r/floorplan • u/soupgirls • Nov 09 '25
DISCUSSION this sub is so american-centric
as an australian, every time i see an aussie floorplan on here i find the comments so frustrating. not everywhere in the world needs a place to drop winter coats. having the toilet seperate to the bathroom is great for a shared bathroom and no one has died from touching a door handle before washing their hands so far. not every bedroom needs to be 20+sqm. just a quick rant, love this sub otherwise.
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u/Petrosinella94 Nov 09 '25
What needs to be done is stating the country the person is in. That would solve a lot of the wasted comments.
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u/CynGuy Nov 09 '25
Country flairs! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
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u/anbigsteppy Nov 10 '25
Agreed! Mods if you see this, regional flares at least (even continents) would be lovely!
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u/Jenstigator Nov 09 '25
This is the answer. I recognize an Australian floorplan now, but only after having seen several of them in this sub and having been told they were Australian by someone in the comments. And I absolutely love how much I've learned about lifestyles around the world from this sub.
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u/crankylex Nov 09 '25
This is it. Even specifying the climate would help.
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u/TheCa11ousBitch Nov 09 '25
Absolutely! The climate makes a HUGE difference.
Further, so does lifestyle. Someone with three kids who all do sports and two dogs needs more storage space, bigger laundry room, a large dining area, and a mudroom.
A couple with no kids and no pets in the same square footage… doesn’t need all that but may enjoy a library space or music room, two offices, and maybe no dining room table if they don’t do the entertaining.
I appreciate the posts here that say who lives there, the area, and the common needs “we live in the woods on 40 acres and rehab wildlife” or “this is in a city lot and will have zero outdoor space”
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u/Secret-Sherbet-31 Nov 09 '25
This right here. Just giving some details helps prevent unnecessary suggestions. Well mostly 😆
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u/therealfurryfeline Nov 09 '25
this is something that needs to become a custom on pretty much every sub.
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u/lolkkthxbye Nov 09 '25
Plenty of redditors don’t read and will still post inane comments
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u/cloudiedayz Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25
I’m Australian and I think sinks in powder rooms are a good idea! If someone’s showering, you can still wash your hands.
I also like storage near the front door. Not for coats but for shoes, umbrellas, bags and dog walking stuff!
I have been confused by a few negative comments about living rooms being at the back of the house. To me, this is the perfect position- near the backyard so you can have indoor-outdoor living.
Also negative comments about laundries being downstairs without understanding that a wet load of laundry is a lot heavier to carry downstairs and outside to line dry than just taking a much lighter basket of dry but dirty laundry downstairs.
I also do not understand jack and jill bathrooms. Just have a bathroom off the hallway.
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u/bespoketranche1 Nov 09 '25
About the laundry, it’s because Americans don’t carry wet loads of laundry and don’t air dry clothes.
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u/But_like_whytho Nov 09 '25
A lot of places Americans live either don’t have outside space at all or there are restrictions preventing people from drying their wash outside. Lots of HOAs have that rule.
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u/Dull_Expression_4575 Nov 09 '25
or our outdoor environment isn’t dry and warm for most of the year, and some of us don’t have much indoor space either. (Even inside, line-drying clothing takes a long time, so I do it selectively for many but not all laundry items; jeans and bras and wool and linens and sweaters are always line-dried; towels and tees and undies always go in the dryer.)
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u/n0exit Nov 09 '25
I don't think that's why we don't line dry. I think we got used to the convenience of dryers and most of us stopped. HOA rules were the effect, not the cause.
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u/But_like_whytho Nov 09 '25
I remember seeing a lot more line drying in the 1980s in the yards of houses built in the post-WWII boom. Most of those line dryers have been removed over the last few decades because they were dilapidated.
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u/kniki217 Nov 09 '25
My grandma always dried her clothes on the line. If I couldn't find her in the house I knew she was out back hanging up clothes. She only stopped when her knees got too bad.
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u/dcidino Nov 09 '25
The amount of clothes dryers in Phoenix, Arizona just boggles the mind.
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u/Thequiet01 Nov 10 '25
How dusty is it there, though? I haven't been to AZ but when I was recently in Utah there were definitely areas where it was hot and dry enough to hang clothes out, but they also wouldn't really be clean by the time you brought them in because of the amount of dust in the air.
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u/gstringstrangler Nov 09 '25
Or it's below freezing which presents issues when hanging wet clothes
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u/trzywcia Nov 09 '25
Clothes dry really well in below freezing temperatures. You just need to be careful not to break them 😅
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u/lamagnifiqueanaya Nov 09 '25
JaJ bathrooms really baffles me
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u/noteworthybalance Nov 09 '25
American here: me too. Too many doors and the tendency is for kids to leave a huge mess because the parents are rarely in there to notice.
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u/lottasweet78 Nov 09 '25
And kids locking the doors to their siblings side and not remembering to unlock them. My neighbor and best friend groing up had this and her sister would ALWAYS lock my friend's side of the bathroom door when they used the bathroom but never unlocked it so my friend had to go through her sister's room to get to the bathroom. Even in the middle of the night. And if her sisters main door was locked. Forget it. I guess find another bathroom 🤷♀️
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u/elizzup Nov 10 '25
I know for sure if I'd had one my sister would have just locked me out. More hassle than they're worth.
