A couple weeks after moving in, we dubbed this room “The Terror Room.” I’ve been told every new homeowner has one. It’s the extra room or spot where stuff ends up when it doesn’t fit anywhere else or requires more time than you have to sort out. The stuff you put off unpacking, gifts you don’t know where to put, artwork you haven’t hung yet. Ours has it all. Or did. We finally took care of it this weekend, well somewhat. But now we need some help from you. But first, the clean-up:
Huge piles of small, random stuff. Hands down the most annoyingly tedious to stuff to clean up.
I organized all of our gardening accessories and antiques into boxes for now. Hopefully with some shelving in this closet, we can store things a little better until we actually get to decorating.
Look, my wedding bouquet! Ladies, I have no idea what to do with it! Obviously it’s probably worth keeping, but is there anything I can do with it besides let it hang?
All of our blankets and bedding, now in one place. I’m thinking a huge blanket fort might be in order this winter, if for no other reason than to see how far we can get it to stretch around the house. (Note: I tidied them up after taking this photo.)
Neil found a whole bag of his socks. How he didn’t know they were missing illustrates another problem altogether. Is there such a thing as too many socks?
We have tons of art and frames to sort through, for now they are still stacked against the wall. Definitely have to start painting now that the temperatures are cooling off.
As we cleaned, we noticed a few things that definitely need to be addressed, right after we finish scratching our heads and asking why and how and why people end up making the decisions they do:
Cables through a random place in the plaster, great choice! And how about that outlet sitting on the floor? Why put it in the wall like like a conformist when you can have it hanging out and mismatched to boot? And what was the logic behind removing the molding?
This also totally necessitates cutting through the molding. Totally.
When we finished, we hauled tons of boxes and trash out:
And were left with this:
Ever finish one project to find you have about five more? That’s how we feel right now, but we are excited to finally have this room ready for — something? That’s where we need your help. We put our guest room upstairs with the second bathroom, and we already have an office and a TV room, so what should we do with this room?
It’s nicely located right off the kitchen, maybe another lounge area? I mean *eventually* it could be a kids room, but for now it’s just hanging out semi-empty. We need ideas before Felix fully claims it as his new room:
Are you there God? It’s me, Felix. I’ve been a good cat this year, please let this be my room, please!?
Love the picture of Felix ‘praying.’ I cracked up at that and at the bag of missing socks. I just cleaned out two storage rooms and two closets in my house this summer that have been accumulating many years’ worth of randomness. Yes, two storage rooms and two closets. It’s amazing the amount of random things a family accumulates. I felt like I was taking part in a little mini version of Hoarders. Once you get to be my age though it becomes a lot easier to just throw stuff away (e.g., I threw my dried wedding bouquet away). Keep up the good work with your new house!
We haven’t even tackled closet organization yet, it’s all just hanging out where we put it when we moved in. It looks organized, but those closets are holding a whole lot of stuff I think we could easily do without. If you have any organization tips, I’d love to hear them!
A LIBRARY!! Oh make it a library…with lovely pictures on the wall, and books on bookshelves, and a comfy chair or two by the window with a table in between. Since it’s just off the kitchen, I can picture you relaxing with a cup of tea or coffee, and a good book, and a cat on your lap and Clive on the floor beside you as you glance out at the snow falling this winter. I would give a LOT to have a room I could turn into something like that….
Well we’ve got the library thing going upstairs, so I think we’re set, but we could definitely bring a piece of the library to that room if we make it a lounge room.
For your wedding bouquet…what about getting a box with glass. I’ve seen them at Hobby Lobby, you could grab a 40% off coupon too. Then hang it on the wall, like an art piece.
Love the pictures of the kitty 🙂
~Liz
I LOVE that idea. It will be displayed without looking like I just left it somewhere, and it will protect the rest of the petals. Consider your idea taken!
Oh man! That wiring is scary.
We’re still working on our Terror Room. Much of the year it houses an air compressor and 50 feet of hose. This is a problem.
Haha, I think if I left it up to Neil it would have more car stuff in it. Luckily we have a huge basement/garage, so plenty of room for his man stuff.
I have a whole terror downstairs. Want to come over and help me clean it out?
I say make it a lounge space. You could keep an eye out for a daybed and then it turns into extra guest space too.
You hit the nail on the head, it’s looking like it will be a lounge area. Neil and I feel we need a room where absolutely NO work is allowed, so that’s what it’s looking like at this point.
I totally nth the lounge idea. I was coming here to say just what you did — you need a space where no work is allowed. I love having a clean, neat corner (or room) where I can relax, read a book, and enjoy some time. Plus, if you have an air mattress or something, it can always be a second guest room as needed.