Pantry vs. Larger Kitchen vs. Utility Room

Hello,

we are currently planning a single-family house without a basement. Since we have never lived without a basement, we are having difficulty determining the space requirements in the kitchen. Specifically, it is about planning a separate pantry (3-4 sqm) vs. planning a kitchen larger by the size of the pantry with more cabinets vs. planning a larger utility room (12 sqm instead of 8 sqm) that is accessible near the kitchen.

What are your experiences with this? What proves effective in practice?

Thank you for your ideas.

You get used to everything. And without a floor plan, it is hard to say what is more practical. However, I prefer a pantry instead of a larger utility room to separate laundry, cleaning supplies, and food.

We built like this. A fairly large 12 sqm kitchen, with an almost equally sized utility room right next to it, with a door to the [PPlatz]. This way, besides the technology, washing machine, and dryer, a pantry and coat closet fit into it. The freezer is in the kitchen. We have been living here for four years now and it has proven itself. There is no basement, but instead a garage without a car, smile, and a walk-in attic, insulated and accessible with a fixed staircase instead of a hatch. This naturally provides storage space en masse, and the rule always applies: having is better than needing.

We have difficulty determining the space requirements in the kitchen.

Have you already determined your space requirements in the kitchen? Countertop length, number of cabinets, etc. One person buys every electrical gadget, another has three different sets of dishes in the cabinet. Then it depends on the household size, whether a utility garden for preserving fruit and vegetables is planned, and whether the house even has options in terms of space and budget. Should a closed or open kitchen be planned? Open kitchens often have less storage. Are there alternatives like a garage, etc. for waste storage? And so on and so forth... Usually, the ancillary rooms have to subordinate to the living areas. Ultimately, you can't give general advice. Use the list above as a guide.

If you have budget and space, there is nothing against a pantry. Usually, these are planned so meagerly and impractically here that leaving it out would be advantageous. The utility room is rather warm due to heat from appliances and also damp with laundry. The pantry is better cooler and drier. For drinks and canned goods it doesn’t matter, but for other food items it does.

I don't have any experience yet. We also had a basement before, but only a small one. Before planning the new house, I calculated how much storage space we had and would need again (some things like spare tiles will be stored in a garage in the future). I then planned that for the new house. We will have a small pantry and a large shelf in the utility room. A kitchen to increase this amount of storage space wouldn't have worked for us, and I can't imagine it for ourselves either (I always buy many things in stock). Therefore, if I were you, I would rather consider how much space you need or want to have and where in the house this can even be planned.