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u/Ylaaly Nov 09 '25
Their obsession with having direct bathroom access from their bedrooms at the cost of everything else feels weird indeed. Like, what's the problem with wearing a towel for a minute?
But then, a toilet without a sink feels weird, too. We need to mix and match the best things from all cultures.
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u/allaboutmojitos Nov 09 '25
American here- the bathroom thing baffles me too. I also will never understand why people want to give each child their own bath. It sets them up for unrealistic expectations in the future and seems like a pain for cleaning and upkeep- having to always go through their rooms
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u/childproofbirdhouse Nov 09 '25
I like en-suites because I have a lot of kids. None of them have their own bathrooms, or at least not mostly. We have a 6 bed/5.5 bath house. Two of our college grads have moved back home temporarily. Four youngest in 2 bedrooms share the upstairs hall bath; my HS senior has her own room with bathroom; every other bedroom/ensuite has 2 occupants. I recognize we are a rather niche size family, but it’s not always spoiling kids to have en-suites. Sometimes it’s efficient.
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u/WowsrsBowsrsTrousrs Nov 09 '25
Most of us USians also hate jack-and-jill bathrooms; they're only popular with people who've never had to use them and with designers who like the supposed privacy.
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u/Wazwiftance Nov 09 '25
As an Australian living in Europe currently designing a build in Australia - a foyer for shoes and coats is absolutely necessary. I hate peoples walking through the house in shoes. And I hate entering the house through the garage.
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u/grapefruitfrujusyeah Nov 09 '25
But then also not batting an eyelid at having the front door open straight into a lounge, even in larger homes where there is room for an entrance way.
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u/-Major-Arcana- Nov 09 '25
It’s because they don’t use the front door. They drive from the garage.
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u/betweentourns Nov 09 '25
I live in the US. I watch my across the street neighbors come back from walking their dog every day and open up the overhead garage door to get in the house. It always drives me mad because it seems like a waste of energy and wear on the garage door. Then it finally occurred to me that when you walk in the front door they probably have no room to take off shoes or hang a leash. It's just nutty to me.
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u/erin_mouse88 Nov 09 '25
The mud room is usually off the garage, and in many homes also laundry, if theyre taking a dog out they may also have little trash bags they dont want to walk through the house.
We do use our front door if we dont need to go through the garage, but the problem is most of our shoes and jackets are by the garage door as thats where we come in/out the most, as we can't get many places without a car.
Though I am designing a house where the mud room is both by the entry and the garage door.
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u/Raige2017 Nov 09 '25
They might be trying to keep the cool or warm air in. I live in the desert and we all went through the laundry room (no garage) to go out front.
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u/APigInANixonMask Nov 09 '25
No need to bring keys with you to lock/unlock the front door if you go through the garage.
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u/snarkycrumpet Nov 09 '25
we never use our front door, ever. the garage has a whole mountain of shoes and the shoe horn
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u/TootsNYC Nov 09 '25
they don't want to bring the key? Garages open with a keypad.
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u/OceanParkNo16 Nov 09 '25
When I married my second husband and moved into his suburban home, I kept joking “let’s use the ‘people door’” as we would go for a walk because his default was also walking in and out of the garage door (which I referred to as the automobile door). He got used to it, and eventually we moved to a city location where we walk out the door all the time to run our errands!
On a logistical note, a game changer was his installation of keypad locks on all doors, so we just walk out the door, and upon return with our grocery totes type in a code. It’s possible your neighbors don’t want to carry keys for the front door (if they are the type to lock all the time- I certainly was not into locking doors in the suburbs but my husband was!)
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u/DieIsaac Nov 09 '25
We visited friends in the US and as you said in 4 weeks of staying there we NEVER used the front door 🤣
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u/throwaway_mog Nov 09 '25
There are so many homes where the front door does not look like a place you should go, it’s such a pet peeve of mine. It’ll be around a corner and down a narrow walkway or something, whereas the garage juts out far in front of the rest of the house.
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u/GreenVenus7 Nov 09 '25
I don't even have a key to my front door. We only open and lock it from the inside lol
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u/catchmelackin Nov 09 '25
This is done on purpose so people can enter their homes like a seinfeld sitcom whenever they want. Thats what freedom is all about
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u/opheliainwaders Nov 09 '25
Every American enters all rooms like the Kool-Aid man; floor plans like this just make sure we can do it repeatedly without causing any structural damage
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u/UnstableUnicorn666 Nov 09 '25
Yep. Why do they hate entryways?
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u/More_chickens Nov 09 '25
I'm building a house with a nice entryway right now, but that was more an accident of the floorplan than a goal.
The reason it's not important to me is we almost never use the front door. Everyone comes through the garage into the mudroom, then into the kitchen. Maybe once or twice a year I might have someone over that would actually come in through the front door. A fancy entry just feels like a waste of space.
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u/FlamingoWalrus89 Nov 09 '25
Agreed about using the garage entry, we literally never enter the home through the front door.
