If you live in an HDB or condo in Singapore, chances are you have a service yard. Tucked away in a small corner of your house, the service yard can pose a challenge for homeowners who want to make the most out of every square inch of space in their home.
Too small to be easily useful, yet too big to ignore, creating an effective service yard requires careful planning, creativity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. Read on to find out how you can redesign your service yard with countertops and retractable laundry racks to make full use of all the bonus real estate it provides.
1. Use Countertops As Workstations
Effectively utilising a service yard, can mean saving space in other parts of your home. In Singapore where space is at a premium, this can mean a better quality of life for you and your family. One way to achieve this is by getting countertops which can double up as workstations.
If your service yard is beside your kitchen, this allows you to merge both rooms together and have an extra countertop which can be useful for cooking and cleaning. Doing this can help declutter your kitchen as things can be spaced out more evenly and give you more freedom when preparing meals.
Countertops in your service yard can also be useful for chores like ironing or folding clothes. Since your clothes drying rack is likely to be located in your service yard, you can take the opportunity to finish all your laundry-related tasks in your service yard instead of doing them in other areas of your home.
Clever additions like foldable ironing boards and multi-tier laundry baskets can maximise the space in your service yard even further while still ensuring the space is kept organised without becoming an eyesore.
2. Choose An Automated Drying System Over A Dryer
Laundry machines are some of the biggest home appliances. In smaller service yards once a washing machine and dryer have been installed, there is barely any floor space left. This becomes a missed opportunity for homeowners and can lead to the service yard feeling overly cramped.
To get around this problem, you can opt for an automated laundry system which retracts from the ceiling. This saves a significant amount of space as dryers are big, bulky appliances. A retractable laundry rack only needs to be lowered when you are drying clothes and can be retracted up to the ceiling when not required. The space saved from foregoing the purchase of a dryer can then be used for something more practical.
Dryers are also power hungry appliances and have a propensity to ruin delicate fabrics. A retractable laundry rack in Singapore uses a lot less electricity, while still drying your clothes efficiently without damage.
Learn More: 3 Tips To Choose The Right Laundry Rack For Your Home
3. Make Use Of Vertical Space
Space is 3-dimensional. In service yards with a limited floor area, it can be useful to think vertically when planning. Floor-to-ceiling carpentry can be a great addition that really maximises what you can do with a small service yard. It can also help draw the eye upwards to give the impression that your service yard is more spacious.
Vertical storage space can let you stow away unsightly yet useful cleaning implements like brooms, mops, and buckets. Keep in mind that spaced above appliances like washing machines can also be used for storage by installing floating shelves to hold items like detergent.
Small service yards can be easily overlooked. But if you are a savvy homeowner, you might be able to see the potential in transforming the space for greater utility. Making full use of your service yard can also have a knock-on effect of ensuring your entire home looks more aesthetically pleasing and spacious, while giving you the perfect location to finish washing, drying, folding, and ironing your laundry.
Looking for an indoor laundry drying system in Singapore? Consider getting a Steigen retractable clothes drying rack and check out our full product catalogue online. Plus, sign up to our newsletter and get $80 storewide off! Not only do they help you save on space in the service yard, the sleek design lends itself well to modern interior design tastes.
