A family home should be safe- check! It should also be gorgeously decorated and furnished- check! And of course, it should be a happy place- check!
That cover all of the bases, right? Wrong! A family home should also be functional! Yes, it needs to be all of the things above too. But the fact is, functionality is what allows the other things to happen. A house with a lock that doesn’t work properly can’t be totally safe. A beautiful sofa won’t look right in a room that is laid out all wrong. And can you even be happy in a place where you’re always stubbing your toe because the lights play up? You get the point!
So, before you try and tackle anything else, it’s time to make your family home functional. Whether you’ve been living there for many years, have just moved in or will soon be moving, this guide is for you.
Troubleshoot the irritating issues
If household issues are just irritating, and not dangerous or detrimental, they can go ignored for months. But to do this means avoiding the problem, and in some cases, an annoying problem can actually turn dangerous later. Troubleshooting flickering lights might not be a priority with everything else that is going on in your family life! But it could actually be a problem with the wiring. So, stop putting these things off and fix annoying household problems when they arise.
Making each room fit for purpose
Got a games room that nobody ever wants to play in? A bedroom that you never get any sleep in? Then the rooms in your house are not fit for purpose. Go from room to room and ask yourself ‘what is this room supposed to be for’? Then, look at whether or not it can be used for those tasks. The kitchen is a good example to use here. Your kitchen should have space to create food in, and the amenities you need to do this. If your surfaces are cluttered with mugs and tins, though, you can’t do this. It could well be time for a tidy up!
Think carefully about the layout
One major issue that stops a house from being entirely functional is a poor layout. This is at a house-wide scale, so where each room is in the house, right down to the inside of each room. A good example of a bad room layout is a bathroom that adjoins to a kitchen, or a bedroom that can only be accessed by going through another bedroom. To tackle this, you might have to put some work in. Knocking down walls and putting up walls is often the best way to help this with kind of thing. Luckily, when it comes to the functionality of individual rooms, in terms of their layout, this is much simpler. You might not believe it, but it could just be a case of moving your sofas and chairs around in your living room.
If you are designing your house yourself, it is for the reasons above that getting the floor plan right is so important. Not only will it make the house more functional for you, but it will also make it easier to sell in the future.
Ensuring a functioning home