A well-planned home can help you be more efficient and productive and promote harmony within your household.

What I love most about organizing is that any existing system can be improved upon. Be it an ineffective cleaning schedule, a poorly designed space, or a cluttered environment, the solution is always within reach.

It’s all about finding what works for you and your family and applying it to your own home.

When I help clients with their clutter, I tend to go way beyond decluttering, separating items into bins, and labeling.

While these activities are important and necessary, I feel a deeper solution lies in identifying the root causes of disorganization and applying a systematic approach to eliminating them.

Through an honest evaluation of your home layout and current space planning, we can identify what is holding you back, revamp the design and create a space that promotes an organized lifestyle.

In this post, I want to introduce the concept of space planning and go over some basic space planning considerations for an organized home.

Before You Start Designing, Spend Some Time Pre-planning

Here’s an example of what you may want to ask yourself before you design your laundry room.

1. Will you have enough room for your washer and dryer to be placed side by side or will they need to be stacked on top of one another?
2. Where will you store the detergents?
3. How deep do you want your cabinets to be?
4. Do you have extra tabletop space for folding?
5. Where will you store your broom/dustpan, ironing board etc.

Purpose

At the start of any project, it’s important to have a clear idea of the purpose and use of the room you’re looking to reorganize.

Focusing on function allows you to create a space that fits your lifestyle. Think about how you use your room and what activities occur there.

Use this information to separate your space into dedicated zones. In a well-designed space, activities should flow smoothly and effectively from one zoned area into another.

Layout

Once you’ve determined what the space will be primarily used for, it is important to look at the elements that either help or hinder those functions within your existing layout.

This will be the big picture stuff such as storage needs, lighting, electrical outlets, etc. Make note of any issues you have with the space such as oversized furniture or awkward angles.

Pro tip: Avoid the common mistake of cluttering your space with furniture. It’s okay to add pieces as you need and adjust the furniture you own to the space you have.

Mood

When planning your space, it is important to consider the mood you want to create and work towards that goal.

For example:

• For an office, you want to create a productive environment with good lighting, minimal visual clutter, and ample storage.
• In a playroom, you want a space with interesting design elements that encourages play, in addition to having open storage or bins for toys and games.
• In a bedroom, you want a calming environment that promotes rest. Avoid visual and digital clutter.

Storage

In any well-designed space, storage plays an important role in helping maintain an organized environment.

As you plan, keep in mind that storage areas should be located near where they’re needed. If storage is out of reach, it’s hard to maintain an organized home.

Storage areas should also be well-labeled and clearly identifiable as to what they hold so that you are able to easily find what you need.

Key Takeaways as You Plan Your Space:

• Before you begin, think about the purpose of each room
• If a room has multiple uses, try to zone it out for each activity
• Avoid cluttering your space with furniture. You can add as you need
• The design of a room dictates our mood
• Storage areas should be within reach and clearly identified
• When in doubt, less is more

As you can see, a good space plan goes well beyond just cleaning out the junk and separating items. Although that is an important first step, you’ll likely find it’s only part of the larger solution.

If you liked this post and want to learn more about space planning, dm me or reach out via WeChat.

And if you need personalized help, let’s get on a call together to chat about your situation and create an effective space plan and organization system for your home.

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MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW US FOR MORE GOOD IDEAS

Instagram | Facebook | Little Red Book | Wechat

You can also contact me or subscribe to my newsletter here.

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