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.