KEEP THE SQ. Do you have room to put in a pantry pullout? This one is bit extreme, but for the idea, you might find space somewhere to squeeze in some great hidden storage.

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keep it. try working in a pantry some other way.

you can't move the washer/drywer elsewhere?

We moved our side by side to a 6' coat closet by the front door.

it works for us!

It's not fancy or Houzz-worthy, but I had one very small kitchen with a laundry niche in the same room. We kept detergent and bleach on the dryer top. Shelves over the machines held pantry goods and some pots. Two shelves spanning the width of a washer and dryer can hold a fair amount of dry goods.

SQ makes a stackable W/D, no need to switch brands.

I am ahuge clean freak and I love my Bosch front loader and the bonus is it can do ahuge load with a tblsp of detergent mine is 15 yrs not one service call and I do at least one load a day. Front loaders are easier on clothing and what I find is most people use way to much detergent in the front loader and do not understand they work better with larger loads.. As for your dilemma I need to see the kitchen plan . If you post the whole floor plan of the main living space that also would help.

I will always choose a front loader, and always choose stackable. I find them much easier on my body (I only have to reach down for one machine, not two), and front loaders clean better with more efficiency. And, as you said, you have more space to use for other purposes.

I would keep the speed queen.

What is most important to you? That should be your number one factor for making a decision. I love our SQ set, but I would never say I would not get rid of them if a decision about lifestyle needed to be addressed. At the end of the day, any washer/dryer is going to clean and dry your laundry. Unless you have very sick people who need boiling hot washes or family members who grind in dirt repeatedly, a w/d set of any sort will do your laundry, and you will be satisfied. Make the decision based on how your family wants to enjoy your home.

Well, I see both sides of your dilema being a SQ owner and also operating in a tiny galley kitchen. My washer used to be in this tiny galley kitchen and the dryer was on the other side of the kitchen legth beside the dining room. Disfunctional at best.

I ended up building a bathroom and put the w/d in there. Much better for many reasons. If you can rob a little space from a room to flip the space use, that might be an option to get a little functional space in your kitchen and still keep your SQ.

My heart is telling you to keep the SQ, but I also know what it's like to live with a galley kitchen that has a top loading washer in it. You can do much better with that space (unaltered) with a stacking set. Check out the unitized w/d from SQ. Might fit your needs and be less costly than flipping floor space and robbing square inches from a neighboring room.

I don't own a speed queen but I would not want a stacking set due to me being very short. I also would need to have a pantry. If height wasn't a problem I would get rid of the speed queen to get stacking set in order to have a pantry.

I’m short but only in my 50’s a hardship to bend down soooo my front loaders are on drawers so no bending for me

My old Kenmore just bit it! The repair man suggested I go buy a used machine( direct drive!) as I want a center agitator. I have had a front loader and didn’t like it. The refurbished Kitchen Aid comes tomorrow 😂. Hope it lasts as long as the old one!

I bought a Maytag top loader used for $270 and it has worked well for several years now. Delivered and the old one hauled away by the seller.

Can you move washer and dryer to garage or somewhere else? I guess it would depend on how much pantry space I need. Then again, even if you stack your w/d, you need to store detergent, etc, which I assume is currently on shelves about your w/d. I don’t think symmetry is a necessity over functionality

I have bought 2 sets of W/D since 1986, one new, one used.

In 1986 I bought an Amana set (at that time they were similar in construction to Speed Queen).

I moved across country in 2016 and did not bring my 30 year old, reliable W/D with me.

I bought a home that happened to have an old Amana W/D (tag shows a manufacture date of 95)

Still working fine, but I know it will not last forever, so when a young couple bought a house and wanted their sleek front load w/d I bought their used 2016 SQ set for $200.00. Newer than the one's I own, but still the commercial build that will last 25-30 years. Waiting to switch them out till I renovate the laundry room.

I don't know that anyone makes a w/d today that will last like the older models.

how old is the SQ? if it is "old" then consider a front loader

A few washers have a cult following - SQ is in that catagory. Not really sure that it is justified as there really is no objective basis for it other than uses a ton of water (which somehow to them equates to better cleaning ) and lasts forever

delray, speaking only for myself, I don't follow cults. I decided on the SQ because it offered me what I wanted when I was researching laundry appliances for our new home. We had FL washers for over 16 years, and made the choice that was right for our household at the time. Quality of manufacture was only one of the criteria I considered.

delray, like armjim, I don't follow along in any cults, including what you are refering to as the SQ cult. I do own a SQ, but I don't see how that would equate one as a cult member. Pretty harsh words there delray.

