Our utility room is also quite small at 8.36 m². The large air-water heat pump with integrated controlled residential ventilation had to fit in there. It is already about 1.2m x 1.6m in size. Added to that are the electrical box, washing machine and dryer tower, freezer, and a small 9U server cabinet. I then built a shelf above the entire room height around the water filtration system of the air-water heat pump. The drying rack just barely fits. So the next utility room will be bigger!
In your case, can you possibly use the space under the stairs? It's not much, but maybe a few things could fit there? However, the stairs would probably have to be rotated for that?!