Save Time and Money by Creating a Floor Plan
This month our focus is on downsizing. The definition I use:
to reduce in number.
Whether I am called in for a consultation to get a home ready to sell, to help a family that may have a mom or dad that is ready to downsize, or whether it’s to help our clients fall in love with their home, floor planning is essential in the process.
WHY?
When moving into a new space, it’s difficult to envision what the space is going to look like with our own furniture. When we live in a home and see our items day in and day out, it is very difficult to envision what the room may look like when our things are already in the room. We are used to the way we have set up furniture and often know something may not be quite right but we’re not sure exactly what that is. More than not, furniture typically plays a huge part in getting a room(s) to feel ‘just right’. Sometimes the furniture is too large, there are too many pieces of furniture in a room, or the furniture is not right for the room.
DOING IT WRONG
This past summer we looked after a major downsizing project for an energy company downtown. The situation was as such: I needed to take an entire floor and get the employees relocated onto half a floor. This meant that many employees were going to have to share offices. The issue for me: everyone wanted their L-Shape desk (very large) as well as either a credenza and/or filing cabinet(s) and/or bookshelves to be moved to the new shared office. When floor plans were created, I ensured that each employee had the opportunity to look at their floor plan and provide feedback. Why? Happy employees are productive employees so the goal was to make everyone happy! I had one office (2 ladies) send me back how they thought their office should have been planned:
Image ©2014 Get It Together
The major problem? The office was not to scale. As much as I would have loved to set up their office like they so nicely re-adjusted, their office wasn't that long nor did it have that amount of floor space. It simply wasn't that big.
DO IT RIGHT
It is extremely important to create floor plans that are to scale. By creating a plan to scale, you know well in advance what is going to fit and what is not. Here is the scaled floor plan of their shared office and how their office was really set up:
Image ©2014 Get It Together
Can you see the difference between their plan and my plan? Although I wish I was a magician and could make up space, I just don't hold those magical powers! When you make a floor plan you know the exact space you have.The two desks were positioned in order for their phones and computers to work (I worked closely with the IT company) as well as positioned so the full wall of windows (located on the right hand wall) were not being blocked by tall items. In the planning of all of the offices there were more fine details that I needed to take into consideration, but I'm sure you get the point. In the end, both ladies were able to fit in every piece of furniture they had requested. The office ended up feeling more spacious than it actually looks in this image. Everyone was happy.
MAKING IT WORK
Although I use a program to create floor plans, there is nothing saying you can't use simple pen and paper to create a floor plan. When creating a floor plan for any space, ensure you do the following:
- Measure out the footprint of your space (the walls including doors and windows). Pay particular attention to where outlets are as this may or may not play a role in furniture placement.
- Measure out your furniture or pieces you wish to have in your room. Ensure you measure the length, width and height of each piece.
- Place those items on your floor plan to see how they look. Have fun rearranging the furniture without actually having to physically moving a single thing.
- Remove any furniture from the space that does not fit and rearrange the furniture that you will be keeping.
Image ©2014 Get It Together
HAPPILY EVER AFTER
When I create floor plans for our moving clients, the moving companies love us! They know exactly how to set up each room, which in the end saves time. For clients who wish to fall in love with their homes, it is easier for them to see the plan ahead of time and know in advance if there is any furniture that will need to be removed or the size of new furniture that will fit. Creating a floor plan for our downsizing clients is especially crucial. When moving into a much smaller space, it is easy for our clients to see how quickly a space can become crowded if all of the furniture they desire to take with them was to be moved into the space.Whether you are moving into a new space or trying to figure out an existing space, start by creating a floor plan. Not only will it save you time, it may also save you a ton of headaches (as well as possibly money) in trying to fit furniture into a space you simply do not have.
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