Thursday, January 15, 2009

Do you have too many purposes in one room?

computer desk

I often see people with beautifully ordered houses but there's one room which is a catch-for-all and therefore off-limits.

This is usually the room with the closed door :)

It's as if you don't want to make decisions about what to do with things so you dump them all in one room.

Often this is called the junk room or the spare room.

It may have been intentioned that it would be a guest room, craft room, etc. but it's the place where, if you say, "where do you want this to go?" you just say, "the spare room".

Now hear me, there is nothing wrong with having a room with multiple purposes as long as:
  • you know what those different functions are
  • each function has a separate "zone"

Let me give you an example. Our home office/ study has multiple functions. What happens there?
  • computer work
  • gift storage and wrapping
  • reading
  • storing library books
  • filing and doing household admin
  • business admin
  • crafting (when I used to still actively make my beaded bookmarks)
Each of those functions has a specific place.

business admin

So to answer my question above, I think if you have a specific purpose for each function, you can have many purposes in each room.

Do you have one of those junk or spare rooms?

Your challenge is to make a note of all the purposes that go on in that one room and make sure that each purpose has a specific place.

Are you up for it?

P.S. Don't forget tomorrow's declutter challenge. We're decluttering plates and bowls.

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I'm a little slow reading my Google Reader blogs.

Almost every room in my house is multi-functional. The master bath is one of the larget rooms in the house for usage (13 x 8) - so anything linen or bathroom related goes in there. Also, we put in a closet rod for my son's clothes.

The Master bedroom is a good size( 13x15 including closets), but a terrible layout. So far it has also housed my husband's office, my office, and right now is the craft area work in progress. We store a lot in my closet, Dh has just his stuff in his closet.

The livingroom right now also functions as a playroom, my office, a library, and my son's bedroom. It's not a big room either.

The kitchen kind of surrounds the diningroom, or maybe the diningroom table is just a big island. I haven't decided. Plus the girl's school desks are there.

Then there is a long narrow hallway with our chalk board, the back door, and the washer/dryer. Dh has his office in the postage stamp bedroom. I think it's 10 x 7 - including the built in closet.

There is a small bathroom, but the tub doesn't work, so we turned the space into a closet for one daughter. The girls share the last room - and right now, the coat closet is in there - but that isn't working. The room is 10X13.

If I figure out how to solve too many funtions in a single room, I think I could be rich! LOL

I do enjoy learning from your blog.

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