When it comes to cleaning your home, it’s ideal to view it as a seamless process rather than a stressful one. So as you start to design your custom home, why not approach it strategically from a cleaning mindset? You aren’t building your forever home to spend the rest of your life in an uphill cleaning battle… design your custom home with ease in mind. The best way to do that is to think of aspects of your home that are the most difficult to clean, become the messiest the quickest, or accumulate a lot of clutter.
The good news is, these areas tend to be the same for most people. Kitchen countertops and islands collect clutter, carpeting becomes dirty fast, and ample storage space can be nonexistent. That being said, we’re going to let you in on some custom home design features that will keep things under control and make cleaning a breeze.
Make a Mudroom Mandatory
A great way to set the stage for a clutter-free, organized home is to ensure you include a mudroom in your floor plan. This space provides a seamless transition between outside and inside the home. In most cases, the mudroom is located just inside a secondary entryway, as opposed to the main entrance of the home, and is where shoes, coats, and backpacks can be removed and stored before entering the rest of the house.
Not only does the mudroom serve as a space to store some of your family’s belongings, it can also help to keep the main portion of your home clean. Without a mudroom, coats, shoes, and backpacks get dumped on chair backs or the floor, and the lack of this catch-all room can lead to constant messes that accrue daily.
Key design elements of a mudroom include the following:
- Flooring that is low-maintenance and resistant to moisture
- A closet to hide away coats, shoes, and boots
- Shelving to store accessories and miscellaneous items
While the elements above are relatively basic in a mudroom, there are several additional options that can make this space custom for the needs of your family. For example, you can include a utility sink for washing muddy hands or soaking extra dirty clothes. You can even take it a step further and include a small, walk-in shower to rinse off dirt or mud before tracking it through your home. We’ve even had clients who love the idea of a pet shower!
Ample Storage is Key
Keeping your house tidy is incredibly difficult without a sufficient amount of storage. To ensure you’re setting yourself up for success, consider all the rooms in your house and the things you keep there.
Kitchen
The kitchen holds a lot of items – from pots, pans, dishes and appliances, to food and cleaning supplies. Needless to say, there are plenty of opportunities for countertops to become overcrowded. A nice-sized pantry with a lot of shelving can not only store food items, but also miscellaneous appliances that tend to collect on countertops. Leave room for plenty of drawers and custom cabinetry to properly store your food prep and dining items.
Living Room
The living room is a place for you and your family to relax and have good, quality time together. With that comes clutter-causing items such as blankets, books, magazines, movies, and games. Custom, built-in shelving is both aesthetically pleasing and practical in the living room. Take advantage of this gorgeous feature to hide your family’s favorite items away when they aren’t being used.
Entryway
While a mudroom is perfect for your family’s shoes and coats, a coat closet in the entryway of your home is great for your guests’ belongings. The good thing is that a coat closet doesn’t need to take up a whole lot of space in your home. Enough room for a handful of coats and a few pairs of shoes is plenty and helps to keep this impressionable portion of your home looking beautiful.
Bedroom
A home’s master suite doesn’t have to be the only bedroom with a walk-in closet. While they don’t need to be quite as big, a walk-in closet in other bedrooms help to ensure enough space for clothes, toys, and other personal effects. Make cleaning even more effective by including built-in shelves and shoe racks.
Bathroom
The master bathroom and the guest bathroom alike benefit considerably from having a linen closet to store bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, and other necessary toiletry items.
Keep Laundry Under Control
Another common mess that continues to collect, particularly on bedroom and bathroom floors, is dirty laundry. A big reason for laundry to build up is because laundry rooms are traditionally located on the first floor, while bedrooms and the majority of bathrooms are traditionally on the second floor. Having this distance between dirty laundry and the laundry room makes this household chore that much more difficult.
A modern approach to make laundry a whole lot easier is to put the laundry room on the second floor. Transferring several loads of laundry a few feet away is much more doable than hauling it up and down stairs.
Cleaning is a breeze when it’s easy. As you approach your custom home design, keep this in mind and create an environment for yourself that makes organization and tidying up seamless. There are countless creative, built-in storage and organization approaches to home design that Hamilton Homes can assist you with. Get started by scheduling your free consultation.