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Building a kitchen cupboard with a slide-out bin dedicated to each type of waste (e.g., a cupboard with a single large bin just for rubbish, another with a single large bin just for recyclables, etc.). Having a larger bin means fewer trips to the bins outside!

If your kitchen space is limited, designing a cupboard with slide-out drawers that accommodate two bins (like this) can achieve a similar outcome.

Placing a drying rack or bar above your laundry sink (if you have cabinetry or shelving above your laundry sink, you may be able to attach it to the underside). Ensure you position the rack such that you can hang and drip-dry one or two items of wet clothing that will drip directly into the sink, rather than on the benchtop behind the sink.

Design your shower to have the towel rail within reaching distance of the shower door. It's that simple.

Designing your laundry and bathroom to share a wall. Not only will the shared plumbing help both rooms, but this will also permit a two-way sliding drawer to be built between the two rooms. By installing a laundry basket in the sliding drawer, you'll be able to access the same basket whether you're in the bathroom or the laundry. So, just drop your dirty clothes into the basket whilst in the bathroom, and they magically appear in the laundry when it's time to do the washing 🥳

Alternatively, if your bathroom is the next floor above your laundry, you could also consider installing a chute, so you can drop your clothes directly into it. However, keep in mind that a chute will take up a little bit of wall space, plus you'll have no way of knowing that the laundry basket hasn't been removed at the end of the chute.

For bonus OCD points, have a separate drawer or chute for your whites and darks.

Designing your kitchen bench height specifically to be a comfortable height for you, rather than just accepting the typical kitchen bench height. Benches are usually 900mm high, but that only caters for a person of average height. And there's a good chance that you aren't the average height.

If you're on the taller side, a kitchen bench may be more comfortable at 930mm - 950mm. Similarly, if gravity is not your friend, you may want to consider dropping the bench height below 900mm. Consider visiting a showroom to get a feel for what works best for you.

If you and your partner are on opposite ends of the height spectrum and share the cooking equally, consider designing the bench to be taller rather than shorter. A shorter person can always step up on a stool or step and keep a straight back, but a taller person can't do the reverse.

Paying attention to the rangehood volume when deciding on which brand to purchase. Anything above 60 decibels is similar in volume to a "conversation" (see chart), which is - practically speaking - probably too loud.

A rangehood fan with an average volume of around 50 decibels is quiet and should be acceptable. If the rangehood specifications don't provide a fan volume, then demand to go into a showroom or store and inspect/listen to the same model yourself when it's turned on.

Having enough wall space in your bathroom/ensuite to accommodate a towel rail specifically for your bath mat. Alternatively, you could install double-towel rails, although these are slightly more finnicky to deal with compared to a single-towel rail you can just throw a towel over.

Installing your hot water system as close as possible to the water outlet that you'll use hot water at most frequently (often, this will be the ensuite shower). The shorter the distance between the HWS and the outlet, the sooner your hot water will appear.

Alternatively, instant hot water systems also solve the problem, albeit for an increased cost.

Installing a drain in any room that could unexpectedly flood. This could include the laundry (due to a leaking washing machine), the bathroom (due to an overflowing bath or shower) or even the kitchen (due to a blocked pipe that serves the dishwasher). In most cases, the drain can be installed out of sight anyway, so you won't even know it's there (e.g., under the washing machine or in the dishwasher cavity).

Whatever the reason, you'll be glad you installed the drain when the unexpected happens - think of it as a once-off insurance.

Installing bright lighting around the entire perimeter of the bathroom mirror. If you don't want to end up with a backstage mirror look (and hey, some people like this style), further consider recessing the bathroom mirror into the wall and then placing the lighting within the recessed sides.

Additionally, the bottom of the recess then becomes a shallow shelf upon which you can place items that would typically clutter up the bathroom bench - liquid soap dispensers, hand creams, small pot plants, etc.

