The aim of renovating your house – or even just a room - is to beautify the space.
But there’s a fine line between lovely looking aesthetics and the practicality of how a room works.
Fans of Netflix’s new show Get Organized with The Home Edit might already know that pretty much any part of the house can be made better with a rainbow, but there is method behind their montage of colour.
Renovation specialist Jim Gleeson from Refresh Renovations says you have to keep a space simple and functional.
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And, he adds, a mess free renovation is the one that is tidy both during and after the build.
Keeping a well-organise building site will keep it efficient and is just as important as the final result.
“Generally, a clutter-free site means a safe site. Keeping things in piles when building, cleaning up daily and keeping dust to a minimum keeps all the builders and sub-trades in the know of what they are doing.”
The mess free renovating process start with planning and the day you meet with the designer to discuss your wants and needs for each part of the house.
Living spaces
Make sure to include some low and built-in cabinets in the living room for your collection of books, magazines or paper work.
“Do it so you don’t have to stack things neatly because we don’t tend to do that. Initially we do but then it becomes clutter, so you want that stuff hidden.”
He suggests pull out wheely bins built into the lounge cupboards are a quick and efficient solution to hide toys easily if you have children in the house.
“Children can pull out the bin and just throw their Lego into one of the compartments. Close it. Push it into the cupboard and you’re ready for your guests,” Gleeson says.
Mix closed off shelving with open shelves for décor pieces and art, which work well custom-built around the TV in the lounge.
However, too much open shelving will lead to a lot of cleaning and will end up collect dust and looking cluttery, Gleeson says.
Bedroom booster
Typically, bedroom is the easiest to declutter as it has minimal furniture already - bed, bedside table and a wardrobe.
Shelving in the bedroom can lighten the load. Photo / Getty Images
As long as the wardrobe arrangement is functional, you’ll have a decluttered space if you stay on top of cleaning.
Gleeson says: "You’ll need shelving for shoes, and as long as your wardrobe is functional, you’re good to go.”
Kitchen
Don’t we all love an open space kitchen and dining area with plenty of space and a kitchen island.
However, because everything is open it becomes harder to hide things away and not have to stare at the mess.
A professional kitchen designer can help you think through the details, figuring out how to arrange the sink, the dishwasher, the bins and the cabinets in the way that’s the most functional for the household.
Adding a walk-in scullery to the kitchen will play a big factor to helping the main part of the kitchen stay mess-free.
Gleeson suggests, if the space allows, you could place a dishwasher and an extra sink in the scullery. That way all the preparation work can be done there and not in the open kitchen space.
“Sculleries can get massive, but they don’t have to be big in order to be functional. A bare minimum it has to be 1.2m to 1.5m wide and roughly up to 2m long so it’s big enough to walk in and load the dishes and use the bench,” Gleeson says.
And the more cabinets for storage above the kitchen bench, the better, he says.
Laundry
Gleeson is particularly fond of a laundry chute is a great idea to keep a two-storeyhouse clutter-free.
Dirty clothes can be dropped straight down the chute into the laundry on the ground floor, where they remain hidden from a human eye until the washing day. And the novelty factor might even help all the household members remember how to use it.
It can be as small as an A4 size, just big enough to squeeze the dirty laundry through, Gleeson says.
“If you can put the chute upstairs where the bedrooms are, rather than carrying the basket up and down all the time, the kids literally throw their stuff down the chute into the basket in the bathroom and it gets into the laundry.”
He has found it is particularly convenient when you have toddlers in the household.
In a two-storey house a laundry chute is a good renovation investment if you're wanting a mess-free home. Photo/ Getty Images
“They get through clothes like nothing else, and they tend to leave them, all over the floor. So, if you have something convenient for them – they'll use it, otherwise you’re going around cleaning our house every five minutes,” Gleeson adds.
And in the laundry itself, he suggests putting shelves around the washer and dryer, so that you’re not pulling out too many drawers or piling things on the bench.
