What if I told you a well designed house could add time and convenience to your day. I’m not talking about aesthetics (of course that is important too!), I’m talking about function! Your house needs to work for your lifestyle and add convenience to your day, not extra work.
What does this mean? Take note of your routines:
Morning routine: What do I waste time on most in the mornings?
Personal Note: For 19 years we lived in a classic ranch home (great in the 70’s when it was built!). Small closets, small bathrooms, long hallways… you get the point. So thinking I was making things easier, I claimed the guest room closet on the main floor and the lower level bathroom located next to the laundry room for myself, letting my husband have the small closet in the bedroom and the honorable mention of an on suite bathroom. It was not until we moved into a more thought out house with larger sharable spaces in proximity to each other,
that I realized how much time I was wasting in my morning routine.
Counterproductive distractions
I had my own personal space within our home, but during my morning routine of getting my son off to school, taking care of the dog, etc., I was making multiple trips up and down the stairs in the morning and multitasking in the process. Thinking I was getting ahead by putting a load of laundry in because who wants to make a wasted trip down the stairs without taking the dirty laundry and if I’m going up I might as well take the clean laundry and put it away between brushing my
teeth and drying my hair. You get the point… counterproductive!
If you are building or planning a major remodel of your existing space, you can really improve on the layout of your home by thinking about how you move and function within it and identify those time traps to reclaim some time and reduce a tremendous amount of anxiety that is created by racing around in the morning!
Create the spaces you need, from the spaces you have if you are not planning a major remodel. Ask yourself what would make life more efficient in your existing home? Take stock of the inconvenient spaces in your home... closet, kitchen, drop zone, etc. Organization & Minimalism is the quickest and least expensive way to get your house in order. Stop storing the things you don’t use and don’t need! (dishes you don’t use, clothes you don’t wear, etc) You would be amazed at the extra “found space” you find after decluttering and culling the items you don’t use and
have full access and vision to what you need and want the most. You may need to add organizational accessories. (drawer inserts, dividers, hooks, baskets) A place for everything and everything in it's place. This even goes as far assigning territorial boundaries for each member of the family (ie: this it your cubbie and your coat hook).
Example: even in our own design resource library we are constantly pulling discontinued samples so we have only the most current and usable resources to offer our clients. We save so much time because everything at our fingertips is available and well organized and visible!
Space reassignment:
Maybe it is something as simple as cleaning out a closet by a main door, removing the doors and turning it into a much needed boot-bench, mud-hall or drop-zone.
As designers, we take inspiration from other designers. Remember the trend when the builder would put a washer and dryer in a small 5’x5’ room sandwiched between the garage and kitchen? I recently saw where a designer reclaimed that space to create a much needed walk through pantry to enhance their current kitchen and reassigned the laundry room to a larger and more suitable space within the house. We can’t all add on to our house but we can repurpose the spaces we have.
So take a quick assessment of your home and take action! Start making your house work for you!