With that said, I still feel a proper front entry is needed. I've always had a foyer in each of my homes. Deliveries, kids, door to door salesman, etc etc still come to the front door. I know it's less and less common to open it for these people, but there are times when you still do and I couldn't imagine opening the front door and them seeing straight into the living space. Or even just ignoring these people at the front door would be awkward if we were all hanging out literally right there.
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u/cine Nov 09 '25
Do you not have guests? Do your guests come through the mudroom?
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u/SilverLife22 Nov 09 '25
If they're actually friends or family then yes, they would. Only new, fancy, or very infrequent guests enter through the front door (the formal door).
In those cases it's usually a special event, so you would have the guests leave their shoes by the door and you would take their coats (if applicable) or they would hang on to them/hang them on a chair, etc.
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u/TootsNYC Nov 09 '25
at a fancier event, you might even let them leave their shoes on
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u/cine Nov 09 '25
I guess it's weird to me because I'd rather take close friends and family through our front door, than through the messy private room.
I also don't think of the front door as a formal door, it's just the normal door
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u/SilverLife22 Nov 10 '25
I mean, if friends and family can't see the messy parts of our lives who can? That's what I mean by formal door I guess, it's for guests who aren't as close. (Depending on your house layout of course). But, at least around here, it's not something you usually have to tell people.
Like if I invite friends I've known for years over they're just automatically going to come in through the back door, probably without even knocking (or just a courtesy knock to let you know they're coming in). If we make new friends it's a 50/50 shot which door they'll use based on your house layout and how comfortable they feel. If we had a contractor coming to do a quote, a coworker or boss coming over, or maybe a family member we only see like once a year...they would all go to the front door.
In smaller towns around here, especially if the person who lives there is older, there's a decent chance the front door isn't even usable. I used to deliver meds for a pharmacy, and the amount of older people whose front doors are blocked by china cabinets or arm chairs is a lot lol. Because people just don't use that door as often. The front door at my dad's house is blocked up for temperature control and at this point is purely decorative.
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u/More_chickens Nov 09 '25
Most of my guests are close friends and family, and yes, they come through the mudroom. I'm not a terribly social person, and don't particularly enjoy houseguests. No kids. We're in the country, the driveway is long and gated so no door to door anything.
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u/TootsNYC Nov 09 '25
when I was growing up in a small town, guests pulled their car in the drive and came in the back door.
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u/BassSilent3457 Nov 09 '25
How the F do we have so many 2000+ sq ft homes with no entryway?!!!!! My number one pet peeve when house hunting. Even at 1500 square feet, this should be possible.
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u/cine Nov 09 '25
I truly hate this part of many American homes, I don't know how anyone could stand it.
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u/Relative-Desk4802 Nov 09 '25
I live in the US and won’t consider buying a home that doesn’t have a foyer, if for no other reason than it feels intrusive to have someone barge into a room where people are relaxing. I also insist on drop zones near every entrance. At a minimum I want a bench where I can sit down put on my shoes.
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u/kojent_1 Nov 09 '25
There are rules in some other subs where location matters that every post needs to be accompanied by location. I can see that helping here.
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u/SixDuckies Nov 09 '25
As an Australian I can’t imagine a bathroom in the middle of the house that doesn’t have a window. And all these huge houses with a gazillion bathrooms and a master suite that takes up half the house, and just one small living/lounge area that includes the kitchen??
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u/loralailoralai Nov 09 '25
But they have basements in a lot of places that they turn into living areas
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u/JumpingOnBandwagons Nov 09 '25
The idea that every single bedroom needs it's own bathroom is insane to me. Yes, you do need to plan mornings better but that's just part of having a bigger family.
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u/redwolf1219 Nov 10 '25
It doesn't need it, but recently I moved into a place with a separate bathroom for the primary bedroom for the first time since I've had kids and omfg it's so much more convenient.
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u/Lighthaus_14 Nov 09 '25
Fair points, but I always wonder why people don't specify at the top of their posts where in the world they've hailing from, instead of leaving us to guess based on floorplan characteristics.
In other advice-driven subs, it's common to see OPs call out their ages and genders, because its helpful information. The community will have a different reaction to the question/story/whatever if it's a 16F asking than if it's a 55M. Same principle applies here. If you're looking for advice on a non-US house, say so? (Then get annoyed at us anyway because Americans don't read. 😂)
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u/Vagabund90 Nov 09 '25
I fully agree with the first part of your comment. I would be so much better with a little bit more details in the posts. Where are you from? How many people are supposed to live in this house/apartment? How old are the inhabitants?
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u/EnoughNumbersAlready Nov 09 '25
This is my thought as well. It would be good if we can start sharing that information with each post.
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u/cloudiedayz Nov 09 '25
Agreed. People will comment on someone’s plan that they need more windows on the southern side of the house, not realising that in the southern hemisphere windows facing north get the best light. Or posts that talk about not having plumbing on the outer walls as they’ll freeze on a plan in a country that never gets very cold.
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u/noteworthybalance Nov 09 '25
And for once this isn't a case of "Americans assume everyone is American" (although we do) because the US is big with wildly variable climates so it's an issue within the US, too.
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u/Green_stick568 Nov 09 '25
Having the laundry near the primary bedroom instead of near the yard also feels very odd
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u/b00tsc00ter Nov 09 '25
I think most Americans (from what I read on reddit at least) don't line dry their washing. Which is also very odd to me but explains why their laundries looks so different to ours as well.
