Katheryn Houk’s Series on REMODELING SCIENCE
The Art and Science of Style, Efficiency and Ambiance
Opportunity for organization touches every room of your home, including the garage. Start out by making a list of each room in your home. Then list the items in each room that need a place to go.
Effective organization steps start with identifying the things that just don’t seem to have a place. If you haven’t used that ‘thing’ in the past two months, it needs a new home, possibly in the trash. Let’s start with the closet and look at remodeling with organization in mind.
Closets
Most homes were built with closet access through the master bath. What an opportunity for organization. Take a look at your closet and list the items that don’t have a place to land. Get control of your closet by consulting with a closet specialist who will help you identify how to best equip your closet. From shoe storage to drawers for folded items and the right height and spacing of rods for shirts, slacks and dresses. Shoes, boots, hats, belts, and clothes that should be folded and not hung; clothes that should be hung and are not, the list goes on and on. The closet is one room that is not typically viewed by guests, so the rule here is focus on organization over aesthetics. A good designer will ask you to identify how you want your closet to function, so give it some thought. Consider what you can live without and what is necessary. Don’t spend money on storage solutions for items you don’t really want or need to keep.
Kitchen
Thinking about a new kitchen but don’t know where to start? Most of us focus more on the aesthetics of the kitchen design. The finish and door style of new cabinetry, new appliances and granite countertops are the easier elements to select. How your kitchen functions is a more difficult task. While spending the money for all of the pretty things, consider the functional improvements at the same time. List the items in the kitchen that you don’t use every day. Small appliances can be stored and easily accessed with the addition of pullout trays. Pullout trays and spice racks provide great organization as well as providing easy access to items stored in low cabinets. If you are willing to reconfigure the space, large appliances can be moved, walls opened to adjacent rooms and cabinetry designed to fit with all of the conveniences to make your kitchen more functional. When replacing countertops you will also be replacing the backsplash. This presents a great opportunity to move outlets and consolidate switches. Ensure that you have a licensed electrician guide you here as there are codes that must be held for spacing of outlets, switches and GFCIs. Under-cabinet outlet bars are a great application to completely eliminate the unsightly switches in your backsplash design. You will still need to incorporate the GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) according to local building code. Call the kitchen design experts at John Moore to assist you with a design that meets your organization needs. John Moore Renovation has on staff licensed electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians, all under one roof!
Bathroom
Not enough storage space for all of those bottles and cosmetics in the bathroom? This is a common issue with most homeowners. The bathroom is the most necessary room in your home. List the number of tasks you perform in your master bathroom on a daily basis. These tasks require using more items than you might realize. Now list the items that you use every day which don’t have a good storage place. Observe shampoo bottles in the shower, hair styling tools on the countertop, makeup and razors with no place to land. All of these factors make this room the prime candidate for remodeling for organization. Shower replacement projects should include sufficient space for all of the items you use in the shower. Recessed boxes and shelves can easily be incorporated in the new shower walls, whether you are installing a tiled-in shower or shower panels. Ask your designer to help you locate these recessed areas out of direct exposure to shower spray. Vanity cabinetry should include specific storage areas for all items used on a daily basis. Deeper drawers to contain hair styling devices, countertop cabinetry with outlets installed inside will allow you to hide recharging devices, electric razors, and other frequently used items. There are great design choices for mirror storage as well as to clean up the space on the vanity top.
Entertainment
Home theatres have become a norm in the American home. From simple surround sound systems in the family room to full blown separate rooms dedicated solely to the home theatre. You will need to consider how to organize the peripherals and where to locate the screen. Again make a list of the functions and features you would like to add to your home entertainment area. List the items that need a storage space such as DVDs, CDs, and controls. A frequent modification is removing cabinetry niches that were designed for smaller and deeper television units. A design consultant can help you reconfigure the space or simply close up the wall and incorporate components to accommodate your new system. Whether reconfiguring an existing system or installing a new one; an electrician and home theater expert will be your best friend here. It will require moving and reconnecting all of those wires. Also consider lighting and lighting controls when installing a new sound system. It will greatly enhance the theatre experience and will be more economical if done at the same time.
Laundry Room
Washers and dryers have changed not just in function and efficiency, but in size as well. Taller units may require a bit of modification in the laundry room. While remodeling the laundry room, consider deeper wall cabinets to accommodate large scale detergent bottles. Standard wall cabinet depth is 12”. By increasing the depth to 16” you not only have the space to accommodate large containers, but also get the container closer to you. If you have a water heater in your laundry room, taking up space, consider a tankless water heater. It is installed on the wall freeing up a lot of space. These units can be installed on the exterior wall as well. Talk to your John Moore plumber to give you the details on tankless water heaters.
Garage
The garage is the room that seldom functions as it was designed. Most everything ends up in the garage except the car. This room may be best to turn over to an expert. To really organize your garage you may need to add an outdoor storage building, a room addition or extension to your garage. If you don’t want to add on, there are lots of great storage solutions for the garage, but you need to decide what you want that space to provide. Again, make that list. Things you need to keep and those that you no longer need. Strive for better organization in every room of your home, for a better life.