What is your favourite thing you have in your home to make your life easier?

[EconomyClassRockstar]

We are doing some work on our home and I was thinking about things I would never change about it, apart from the obvious (period features, etc). My absolute #1 would be the laundry chute from the main family bathroom to the laundry room in the basement. I LOVE that so much. It just occurred to me that you all have equally cool, quirky stuff and I want to know about it while I have the builders in doing all the work!

Fridge freezer in the utility, next to the garage, makes it so easy to unload shopping

next I’d like button control garage door

Husband

I was going to say the same. He has been ill the past few weeks, and having to take over the cooking and kitchen cleaning has really impacted on my time and stress levels.

A porch where you can dump clothes and shoes and wet weather gear. Plus porches are a great heat saver and noise dampener.

Having a room just for drying laundry is amazing, when dd1 is back from uni and I have it all over the house again my stress levels rise massively (so a room actually intended for this would be better).

I would love a pantry. A proper big walk in one where as well as food I could also store things like the instant pot and slow cooker and food processor and big casserole dishes. And just be able to walk in and lift them off a shelf when I wanted to use them instead of them being crammed in cupboards and having to
move other things out of the way to get to them.

We used to have a utility room, it wasn't much. Somewhere to hang clothes to dry, and a separate sink from the kitchen is soo good. If that was at the end of a chute, even better! A garage. A hose!

Always fancied a dumb waiter!

What I would like is a circular house with a bullseye core where the boiler, and electrics and everything are in, it could make utilities soo tidy and optimised.

A heat exchanging drain from the shower. It warms cold as the heat leaves. You can feed the boiler with this or the showers cold mixer.

A compost toilet. Serviceable areas could be built below toilets with forethought. Even a double ventilated drop toilet chamber would be ace.

Grey water recycling system to feed trees/hedges etc. with gravity systems. Would be good not having to manually water plants.

I used to visit a house in a work capacity, they had a drying room, utility and an ironing room/ laundry cupboard. Also a walk in pantry - which was two levels but around 10ft x6ft. A very large porch

theyd had the house built and were building a second house attached as a type of granny annexe

I’d like a pantry, utility room and somewhere to dry the washing other than the bathroom which due to the hot water cylinders and radiator is really really warm.
In reality my favourite things as the air purifier which reduces the dust, the Rayburn which does the hot water and heating on the same number of logs that the wood burner uses, and my smart meter which has massively reduce my electricity bills now I’m able to access TOUTs

Grey water recycling system to feed trees/hedges etc. with gravity systems. Would be good not having to manually water plants.

there
Is a rain water collection system that you can use for loo flushing, washing machine and shower, reducing your water usage of fresh water

I live in an older house so we have high ceilings. I absolutely love the Sheila Maid in the kitchen. On wet days, I can do the laundry and put big items like bedding or bath towels on there to dry.

My mum and dad once lived in an old house with a walk in pantry and that was brilliant.
The actual design was something you can probably only do when you build a house rather than when you're having work done as you opened the door and stepped down into the pantry which always seemed cool.

Sanitation, electricity, running water. A fridge freezer and washing machine.

I have three rooms which have a “utility” function. One is a large pantry, one is a laundry room and one is a boot room. Being able to keep the clean things (laundry) separated from the dirty things (boots, coats, pet stuff) makes a massive difference. The laundry room also has a large walk in housekeeping cupboard.

A utility big enough to be a laundry/drying room/ boot room but with a dog shower. Actually my dog is small so a sink but with a ramp up so I dont have to lift him or then bend to wash him.

Pantry 100%

Laundry room
shower: turn on out of the shower area so can turn on without risk of that moment of cold water!

non structural: robot vacuum

Yes, I love the American notion of a mud room.

We have a wee room where the hit water tank is. It is very warm and has space for 2 clothes horses. I love getting the washing dried in there out if the way. Also the porch for wet coats and shoes etc, kerping them out of the house.

My suggestions are...

Install ethernet cabling to as many rooms as possible, including the loft. and terminate them somewhere central, like a utility room where you could have a comms cuboard. (you might not have much use for them now, but you probably will in the future and cabling is cheap)

Add wi-fi access points to each floor (I use https://ui.com/uk/en/wifi)

Smart lighting, triggered with motion sensors for all areas apart from bedroom, (I use www.philips-hue.com) (Saves money and arguments about who left the lights on!)

Central vacuum cleaner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_vacuum_cleaner)

Power sockets with USB "C" charging port.

Smart door bell (I use Reolink)

A power point in the coat cupboard which charges the robot hoover. No 'lip' on the cupboard so the hoover can take itself back to the power point and I just have to close the cupboard door. Same upstairs from the hot water tank cupboard (two robots). Makes me so happy.

Our kitchen is a small galley with no space for a table so instead of having both counters at counter height we put one at table height. Half the space underneath is drawers and the other half is space for two stools.

It's so much more comfortable to eat at than a standard island/breakfast bar, it makes the room feel more spacious and as I am short it's a better height for quite a lot of prep work, especially stuff that involves mixing in a bowl rather than chopping on a board. So DH does his prep on the normal height side and I do mine on the table height side.

I've always wanted a walk in pantry!

Whilst I don't have a utility room I have the washer and dryer in the attached garage which is brilliant. I can line dry in my new shower room.

What I need (and will never have) is working areas of the house and lovely magazine areas where nothing is out of place!

Robot Vacuum/mop, lovely to come down to a clean floor every morning.

We have it scheduled to run in the early hours, or whenever the house is empty.

TBH quite surprised how well they work now.

Laundry room and designated shower for the dogs.

Boiling water tap. Life changing.

Utility room
hot water tap (this is the best thing)
robot vac.
bathroom on each floor (3 floor house)
Electric blinds

My orthopedic bed.