Six Ways to Use Your Extra Rooms and Empty Spaces

There can never be too many rooms in a home. You might feel like you are wasting space in your home if several of the rooms are empty and unused. If so, now is a good time to put that space to work. Here are six ways to use your extra rooms and empty spaces.

1. Declutter

If you find that some of your rooms feel cluttered, take advantage of an empty room to help you get the clutter under control. This is a good reason to go through your home and determine what you really don’t need or want anymore. Once you have decided what will stay, determine how often you use items that don’t seem to have their own place and whether they could be easily stored elsewhere until needed. A good example of this is small kitchen appliances. If you find that your juicer is sitting on the counter all winter, taking up space until spring comes around, it would be a good candidate for relocation! If you only use your waffle maker on holiday mornings, the same rationale applies.

Once you determine what you will relocate, consider whether you can install shelving or other storage in an empty room and start investigating the options and what might work best for your home. You can use this technique with nearly anything from clothing, toys, books, small appliances, etc.

2. Make a Media Room

A small room is often better for movie viewing or music listening than an expansive common living room. Setting up an empty room with comfortable seating and a media center can make the room an inviting escape from the world and give you an enjoyable space within your home.

3. Home Office

While laptops are the norm, and they are portable, most people work better with little distraction by the rest of their lives. Setting up even a small home office will add to your productivity and make it easier to concentrate on simple tasks. A large room could easily accommodate multiple desks, a work table, filing cabinets and other office storage or equipment that would be beneficial. Perhaps you have avoided purchasing a printer because you don’t want it sitting on your dining table? If so, a wireless printer would enable you to print from your laptop, anywhere in the home. It would also enable everyone else to print as well, without requiring a direct wired connection to the printer.

4. Guest Room

You never know when someone might need to spend the night at your home. Perhaps a family member who is visiting or a friend who experiences car problems after a get together at your home. Having an extra bedroom at the ready is always a good idea. It can be sparsely furnished, perhaps using things that you already have in your home. Use a few home accents and wall decorations appropriate to the overall design of your home to aesthetically tie the guest room to the rest of the house.

5. Playroom

If you have children, you already understand why this would be a good use of a spare room. While infants and toddlers are better watched than playing on their own, older children can generally be left in a room to play with their toys, watch a movie or complete an art project while you move throughout the house. Placing all of the child’s toys in one room means less cleanup overall and it teaches children to always put their things back where they belong. Colorful and inexpensive organizers and bins make keeping the room organized a snap. Decoration for this room can take the form of bright tables, durable furniture pieces, and a colorful paint scheme.

6. Library

If you are like most people, your home has books and magazines located throughout every room, taking up shelf or counter space. Inexpensive wooden shelves and be the start of a home library, which could be combined with a home office room or even a guest room. It will free up other space within your home and make your books easier to locate.

Informational Credit to JustWallDecor.com