If you’re reading this curled up on your couch in your sweatpants… Welcome! You’re in good company!

Something that we strongly believe in at The Old Barn is that everyone deserves to live in a home that’s as comfortable as it is beautiful. Part of being comfortable in your home is a design that makes your life easier, not harder. 

How do you make sure your home design is both effective and aesthetically appealing? A lot of people might assume that having a well-cultivated home takes a ton of time and effort. However, our time in the homebuilding business has taught us that this isn’t necessarily the case! 

To have a home that’s both beautiful and comfortable, you don’t have to stick to strict cleaning regimens or spend a fortune on fancy gadgets. You just have to get a little creative and know what splurges will actually make your life easier. Lucky for you, we have found some simple ways over the years to do just that. 

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Let’s talk about home design and how your home design can help make your life easier. We put together ten home design ideas that can save you tons of time and effort in the long run! 

1.    Have two dishwashers, not just one 

Depending on your budget, this one might not be feasible for you. Above all, we want you to make decisions that fit your budget and don’t force you to spend more than you can. 

However, maybe your family lives an on-the-go lifestyle, you have a big family or you simply hate to do the dishes. In that case, having two dishwashers can take a lot of unnecessary stress and effort out of doing the dishes. 

The key to this is to always have one dishwasher for dirty dishes and one for clean dishes. While one is being loaded, use the clean dishes in the other before resorting to the one in the cabinets. This keeps clean dishes out of sight while decreasing the time you spend on them with unloading! 

2.   Full height pull-out trash can 

If you’ve followed us for a while, you know that we LOVE a pull-out trash can. They allow you to keep your kitchen trash out of sight and from smelling up the room. 

Most pullout trash cans, though, sit in a cabinet with a small drawer at the top. This means you can fit one or maybe two small trash cans in the cabinet, which you’ll end up having to take out frequently. 

The solution? A full height pull-out trash can! By knocking out the small upper cabinet and making one cabinet big enough to fit a full-height trash can, you cut the amount of times you have to take out your trash in half! 

3.    Mudroom additions

If your floor plan includes a mudroom, take advantage of it as much as you can! Think of your mudroom as a sort of halfway point between the outside world and your home

For that reason, though, the mudroom can get really messy, really quick. Even if the mudroom is only used for coming and going, you still want it to be tidy! We have two additions to our mudroom that have greatly reduced clutter in our home. 

First, we have a locker in our mudroom for each family member. Instead of tossing backpacks or jackets wherever, our lockers give everyone a space to store their belongings. Plus, as opposed to cubbies, lockers keep everything out of sight! 

Second, we have a bench with drawers. This not only provides out-of-sight storage for shoes, but it gives us a place to sit and put our shoes on! 

4.    Brick at the bottom of white home exteriors

This one applies to the exterior of your home! White siding is both popular and timeless (we have board and batten on our home’s exterior), but it gets dirty a lot more quickly than other exterior materials. 

Brick, on the other hand, attracts way less dirt. If you have brick at the bottom of your siding, it eliminates the need for constant power washing. This allows you to have the look of board and batten that you love without having to constantly powerwash your home’s exterior – a win-win situation! 

We have an entire blog post about home exteriors – read more for tips on picking the perfect materials for your build! 

5.    Outdoor eave outlets 

Decorating for Christmas can easily become more of a hassle than a fun tradition if you aren’t smart about it. That’s why outdoor eave outlets are a must! 

Instead of dragging out extension cords, spending hours trying to find outlets for everything, and cluttering up your yard with unnecessary cords, eave outlets allow you to plug your Christmas lights directly into your eaves. Take back your time and make decorating your home’s exterior for Christmas easy! 

Additionally, you can use eave outlets to set up outdoor security systems, for year-round cozy string lights on your porches, and other electrical purposes! Even if you don’t want things now, eave outlets make it easy and simple to add them later on if you change your mind. 