I had two FL washers for a total of 12 years and had horrible laundry results the entire time. I wasn't a newbie to laundry when I got the FL washers. In fact, I was commonly refered to as the queen of laundry--until the FLers.

When I got the SQ, suddenly, our laundry results substantially improved. If you want to infer that this is a cult like mentality, then that is your choice. Wow. I would call it noticing a job well done. But to each their own.

"I don't know that anyone makes a w/d today that will last like the older models."

That's true for just about everything these days - other appliances, cars, furnaces, etc.

"I don't know that anyone makes a w/d today that will last like the older models."

That's a constantly-moving target. What's the criteria for an "older model?"

Vintage appliances didn't always run (without repairs) for as many years as people fondly believe. The 1962 Whirlpool washer that my family had suffered numerous repairs through its 14 years of use. The overlooked aspect is that repairs were cheap in the olden days so were often, if not always, done. Not so nowadays.

Bought a SQ about 5 years ago. Didn't love it and miss the old appliance it replaced. I was hoping for so much more given the hype.

if there is a built in heater - keep it if you like it. No heater - old technology

Used to have the SQ stacked front loaders — unitized. It washed like a dream, had great capacity and a tiny footprint. It would solve your problem and then some, if you can get hold of one.

Speed Queen, YES!

How big is your household? How many loads of laundry do you do each week? Do you cook every day? From scratch? I'd let form follow function.

I'd fit the machines to the space, not the other way around. In other words, decide what you want to do with the space first, how you need it to function, then go from there. Same with anything else. What do you ultimately want to accomplish?

Thoughts about the washer/dryer:

- How many loads do you run per week?

- You have what you like, and it's hard to justify changing that.

- You already own these machines; buying a new machine would cost real money.

- Have you ever used a stacked machine? I've messed with them at the appliance store, and I know I'm way too short to use them -- reaching up to the dryer isn't easy for me.

- If you stack the machines, how will you pull them out to clean out the lint? You MUST clean your dryer lint a couple times a year, or it's a big fire hazard.

- If you keep the laundry closet "as is", can you harness any space for storage -- like a narrow shelf on one side that might hold your paper products?

Thoughts about the pantry:

- A pantry is THE BEST. A pantry doubles or triples the functional value of any kitchen by taking the clutter away from the main work area. I'd sacrifice a lot to get a pantry.

- If you keep the washer, you can still have a pantry in another location -- sounds like you can have the best of both worlds.

- With your space limited, a pull-out pantry -- as someone else suggested -- might be a good idea. Overall, I don't think they're the best because they're more expensive, and you can't see everything at one glance like you could in a more simple pantry, but it might be the best option in your space.

I love my speed queen top loader. It's reliable, washes well, & made to last.

My opinion, is no to stackable. I had one in a rental years ago in college days, I told myself I would never buy one, because of the following:

#1) A pain to lift, heavy wet clothes into.

#2) Usually less of a load can fit in a stackable= more loads to wash & dry = time wasted having to do more loads

#3) more loads to wash & dry can cause higher energy bills

There are 2 kinds of pantries: the shelves with cereal, chips, crackers, food containers you open and then take from repeatedly for meals and snacks; and the shelves with canned tomatoes, pasta, beans etc where you grab something to start prepping your meal. The snacks need to be in the kitchen, or very close by. The one-off meal prep items can be almost any reasonable place in your house. Garage shelves, basement shelves, repurposed linen closet, stud cavity cabinet, etc.

If you have a laundry machine you love, I would leave it alone. Look for a small area in the kitchen where you can fit the snack pantry. Look for another place in your home where you can store the dried beans and pasta. Laundry is a pretty big part of life. I would compromise laundry location for a nicer kitchen, but I wouldn't compromise equipment.

Do you know that any standard sized front loading washer and dryer can be stacked atop each other? Lowe's replaced my stackable unit with a dryer on top, front loader below. It's in the same space as the stackable was--very efficient use of space.