a first floor bathroom.

[WOM]

British bathrooms do tend to have electric razor outlets though and presumably you could just as easily fry someone with a razor as with a hairdryer

The old-school electric razor outlets here had currency reducers. Or they were two-prong ones built way up in the light socket. The ones down at 'knee level' need to have GFCIs on them to get inspector approval.

[WOM]

.. by playing the electric guitar in the bath. Imagine my surprise etc.

Turns out it was playing OC/DC that got him...

[ursus arctos]

We've got one of these in the basement