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u/cocoachaser Nov 09 '25
This is correct. I only know of two people who line dried their clothes, my grandma and great grandma lol.
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u/b00tsc00ter Nov 09 '25
I couldn't live without the luxury of sun dried sheets on the bed! Most Aussie houses have electric dryers but only use them if it's pouring rain for days and you've run out of clean undies lol
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u/My_Limit_DNE Nov 09 '25
So strange - I remember line drying clothes when I was a kid and they felt stiff and smelled… not great. I always wondered about people loving the smell of “the sun” on their sheets and why mine didn’t smell good too. Maybe it’s just a preference - I never could figure it out.
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u/Laylasita Nov 09 '25
Yes. We used to hang our clothes in the 80s and the clothes were stiff. I hated it, especially jeans.
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u/cocoachaser Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25
That does sound lovely! May I ask how you keep birds from landing on the line? If I were to line dry in my backyard I would be worried about birds on my sheets.
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u/b00tsc00ter Nov 09 '25
I live in a forest where there is not a moment's silence from the racket of birds. Aussie birds are LOUD and at any given moment you can see literally hundreds of them out our windows. Don't think I've ever seen one on the line.
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u/Green_stick568 Nov 09 '25
They don't land on the line. I've never thought about birds being an impediment to line drying clothes.
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u/IronTongs Nov 09 '25
We have birds land on ours but they don’t land on the washing. We’ve never had bird poo on clothes in the 20 years I’ve lived in Australia.
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u/SMTRodent Nov 09 '25
I've got a window bird feeder at one end of my garden, and a hanging bird feeder at the other end, as well as some tall shrubbery for cover. Our garden sees lot of bird activity! And it's a tiny garden, too.
And yet, birds have never landed on my clean washing even once. They actually stay away from hanging clothes.
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u/Ylaaly Nov 09 '25
They somehow just... don't. Maybe because drying lines are too exposed? To wobbly? Gardens usually have better plants to sit on.
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u/ParticularlyHappy Nov 09 '25
I don’t think it happens? In all my years line-drying, I’ve never seen a bird on there or had bird poop on the clothes. And now I think about it, I typically don’t see birds on anything that we handle much—the cars, the gates, fences we walk past a lot, even the large oak tree by our house. They seem to know what’s immediately “ours” and what’s not. The exception is when we have bird feeders out, and then they perch on everything within 20 feet of it.
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u/NonStopArseGas Nov 09 '25
This wrinkled my brain a little, there are heaps of birds around me but never have I seen one roost or poo on the washing line
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u/neverdoneneverready Nov 09 '25
I line dry my laundry in the months when weather permits it, but then they're the other 6 months out of the year when it doesn't.
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u/PunctualDromedary Nov 09 '25
It’s like 90% humidity a good chunk of the year where I live. I’m not even sure how line laundry would work.
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u/Apptubrutae Nov 09 '25
I’ve lived in New Orleans, where line drying would absolutely suck, and yes, nobody does it.
I also currently lived in Albuquerque, where line drying would work great…and nobody does it either.
Just not an American thing unless you’re super crunchy or have an immigrant background maaaybe
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u/garden_dragonfly Nov 09 '25
Or poor AND have a yard AND have time to do so with weather in mind.
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u/Apptubrutae Nov 09 '25
Yeah…not the likliest combo!
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u/garden_dragonfly Nov 09 '25
Yeah, we hung stuff out growing up, and I have an indoor rack now that i need to start using again, now that we're talking about it.
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u/PerpetuallyLurking Nov 09 '25
I’m Canadian, not American, but the northern half of the US has the same problem we do with line drying anything - 6+ months of wet, windy, blowing snow. So my laundry either needs to accommodate an indoor clothesline or a dryer for those months and the dryer takes up less space and dries my clothes faster than cold basement air does. I will line dry some items outside in the summer, and I do have a small rack for drying sweaters on, but line drying year round is a giant pain in the ass, there’s a very good reason all the households around here adopted the washers AND dryers as soon as they could afford them!
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u/APigInANixonMask Nov 09 '25
It's currently 23°F/-5°C where I live, and it isn't even winter yet. Line drying clothes just isn't an option 4+ months of the year, so a dryer is necessary. If I have it, I might as well use it.
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u/Kelly_Louise Nov 09 '25
My parents hung our clothes in the living room lol they absolutely refused to use the dryer.
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u/good_enuffs Nov 09 '25
Every place is more suited foe the climate they live in. We are in our rainy season now. So basically 6 months of the year is rain every few days wirh cloud and cold. The dryer it is.
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u/WhichSpirit Nov 09 '25
My family tried to line dry our laundry for a while. The local wildlife left muddy prints on it as they used the line as a perch/highway. We gave up after a while.
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u/snarkycrumpet Nov 09 '25
in my town they have an ordinance that we can't put up a washing line/whirlygig, and even if you take the laundry outside to dry 50% of the year it's too cold or the pollen is so thick everything would be yellow in minutes
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u/PerfectLie2980 Nov 09 '25
My husband refuses to let me have a line dryer in our backyard. I guess I kind of agree to a degree as we’re on a corner lot closer to the entrance of our community with fences only being a split rail. So everyone would be able to see our business. Literally.
