Shopping for houses can be a tough racket. There’s the need to balance what your budget is and what you consider essential versus what’s actually out there on the market. It’s rare to get a house that’s 100% as you had it pictured in your head, but that’s not to say there can’t be a silver lining.
Often times we can find ourselves stuck with an extra room in our houses that we didn’t anticipate being able to take advantage of. Think of this as a great opportunity to create a room that you’ve never had the pleasure of being able to experience before. Or, you can go for more utilitarian options and use the extra room to serve more menial tasks like storage. These spaces aren’t to be neglected, I find them versatile for a wide array of reasons.
Let me get into those reasons now:
A Private Study
This option is one of the more versatile ones, as the room only has to be large enough to accommodate yourself and what you need to work/contemplate whilst at home. The study has kind of gone the way of the dinosaur, but that’s not to say you can’t have one of your own. For a much more refined aura and the feeling like you’re a Renaissance man, a study is irreplaceable. This is a no-brainer for anyone who likes a smooth cigar and even smoother cognac as they process the day’s events.
A Conversation Room
Conversation is an art that is rapidly dying out among the younger generations. Oftentimes there’s some kind of digital buffer to help smooth some of the awkward bumps associated with socializing, like a TV on in the background. While it might put some people at ease, that kind of behaviour can be kept segregated to the living room. A beautifully furnished conversation room can be as simple as a rug and a table with a few chairs. Since there’s fewer things in this room though, each one has to be well maintained or else your guests will take notice. Carpet spills can be the most nefarious, but the article “The Best Way to Keep Carpet Clean” from Carpet Melbourne Direct says that when cleaning a spill from your carpet, you work from the outside towards the middle of the spot. That way, you will not be spreading the spill. The same principle applies to any spills on upholstered chairs as well.
Extra Storage
The most mundane use of extra space in your home is to use it to keep a lot more stuff laying around the house. If you’re neglecting an aspect of your house like cleaning supplies or a proper place to store your tools when doing a bit of DIY repair jobs around the house, this space can be a godsend for keeping you self-sufficient. It might be a boring choice, but it’s definitely up there as one of the most useful & versatile options.
Don’t think of the extra space as a burden that needs to be filled in and “properly enjoyed” by some odd standard that might not even be true. It’s your living space and you have full dominion over what goes where and why, think about what your home is missing or things you consistently wish you could take advantage of. Even just putting down a yoga mat in an empty, otherwise unused room for exercise can pay dividends.
