Almost every house has it - that one drawer dedicated just to junk, crammed with odds and ends that seem to have no other home. Having that repository keeps the accumulated bits and pieces in one space, but as is so often the case, the stuff just doesn’t want to stay there. It’s not long before the less important piles start mixing with the collection of keys, phone chargers and unpaid bills on top of the kitchen counter.
New-home builders and remodeling designers are attuned the tendency for stuff to spread, and they’ve come up with an assortment of options. Most of their solutions for managing paper, electronics and more are found in the heart of the home, in or close to the kitchen and the family entrance that gets the most traffic.
In many of today’s new homes, the first option for getting organized is located just inside the entrance from the side, rear or garage. More builders are carving out entire rooms as well as smaller niches where kids and parents can drop backpacks, coats, totes and outdoor footwear.
“Mudrooms have been super popular,” said Colby Henson of Fortress Builders, the Marietta-based company with developments in Cobb and Cherokee counties. “Even in our active-adult project, people like having little cubbies, coat racks and storage racks. If you have two or three kids, you might have five pairs of shoes and boots to store, and they need a place to sit down and take them off. Even some of our younger buyers who don’t have kids like these spaces; once couple we recently worked with jogs together, and they wanted a place to come in, sit down and take off their running shoes.”
Along with the mud room, many of the Fortress plans at Cyrus Creek in Kennesaw, Church Hill in Acworth and Harmony on the Lakes in Canton incorporate a small desk area with granite counters and drawers that sits area off the kitchen. “It’s usually a little bill-paying area in its own niche,” said Henson. “It’s nice because it’s a private area, which works well in a house with an open floor plan. But if you were throwing a party, you could also use that area as additional counter space.”
Most builders with Lennar Atlanta also feature mud rooms in their plans, but they’re often called “drop zones,” said sales and marketing director Ginny Bryant. Typically located just off the garage, these zones are ideal for coats, packages and book bags - and more.
“Recently, we’ve been getting requests from families with lots of digital devices for charging outlets,” Bryant said. “So we’ve incorporated a recharging station into our mud rooms for cell phones, tablets and all the family digital devices to eliminate the clutter.”
Michael Morris, director of interior design for Monte Hewett Homes, said buyers are not just looking for a place to drop off jackets and keys but also a spot for pet paraphernalia.
“Adding a sink or a dog wash station makes for quick clean-up of dirty pets, as well as shoes,” he said. “And because mud rooms are one of the most used spaces by every member of the family, a great idea is to create a message area. Painting an entire wall with chalkboard paint or adhering whiteboard material to a full wall is a great way to stay organized and keep up with busy schedules and grocery lists. A dedicated mud room has gone from being a luxury to being a necessity in today’s homes.”
Buyers so like the concept of having a designated space for personal items that they often want to include similar zones in throughout the house. Many of Monte Hewett plans feature home management spaces - small nooks where a desk or additional cabinets can contain all of the household’s paperwork. Other builders create dedicated craft rooms, ideal for keeping everything from wrapping paper and ribbons to finger paints and paintbrushes in their own special zone, instead of in the kitchen or family room.
“Our buyers also appreciate the versatile, dedicated spaces on the main floor or loft area of some of our homes that can be used as a play area for smaller children, a study area for school age children or just a quiet retreat from the activity in the home,” said Bryant.
Another space that can easily expand or convert into a special-purpose area is the laundry room where extra counters, draws, cabinets and closets can hide a myriad of supplies.
“We recently converted an old laundry area into one monstrous cabinet with pull-out racks and sliding drawers that are all neatly tucked away,” said Wally Lewis, president of Neighbors Home Remodeling in Roswell. “We’ve also turned a laundry into a multi-purpose room with a utility sink and a tambour that hides the ironing board. We even added a desk in there.”
Tambours, those sliding doors that are built into the cabinetry, can also solve the problem of clutter on kitchen counter tops. Lewis recently finished a project that had two built-in niches, one to hide the coffee accoutrements and the second to store the chargers and electronic accessories.
“People seem to prefer those sort of built-ins over the kitchen desk area,” said Lewis. “Some people have told us the space was wasted; nobody sat there. We can fill in the knee space with cabinetry to store things.”
Judy Mozen, head of Handcrafted Homes in Roswell, said her buyers are increasingly looking for extra storage spaces.
“They want places to put things when the kids come home,” she said. “It’s not necessarily a desk, but an area where they store things like back-up batteries or outlets where they can plug in their phones. IT management areas are becoming more important as everything gets connected to cell phones or iPads.”
And some of her clients want to contain the clutter created by the family pets. In a recent remodel, Mozen was asked to design a solution to the food and water bowls that were constantly slopping over onto the kitchen floor. She came up with a special pet feeding station in the hollow space under a rear staircase.
“It was something I never thought I’d do!” said Mozen. “But the family said they were constantly knocking over the dog bowls and needed some way to manage the mess. We took leftover granite and made a counter that holds standard bowls, then did a tile back splash to match the kitchen. I know it sounds ridiculous, but for people who have pets, managing their stuff can be a problem, too!”
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