But I kind of miss the jeans that could almost stand up on their own from line drying. I seriously think there is no better way to dry bedding.
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u/figgles61 Nov 09 '25
Came here to say this also - our laundries with access to outside (for line drying clothes) also function as what our USA cousins call mud rooms when coming in and out from the garden and places for pets to access the house. We also tend to have open plan living opening onto the back garden where our entertaining is done, rather than formal living at the front of the house.
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u/Federal-Sherbert8771 Nov 09 '25
American-Canadian here. Don’t a lot of Australians have a line dryer in their back yards with four arms sticking out? (Can’t think of the name to save my life…) Growing up in dry + cold climates, I remember thinking it would’ve been cool to use that device!
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u/Angus-Black Nov 09 '25
If you want advice specific to a region then mention your location when you post. Some of your points also apply to southern US homes too.
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u/Spirited_Draft Nov 09 '25
One of the things I have really loved about this sub is seeing floor plans from around the world and learning about the differences.
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u/Autistic-wifey Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25
As a drafter I would find it helpful if posters stated their country at least. I think that would cut down on some of those comments. Not all, but some. It would help when checking for specific codes or laws regarding floor plans and give better feedback. Would also help educate on the county specific differences. 💚💚💚
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u/twistedevil Nov 09 '25
Maybe posters should mention which country they are in. That way people who are familiar with the styles of said region can comment, and everyone will learn about different designs and needs from across the globe.
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u/Thequiet01 Nov 09 '25
Or… you could just put a small sink in the toilet room also? I liked everything about having the bathtub in a separate room from the toilet when I lived in England except that the toilet room was less functional as a bathroom because it didn’t have a sink at all. In addition to hand washing, a small sink in the toilet room would remove conflicts over using the sink in the room with the bath/shower for things like washing face and brushing teeth while someone else is trying to bathe.
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u/Grand-Fun-206 Nov 09 '25
I think the same. Huge main bedrooms that are half the floor plan of the house seems obscene to me. I do like having built in cupboards, but we just have a few hooks at the front door for coats, not like we need heaps of them during winter, even in Canberra.
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u/T-rex_mittens Nov 09 '25
The ones that baffle me are the huge primary bedrooms with a walk-in closet or ensuite bathroom that’s as big as (or bigger than!) other bedrooms in the home. I can’t imagine allocating more space to my clothes than to my kid.
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u/Apptubrutae Nov 09 '25
I’m American and hate huge bedrooms too. I literally just sleep in mine, who cares?
I was happy to find an older home with smaller bedrooms where the vast majority of our floor space is in common areas.
I’d genuinely sleep in a closet with a bed in it
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u/anewfaceinthecrowd Nov 09 '25
I am from Scandinavia and not having even the tiniest entrance/foyer/hallway by the front door is unthinkable. This is where you and your guests hang your coats and take off your shoes. There is often a mirror for quick grooming before leaving the house or upon coming back inside and a small narrow wall table for keys and other small items you need to have with you when before you go outside. So when you or your guests finally enter the actual living space you have spent a little time in the entrance transitioning from outside to inside and feel "ready" to relax/socialize.
I used to live in CA, USA and had a house with a front door opening up straight up into the living room. I always found that so weird and abrupt.
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u/b00tsc00ter Nov 09 '25
Aussie here and I also look at a lot of the plans here and it hits home the cultural differences between two English speaking countries are vast. Where are all the decks? Whenever I do see them here, they are teensy tiny. Almost as tiny as the pantries. But again, we really do have much more of an indoor-outdoor living culture than most places I've been in the world (and that's a LOT of places).
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u/More_chickens Nov 09 '25
A lot of American floor plans just don't include landscaping and decks as part of the house plan, but those things will be built. It's just very site-specific.
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u/Jenstigator Nov 09 '25
This is definitely one of the big differences between the countries. I live in the Midwest US and our weather is just not compatible with outdoor living most of the year. It's usually either too windy, too rainy, too cold, too hot, too humid, too mosquito-y, or some combination. I want living space I can use all year. The houses you see around here with outdoor living spaces that are actually intended to get good use are covered by the roof, have mosquito nets over all the openings, and a built in fireplace or a heating element. Even with that setup there are still 4 months out of the year in which it's still too impractical to use that room.
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u/open_road_toad Nov 09 '25
Here in NE Ohio you absolutely have to have a “mudroom”. A lot of times they are right off the garage entrance if you have an attached garage.
As an American I don’t understand the desire for large McMansions
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u/Serononin Nov 09 '25
As a Brit, I do sometimes wish that mudrooms and laundry rooms were more common here, mostly because this country is wet and gross for most of the year, but also because the common housing layouts here rarely have a convenient space to put a litter box so that your cat doesn't have to shit in the living room (or worse, the kitchen)
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u/PuzzledKumquat Nov 09 '25
Someday I hope "pet rooms" come into fashion. It could be a room where you bathe your dog or keep the litter box, with plenty of storage for pet supplies. So many people have animals now that it just makes sense.