Ensuring the height of your shower recess is well above the height of the largest bottle you'd expect to store in the recess. In most cases,  a 1-litre pump-action bottle of bodywash is the tallest bottle in most shower recesses... but you also need to take into account the gap above the bottle for your hands to press the pump head down.

A typical 1L bottle of bodywash is ~25cm tall when the head has been extended, so consider a shower recess with a height of at least 35cm. Note this may have a flow-on effect to your choice of tile-size as well, as the height of recesses are often arbitrarily set to the same height as a single tile. This make it easier for your tiler to install the recess, but doesn't make it easier for you long-term if your tiles are only 300mm, for example.

Placing a semi or full-height partition between the toilet and the bathroom door to give your toilet users some level of privacy, even within the locked bathroom itself. If space or cost prevents this partition from being a custom-built wall or nib, consider utilising an existing structure within the bathroom to the same effect, such as the side of the basin cabinetry or shower glass (preferably obscured glass). And avoid orienting the toilet so it's facing the bathroom door.

Toilets within bathrooms are a common space-saving feature, but please, remember to at least install a lock on the bathroom door.

Taking into account the optimal orientation, angle and position when designing your roof to maximise the gains from solar power. Ensure there are no overhanging structures or trees that could cast shadows across the solar panels.

A solar panel installer will always be able to determine the optimal position of solar panels for any roof, but that's not the same as having a roof that's optimised for solar panels. The latitude and longitude of each house means each roof has a unique, theoretical optimal design that will maximise the gains from solar panels - so if you're intending to install solar panels, ensure your architect takes this into account when designing your house.

Installing your clothes line under a covered area outside. Then you'll be able to hang your clothes out all year round (and save yourself a few bucks on electricity as you won't have to use the dryer so much).

If leaving the clothes line up in this area will create an obstruction when not in use, retractable clothes lines are an option to consider.

Purchasing a stove/oven that has etched position indications next to each knob, rather than indications that are printed onto the metal. After a few years of cleaning the stove with surface cleaner, and rubbing the surface down with a cloth, those little printed indications will begin to flake off and they will eventually disappear altogether, no matter what the manufacturer says.

Paying careful attention to and explicitly specifying your light switch positions and number of switches per gang plate in your electrical/lighting plan. To minimise confusion and counter-intuitive light switch configurations:

• Avoid controlling a single light with two separate light switches.
• Don't place lots of switches into a single gang plate. Use multiple gang plates to logically group sets of switches instead.
• Take into account where you are most likely to be in a room when it occurs to you to turn a light on - then position the relevant light switches near this location.

Taking into account the position of the sun during different times of the day/year, typical seating position and the location of nearby windows relative to your TV when designing your living room.

There's another benefit to avoiding bright sunlight on the TV - bright light can disrupt the sensor and render your remote control useless.

Whilst having block-out blinds or curtains can also mitigate the TV glare problem, closing them every time you turn on the TV (and opening them again once the the TV is turned off) is definitely a pain. Best to think ahead and avoid the problem in the first place 👌

A yet-to-be-made ISO standard for phone chargers would likely solve this problem for everyone, but in the meantime, a workaround is simply to install power outlets that are wider than average anywhere you are likely to charge your phone (for example, in the master bedroom or the kitchen).

In other words, don't get get power outlets like this, get something like this instead. Note that whilst power outlets with direct USB charging ports would also solve the problem, they typically only charge at 5v, which means any kind of handy fast-charging function your phone manufacturer's charger provides will be lost.

Installing cavity or pocket doors in the various doorways that lead to your open plan area(s).

Air conditioners of different sizes are rated to heat/cool a maximum volume of air, so if you can close off the open plan area, you'll notice a much better result.

Designing a recessed wall for a Murphy bed in your guest bedroom. These beds fold out from a wall but provide a full rigid mattress/sleeping experience..in other words, a real bed.

As a bonus, when you don't have guests over you just push it back into the wall and get all that floor space back!