6.    Night lights

Everyone knows that feeling of getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and having to make a choice. Either you stumble around in the dark, potentially knocking things over or hurting yourself, or you turn on the overhead light, startling your senses and making going back to sleep nearly impossible. 

Which will you choose? Well, we like to go with neither! Instead, get night lights for your bathroom. You might think “night light” and have visions of kitschy characters lighting up your childhood bedroom. However, there are plenty of sleek, modern nightlights appropriate for kids and adults. 

We love these motion-sensing night lights that will turn off after 60 seconds of inactivity. You can turn the motion-sensing setting off if you want to keep them on all the time, and they also come in five different colors! 

Not only are nightlights great for the bathroom, but they are also extremely useful if you have stairs in your home. These battery powered, motion sensing nightlights stick to the wall, making them easy to place along your stairs without completely changing the wiring of your home.

7.    Remote control or switch fireplace insert

Everyone loves to gather around a cozy fireplace on cold winter nights… But I don’t know anyone who loves chopping wood and cleaning ash afterwards. 

The fix? An electric fireplace insert! These fit into your home’s fireplace mantle but, as opposed to real wood, can be turned on and off with either a remote control or a switch. 

These inserts vary widely in price, realism, and effectiveness, so do a little bit of research before making a final decision. 

8.    All-in-one washer-dryer 

How many times have you wanted to do laundry, but you didn’t have time to make sure it dries? This often results in one of three scenarios: 

Either the laundry piles up because there’s never a convenient time to do it, your clothes end up wet and mildew-y in the forgotten washer, or you have to sacrifice other items on your to-do list to simply make sure your family has clean clothes. 

Make doing laundry even easier by investing in an all-in-one washer and dryer. You can toss a load of laundry in and not even have to worry about switching it from the washer to the dryer, saving you time and mental space that you can use doing more important things! 

9.    Electronic shower temperature control 

Nothing is more relaxing at the end of a long day than a nice, hot shower. However, waiting for the water to heat up is a different story! With most shower systems, water does not come out warm automatically. You either have to stand in a cold stream of water until it heats up, or you have to practically do a gymnastics routine to avoid the cold stream. 

That’s why we’d recommend an electronic shower temperature control system for optimal comfort and convenience! An electronic shower temperature control system allows you to choose the exact temperature you want your shower to be without having to actually get in the shower, keeping you warm until the moment you’re ready to hop in. 

You don’t have to worry about wasting water, either! Once the water hits the desired temperature, these systems can pause the water flow until the moment you’re ready. 

10. No glass shower design 

A common complaint I hear from our Bootstrap Builders is that their glass shower doors are impossible to keep clean. 

Despite the aesthetic appeal, I try to sway customers from installing glass showers because they need to be cleaned constantly. Even if you do wipe them down after every shower, glass showers typically don’t look spotless unless you break out the cleaning supplies. 

That’s why our advice for lazy guys and gals is to skip the glass shower entirely! Save yourself the hassle and opt for a walk-in shower design with walls, half walls, or a wet room-style shower. These styles of shower typically have tile walls instead of glass, meaning that small streaks of soap or water typically do not show as bad as they would on glass.

BONUS TIP: Keep grout to a minimum in showers. Grout holds dirt and mildew, so keep the grout spacing tight and choose larger tiles for the walls. For your shower floor, chose smaller tiles with more texture to allow for sloping to the drain and less slipping!

Think Smarter, Not Harder! 

With a little forethought and creativity, your home’s design can make your life easier and your home more comfortable!

Want even more tips on how to build the perfect home? Looking to save up to 35% and gain more control over the decision-making process while you do it? Our Bootstrap Builders Program just might be for you! This program will walk you through every single step of the homebuilding process, from securing your first loan to protecting your relationship throughout the process. Check it out, and see if you’re ready to become a Bootstrap Builder today! 

Not ready to be a Bootstrap Builder? That’s okay! We have tons of other resources to help you elevate your home design and build your dream home.

 We hope these ten tips help you as you think about building your dream home. Happy building!