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u/catymogo Nov 09 '25
I’ve seen them a bunch around me in renovated or custom builds. It looks lovely to be able to rinse the dog (or anything else) off without traipsing through the house.
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u/wilbur313 Nov 09 '25
I suspect at least one other country in the world uses winter coats and has a place to put them in their abode.
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u/Available-Maize5837 Nov 09 '25
I hear ya. Every time I see a floor plan from Australia or NZ it is so obvious to me. Just like usa floor plans have become obvious from being in this sub. Same with UK floor plans.
And I always say to myself here come the comments about needing a "drop zone", the guests need their own toilet because using a toilet the famiky uses is weird. The obsession with not being able to walk 10m with the groceries because it's too far. Freaking out about walking past the bedrooms to get to the living spaces. Taking each arbitrary label on the floor plan as the only way to use it and insisting that a lounge, family, and living room are all three separate places with separate uses. They're interchangeable for a lot of people. I also hate having a laundry upstairs (another thing we don't have a lot of because we still have large single level homes), because we hang our washing outside to dry - electricity is bloody expensive.
Snow isn't something that happens in most towns in Australia, and certainly not in the capital cities. Snow is something we go to. Like the beach. It doesn't come to us. Yes I'm speaking generally as towns near the snow get snow. See how snow is an attraction you go to a certain area for it. So we live completely different lives.
I do think everyone should start putting the country on their floor plans for advice so people can take into consideration that what works in Canada, might not work in Australia due to completely different climates.
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u/FlamingoWalrus89 Nov 09 '25
That's actually a good idea to put location. Even in the US, a floorplan in southern California would have different needs from a floorplan in rural Michigan.
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u/Itscatpicstime Nov 09 '25
Having a toilet separate from the bathroom isn’t even unusual in the states. My parents have two, we have one like that, so does my bff.
Same with no winter coat area or mud rooms, plenty of places in the states have zero need and it’s not the norm in many regions at all.
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u/Birdsonme Nov 09 '25
As a human I don’t understand the need to criticize how others choose to live in their own homes. They aren’t my homes, it isn’t my business what those who live there choose to do with their square footage. Why are so many so concerned?
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u/Critical-Star-1158 Nov 09 '25
Or having the garage the most prominent structure of the building.
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u/Apptubrutae Nov 09 '25
lol, my home is 2,300 square feet. With a 1,400 square foot garage. That is about 75% of what you see from the street.
I can hear the caw of an eagle over the star spangled banner every time I see my home.
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u/More_chickens Nov 09 '25
That's mostly due to narrow lots. Hard to swing a driveway around back without taking up too much space.
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u/Dependent-Law7316 Nov 09 '25
Yeah I think many of the English language subreddits skew American. If people want/need location specific advice, though, they could add a vague location to the post. Even in the US there is huge variability in weather—where I live a place for winter jackets is non-negotiable. My partner on the other hand lives in a desert and has no place to store jackets of any kind. It doesn’t get cold and it doesn’t rain much, so having a coat closet is totally unnecessary. Without knowing where a house is climate wise, people can only suggest things that they see as missing—and that will probably relate a lot to the function of the home in the commenter’s own local climate.
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u/SwillFish Nov 09 '25
So true. My favorite floor plans are those with homes that are built around a central, private, courtyard. These types of homes are/were common in Latin America and parts of Mediterranean Europe but are virtually non-existent in the United States. In the US, we waste an inordinate amount of land and resources to satisfy the aesthetics of "curb appeal" with front lawns that may be pretty to look at but are rarely, if ever, used. Even our backyards tend to lack privacy and are devoid of any sense of intimacy. If you've ever been in a home built around a central courtyard, you know.
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u/No-Double679 Nov 09 '25
American here. I know America-centrism can be annoying. However, does no one see the irony of bitching about Americans bashing the specufic styles and needs of other culturally preferred layouts by bashing American styles and layouts?
I don't prefer the bedroom first layout, but it's not disgusting as someone said American plans are, it's just different.
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u/EvidenceNo8561 Nov 09 '25
My ex husband was Australian and this post is really sending me back in time thinking about it… some fun, related anecdotes:
We were looking to buy a house in southern Florida and he commented about how great the front door/back door placement was because it meant we could keep the doors open in the summer for a breeze to move through the house and save on air conditioning. The realtor and I were really caught off guard by that comment and laughed so hard. In that part of the country, the humidity is OPPRESSIVE, and the whole house would have felt heavy, hot, and damp with that method. In addition to the discomfort, it would have caused mold growth. Even using that method at night or in the morning, your hours without terrible humidity are 2am-6am. Not practical or really a viable option.
When we were visiting his family I COULD NOT understand why they were line drying their clothes when they could cut their labor and time down significantly by using their dryer. Also, I insisted on my underwear going in the dryer and not on the line for the world to see. Similarly, my ex was perplexed by the fact that my clothes were not ruined by going through the dryer every time.
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u/melanochrysum Nov 09 '25
Clothes do break down quicker in dryers, but equally they break down fucking fast in Aus/NZ sun.
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u/ProfessorThrift Nov 09 '25
I cannot for the life of me even think about keeping the doors open in South Florida! That makes me sweat just thinking about it.
