Hub helps organize home

There's never a good time to receive a bill but picking one up at the end of a day, tired after a long days work, would likely rank as one of the worst times.

The bills and assorted mail that we pick up from the mailbox and bring through our front door are, for many of us, unwanted items that are unloaded as quickly as possible on the most convenient surface at hand. More pressing matters like preparing dinner, managing the kids or winding down are on our mind and the stack of mail can wait.

Unfortunately this scenario, common for so many of us, can lead to mail waiting a very long time indeed as the unwanted pile begins its forced migration throughout the house as its once convenient home eventually becomes less so and the pile moves along to a less intrusive locale until it finds permanent residence -- speaking for myself here -- in that mound that's home to all those other things that will get dealt with eventually.

The way to deal with this organizational conundrum is to create a space that's dedicated exclusively to the processing of mail and other miscellaneous items that enter the house. I tend to refer to this area as the hub and try to design it exactly as one -- a centralized place within the home where mail is sorted and dealt with, where essentials like keys and phones are stored and where disparate functions like leaving a note or finding an address are carried out.

I'll typically locate the hub close to the kitchen -- the preferred dumping ground for all things unwanted -- and design it so that homeowner can use it without interfering with other functions in the home. I'll provide mail slots for incoming and outgoing mail and a recycling bin to get rid of unwanted paper and junk mail. I'll allocate space for essential reference items like the yellow pages and address books and create little cubbies for keys, wallets and the like. I'll typically incorporate a bulletin board or erasable writing surface into the design and make the hub the go-to point for all reminders and messages. For households with school age children I'll dedicate space exclusively for the piles of school related material that invariably makes its way home.

Since virtually everything is done online these days providing space for a computer is a must for any successful hub design. The hub must have an electrical outlet and should be hard-wired for both computer and telephone.

For the more technologically inclined I'll incorporate a touch pad console into the hub, allowing the homeowner to adjust everything from the heating to the music all from this one centralized location.

In the end one cannot overstate the importance of creating a space that manages the piles of mail and other disparate items that invade our homes. This seemingly small element can go a long way to easing the frustrations that come with clutter and disorganization.

The House of Tomorrow

What will the house of tomorrow look like?

Environmental concerns, changing lifestyle patterns and a shifting demographic are just a few among a list of forces that are shaping our house. Here's my top 10 home design trends you can expect to see in the future.

- Go green or don't go home: The green movement is here to stay. More environmentally sensitive means, methods and materials will be the standard for the construction industry. As environmental consciousness grows, greater demand for greener alternatives will be the norm in the residential design world. Construction methods will become far less wasteful. We will see a forgoing of plastics, laminates and off-gasing materials in favour of natural, more healthy alternatives for construction materials and finishes within the home. Also, the general layout and design of a home will become more sensitive to the climatic and environmental characteristics of a given locale.

- Smaller is better: The over-sized monster home will become a thing of the past with a trend toward more efficient, better-designed homes. Architects like Sarah Susanka have been professing the concept of quality over quantity for years and the concept seems to be taking hold. More efficient space-planning and more flexible layouts will allow for dual-function spaces that can adapt to changing needs.

- Prefabricated homes: Prefabricated homes are garnering much greater attention in the market today. Make no mistake, though; these are not the trailer park variety but rather cutting-edge architecturally designed modular homes that are factory-made and come in a range of bold, contemporary styles. Modern housing publications such as Dwell have taken great interest in this trend and dedicate lots of editorial ink to its development.

- The outdoor room: Moving our living to the outside is becoming increasingly popular these days. The line between inside and out is less defined with the trend for more glass and larger openings. The patio and garden are becoming essential components of an integrated house plan.

- The home office: Advances in technology are allowing many of us to work effectively from home and, as a result, there's a growing trend to incorporate well-designed office space into our households.

- Accessible living: The age wave is upon us. People are living longer and more and more elderly people are still living independently at home. We will see a trend of more accessible design in our homes. Main floor master bedrooms, wider corridors for wheelchairs, mini-residential elevators and single level house designs will become increasingly popular in coming years. In 1900 the life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. Today it's 78. We're living longer and our homes will need to adapt.

- Storage, storage, storage: With smaller, more efficient homes comes the necessity for storage. Designers and architects are listening to the mantra "there's never enough" and are providing more storage space in ever more creative ways.

- The flexible floor plan: The open floor plan arrangement that forgoes separate rooms for dining, living and kitchen areas in favour of a single multi-functional living space (often referred to as a great room) has been a popular planning concept for years now and will remain so. As homes become smaller and more efficient, flexibility in a layout will become increasingly more important. For centuries, the Japanese have been the masters of flexible living through the use of screens, sliding doors and folding partitions. Expect to see new homes incorporating these concepts as well.

- Energy efficiency: Homes will become increasing energy efficient as we move into the future. The industry-endorsed R2000 Standard -- a performance standard for energy efficiency and air tightness within a home -- is the Canadian benchmark for residential energy performance. Currently the R2000 Standard is a voluntary regulation but expect this to change in the near future. The promotion of cost-effective, energy-efficient building practises and technologies will invariably become entrenched in our national building codes.

- Mitigating risk: As environmental risk assessment becomes more and more sophisticated so to will our ways to mitigate those risks. Earthquakes, landslides, floods and storms are always on the minds of planners and building code authorities. Recent disasters in Haiti and Louisiana demonstrate what happens when risk is not adequately addressed. Homes of the future will adhere to ever-stricter national building codes and regional zoning provisions to ensure the health and safety of the occupants.