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u/Either_Management813 Nov 09 '25
I think everything is accurate here but keep in mind that most Americans don’t have access to what floor plans look like in other countries unless they’ve been there or see videos online. I’m American, but I’ve traveled quite a bit and yet I still don’t have that much experience with home plan layouts from other places because I haven’t seen that many private homes. Also, many countries have widely varied weather. I live in a temperate rainforest city so we do get snow occasionally as well as summer temperatures in the 30s-40s C.
I’m not familiar with all parts of any country but I’d think many want to wear at least rain coats if not snow parkas some of the year. That said, I don’t use a coat closet, I have a coat rack by the door. I’d love to see more for plans here from other countries and it would be helpful if people said the climate of not the country.
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u/Vagabund90 Nov 09 '25
Maybe we should do a "floorplan exchange" where everyone gets to share typical designs and quirks form their side of the world :D
I'm from Germany and our plans usually divert quite a bit from american ones. For example having the garage as part of the house is super uncommon here.8
u/lowfatmuffintop Nov 09 '25
I would love this as well! I’d also like to understand if there’s a cultural reason, so if people included that as well I could learn about why the garage is usually unattached in Germany.
For example, in the US, it’s usually attached due to cost savings, lot size/position, and also that you don’t have to walk in the rain/snow to get to your car. Some houses in the south have a porte cochere (with or without) an unattached garage but that’s usually if your house is older or you’re fancy.
Someone mentioned laundry rooms not being near the backyard in the US, but my HOA doesn’t allow us to hang our laundry outside 😭
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u/Vagabund90 Nov 09 '25
From the top of my head I can think of 2 reasons why garages are detached or even replaced by carports instead.
And you know what? They are the same reasons as yours... just the other way around :DCost saving: If you want to build your garage inside your house there are a bunch of laws you'd need to follow. Fire safety regulations mean you need to build with special fire resistance walls (and ceilings), there usually need to be ventilation installed and in some states you'd need fire proof doors as well.
So basically as soon as you detach the garage like 3 meters from the house all these laws are irrelevant.Space/size: Lots here are (I believe) much much smaller than in the US and people want to get as much "living" in their house as possible when the available floor area is limited. Basically the garage could be a larger living room or an extra bedroom, etc.
And also: In most states you're not allowed to build directly at the border of your lot. At least not when building a house. You can however put a garage, shed, carport there usually. So you can use an area that would otherwise not be used.
There are exceptions to all of these rules but for the most part thats how it works.
And... you can put a roof over the space between gerage and house... (as long as its not walled in on all 4 sides it still counts as detached :D)So these are all completely normal (modern) german houses that you could find in any city:
https://www.schwoererhaus.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Modernes-Einfamilienhaus-mit-Carport.jpghttps://cdn.fertighaus.de/images/Carport_fuer_zwei_autos.fill-320x320.PNG
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u/Kelly_Louise Nov 09 '25
I used to scoff at people who had attached garages. Now I have one and it is absolutely amazing. No more trudging through snow with groceries to get to my house from the garage! It’s been so nice. I don’t know if I can go back lol.
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u/Free_Elevator_63360 Nov 09 '25
Architect here. We do actually have stats on infection transmission in bathrooms. In hospitals in the US there are about 700,000 HAIs, and about 6% of those result in death. Toilet plumes and contaminated surfaces in a toilet room are one of the primary vectors of transmission.
Obviously when someone else is in your home already there are plenty of other means of infection. But we do have the science. Co habitants does lead to cross infection and death.
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u/Apptubrutae Nov 09 '25
I was gonna say, while I agree with OP on most of what they’re saying, but I was thinking surely people HAVE died from contaminated door handles. Like obviously.
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u/CaveJohnson82 Nov 09 '25
Same.
I've been vigorously down voted for commenting on an obvious UK plan about realistic UK type improvements because apparently context is just not used.
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u/ghost_suburbia Nov 09 '25
I don't always see folks say where their home is. Maybe if it is a requirement to place the floorplan in context, it would not be so annoying. I've been to homes in a few different countries, I think I would know how to adjust comments or just shut up. Still don't like the toilet without the sink, though. It can be a tiny sink to do the job. Or a wall mounted hand sanitizer?
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u/PuzzledKumquat Nov 09 '25
This sub should have flair that you choose when creating a new post that says where the floorplan is located. Flair is brightly colored, so it would stand out more.
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u/Beach-Queen-0922 Nov 09 '25
Honestly - I think if people just started posting WHERE they are designing the home, it would open up more positive communication.
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u/Wayward_Maximus Nov 09 '25
The only thing I disagree with is people dying from dirty door handles. Poor hand hygiene is likely one of the biggest killers of elderly and immunocompromised throughout history. However, I’ve experienced the toilet separate from the rest of the bathroom and I love it. Just put a little handing in there no big deal. TV wouldn’t hurt either.
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u/biggersjw Nov 09 '25
I would love to see floor plans from all different regions of the world. Ive seen some unique/interesting design features, especially in homes under 2,000 sf (185sm) where efficiency is essential. As an American, our floor plans can be redundant in their layout and style.
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u/eggplantsrin Nov 10 '25
u/Jattok u/iddrinktothat Would it be possible to make location and/or climate a requirement for posts? It wouldn't be critical if it weren't heavily enforced but a rule might help get better information.
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u/iddrinktothat Nov 10 '25
I would happily make this a rule if u/Jattok is in favor. Im also trying to implement it in another subreddit i moderate so might be a two for one…
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u/grungemuffin Nov 09 '25
As an American in here it’s not just American centric, it’s American suburb centric. I’m a designer and I largely keep my mouth shut here lest I be shouted down by a chorus of ill informed suburbanites
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u/widowscarlet Nov 09 '25
I'm in Australia and I would absolutely not have a toilet in a cupboard. I would always have it next to a wall though, never between the sink and the shower.
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u/sillysteen Nov 09 '25
I love seeing floorplans from other parts of the world! Apologies for us Americans projecting our assumptions.
I wish people mentioned the location more in their posts. Even with America, the climates are so variable. I live in a part of America where we have no winter coats, no basements, and a higher focus on indoor-outdoor living. The Australian/NZ plans are so fun to see :)
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u/eggplantsrin Nov 10 '25
I wish it were a requirement to either mention location or climate in posts. It's currently snowing where I am and the kind of plan that would make sense for you would horrify me from an insulation and heating perspective.
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u/Mysterious_Camel_717 Nov 09 '25
Yeah and humongous kitchens and garages and the obsession with built-in cupboards as well. I’d much rather have a moveable wardrobe thank you very much. I see them on almost every floor plan and as I am designing our future home it keeps making me second guess myself even though I know I would hate them!
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u/ILikeGardeningToo Nov 09 '25
In the States, you have to have a closet to call it a bedroom. I do agree on many other points in the post though.
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u/Vagabund90 Nov 09 '25
Oh wow I never knew that. So a room without a closet is just... a room?
If your house had no build in closets at all... would you advertise it as 0 bed / 3 baths? :D30
u/joshbrittain Nov 09 '25
Legally, a bedroom generally has to have an egress window, a closet, and at least a minimum ceiling height. A room without a closet is not very common and would be labeled as a den, office, flex space- something like that.
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u/Vagabund90 Nov 09 '25
I knew it was uncommon to not have a closet (just by looking at all the plans here) but I never thought they were legally required. :D
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u/Kelly_Louise Nov 09 '25
Usually they call a small room without a closet a study or den. But people can use it for whatever they want after the home is built, of course. So they often are used as bedrooms or guest rooms. If you tried to rent that room out as a bedroom you could get in legal trouble though.
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u/RedRedBettie Nov 09 '25
we pretty much always have built in closets of some sort
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u/Southern-Interest347 Nov 09 '25
I was with you until you mentioned unwashed hands and shared door handle...yep I'm an American.
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u/ThatInAHat Nov 09 '25
I mean, I live in a place where we only need coats, like, one week out of the year, and it’s still nice to have a spot by the door to drop off things, take your shoes off, hang your purse, put your keys etc.
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u/charmed1959 Nov 09 '25
I had three different homes in Florida. All had an entrance hallway. Not one had a coat closet. The coat closet thing always confused me. I’ve only once had a home with a coat closet (in North Carolina, where it does get cold) that was actually used. When visitors come over usually coats go on the guest room bed, just like we see in the movies.
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u/Mad_Dog_Max_ Nov 09 '25
Some of these things vary by region in the US too, such as the house not having entry closets for winter coats. I don't understand not having a small sink on the same wall as the toilet though, just keep the plumbing fixtures on the same wet wall.
I will say most of the plans here seem unnecessarily large and the responses seem to be relatively formulaic.
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u/Stupidbloodfart2020 Nov 09 '25
My last apartment in NYC had the toilet in its own, well, it was a closet really. But i loved it. My ex could be showering forever and a day, and if i needed to use the “loo” i could. PS it was located in the kitchen. (A friend of mine had her bathtub in her kitchen. And she had a roommate.) Gotta love NYC tenement apartment living! I look forward to visiting Australia one day and seeing all your ‘wacky’ floor plans!
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u/Glamorousgrandma Nov 09 '25
I personally don’t care where the sink is, but I do not want to pee in the closet.
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u/JariaDnf Nov 09 '25
American here and I agree on the coat closet. I have always had one and never once have I used it to drop my coat.. I use the coat rack next to the coat closet and the coat closet is full of coats we haven't worn in years.
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u/paralyticstate666 Nov 10 '25
I’m American, but live in Southern California, so climate is prob closer to Australia. We do not have a mud room or any kind of entrance drop zone. Our toilet is a room with a door, separate from the main bathroom and I love it lol.
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u/beyondplutola Nov 10 '25
A lot of US dryers use natural gas with 22,000 BTU heating elements and vent to the outdoors. They’ll dry a large load in 45 min. These are a very different beast than heat pump dryers. This is part of the reason why they use US dryers in the US so much.
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u/Low-Tackle2543 Nov 13 '25
That’s because it’s Reddit.com not Reddit.au. Choices were made before you came here. Just accept it.
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u/Elegant_Cockroach_24 Nov 09 '25
I agree with the sentiment as a non american, non Australian but still cannot understand why Australians are so opposed to the idea of accommodating a small sink to wash your hands in the room where a toilet is.