10 Ways to Utilize a Spare Bedroom in Your Home
Whether you have been living in the same place for a while and are shuffling things around or you are moving into a new home, figuring out what to do with the spaces that you have is often a very challenging goal. While some rooms are pretty straightforward – like the kitchen and bathrooms – the purposes of many other spaces in your home are widely up to you to figure out. Does a four-bedroom house really need to have four bedrooms? Do you really need two living rooms? Do you need a second walk-in closet for clothing, or can this be used in a different way? Figuring out what to do with the spaces in your home is often a fun challenge, but is nevertheless tricky and time-consuming.
One of the most adaptable rooms is the spare bedroom. While you may have a clear use for a set number of bedrooms in your home, often you don’t have an immediate need to use them all. This leads to an empty space to which you can do whatever you please. This post is going to outline some of the best ways to utilize a spare bedroom in your home, as space without a designated usage is a waste of valuable square footage!
1. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Guest Room
The first way to utilize a spare bedroom in your home is probably the most obvious – use it as a guest room. Guest rooms are invaluable to homeowners that host, as creating a dedicated guest space takes much of the stress out of hosting. Without a dedicated guest room, homeowners are often left juggling spaces and arrangements around whenever they offer to host guests in their home. With a dedicated guest room, the space is perpetually set up to host and takes very little effort to prepare.
If you’ve read our post on the best ways to go above and beyond as a host, you likely remember that having a dedicated guest room makes the list, as it gives guests their own space that is uniquely theirs throughout their stay with you. Knowing that the drawers, closets, and baskets are theirs to utilize during their stay often helps guests to get more comfortable in your home for the duration of their stay. While you may not use a guest room every day, it is one of the most straightforward uses for a spare bedroom in your home, and it is also one of the easiest to get set up!
2. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Workout Room
As the cost of living seems to continue to rise, finding ways to minimize monthly expenditures is more valuable than ever. If you are someone who goes to the gym, this gym membership is likely costing you an arm and a leg each month. The second way to utilize a spare bedroom in your home is by turning it into a gym or other workout space, where you can perform your favorite types of workouts without the need to drive to the gym or commit to a gym membership in the first place.
Yes, creating a workout space in your spare bedroom can be a bit expensive and the space is probably much smaller than a gym you would leave and go to. However, being able to roll out of bed and be at the gym within just a couple of minutes can save you a significant amount of time each day, and the equipment does eventually pay for itself. If you are intimidated by the costs or effort of creating a full gym in your spare bedroom, consider making a sort of aerobic and yoga studio, where you can at least complete all of your aerobic exercises and stretches in addition to yoga if you are a practicing yogi!
3. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Home Office
The third option on this list of the best ways to utilize a spare bedroom is to use it as a home office. While this point would have been relevant several years ago, it is even more relevant now. Remote work is at an all-time high, and many corporate careers have now shifted to be fully remote in nature. If you desire a full-time remote position, or a position that allows you to work in a hybrid role with some days at home and some in the office, using your spare bedroom as a home office is one of the best possible uses.
Working from home can be distracting, especially if you have little ones or animals running around. Having any roommate at all can even be a distraction! For these reasons, creating a room within your house where you can simply shut the door and focus on work is paramount to building success. This will help you to both do a better job with your work and also climb the ladder of success in your role. If you have your own business, one could argue that a home office is even more important, as you likely work long and odd hours solving the problems that face your business.
4. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Dedicated Reading Room or Library
We live in a world where there is constant stimulation coming in from every direction. It is often hard to find a space that is nice and quiet, even within our own homes. From the sounds of TV’s and phones to the barking dogs and playing kids, finding a quiet space to open up a book and really focus on its words can be a real challenge. These reasons are why the fourth way to use your spare bedroom is as a library or dedicated reading room.
Setting up a dedicated reading room, or library, within your home is one of the best ways to guarantee that you can always find this space to dive into a book. Not only is it helpful for your reading, but building a library can also be a very practical way of storing and displaying your book collection. While books could clutter up a bookshelf or table in your living room or bedroom, organizing them into a library in your spare bedroom is both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Further, seeing all of your books collected into one place is a great way to remember what you still have to read, and it can encourage you to make progress in your current book so that you can move onto the next one.
5. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Playroom
Normally, we don’t encourage messes. After all, if you want to preserve the value of your home, it is usually best to keep it as nice and neat as possible! However, the fifth way to use your spare bedroom is as a playroom for your children, if you have any. Creating a playroom offers many tangible benefits to parents, and it also gives children a sense of privacy and autonomy that they might not have elsewhere within the house.
Now, why is building a playroom advantageous for parents? Simply put, it limits the messes to one area. While kids will likely make messes in more than just the playroom, limiting the clutter of toys to just one room can make cleanup time much easier and straightforward. When their toys are scattered all around the house, cleaning them up can be an absolute nightmare. When you have a playroom and are in a pinch, you can always just close the door and address the mess later. As your children get older, you can teach them that the playroom is their own responsibility, and you can use the room as a way to show them how to organize their items. Long story short, having a playroom gives your kids a space that is truly theirs while also helping to keep your own spaces truly yours.
6. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Massive Walk-in Closet and Dressing Room
Who ever said there was such a thing as too much space for your clothing? While many homes come with walk-in closets, not every home does. For this reason, using your spare bedroom as a large walk-in closet and dressing room is a great option! This provides you with ample room to store your wardrobe, and you can also add properly angled mirrors to provide the best lighting when getting dressed. This gets excess clothing out of your bedroom and frees up any closets that you do have for storage of less aesthetically pleasing things.
Now, how would you go about turning a spare bedroom into a walk-in closet and dressing room? It’s actually not as hard as you might think. You can start by mounting rodding and shelves around part of the perimeter of the room, so that you can hang all clothes easily. Then, you can mount mirrors in positions that reflect light in the most flattering way based off of window and lighting positions. After that, you can take to a source like Pinterest to figure out how to decorate your new closet with style!
7. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Game Room
The seventh way to utilize your spare bedroom is by turning it into a game room. Turning your spare room into a game room provides you with a space that is always set up for fun and relaxation, leading to good memories and easy icebreakers any time you host. Much like having a playroom for your children keeps their toys all in one place, having a game room can help to consolidate your favorite entertainment pieces into one room.
While you could always play board games at a dining room table, setting up a game room enables you to have larger games, like ping pong or a pool table, and allows you to leave things set up consistently. Having a game room makes hosting easier, as you do not need to clear the dining room table to play games after dinner, and you can also use that space for appetizers and cocktails while you get dinner ready.
8. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Pet Room
Having pets can be an absolute joy. They say that dogs are a man’s best friend, and we would argue that all pets fall into that category! If you love your pets and treat them like a part of the family, doesn’t it make sense to give them their own space? While not everyone can do this, and it certainly isn’t up at the top of this list, providing your pets with their own room is a creative way to contain their messes to one space while giving them their own territory to enjoy.
Dogs, especially, are very territorial creatures, and giving them their own space to enjoy and own can be great for their temperament. In addition to that, containing the majority of their toys and shedding into one area can make cleaning easier for you, and it can also make putting them away easier when guests come over. If all of that weren’t enough, it contains the majority of their allergens into one space, which is a huge advantage if you have family or friends with dog allergies.
9. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Bar Room
If you do not like the idea of a game room but want an additional space to host guests, using your spare room as a bar room or lounge is one of the best possible ideas. Setting up a bar is not too difficult, and keeping it stocked with your favorite drinks is beneficial to both you and your guests! This space can be decorated with class, and it can also serve many purposes when you don’t have guests. This room can also function as your library or reading room, and you can have a glass of wine within reach while you read your book!
If you enjoy sports, this can also be a great type of room to put a big TV in. Imagine having your own sports bar at home! A leather chair, a nice TV, and your favorite drinks all in one place, without the need to pay restaurant prices for food and drinks while you turn on the game. When it comes to hosting, you can throw a virtual fireplace on the TV, mix up some of your favorite drinks for your guests, and use this space to entertain guests while the kitchen and dining room are used to prepare dinner.
10. Use Your Spare Bedroom as a Prayer or Meditation Room
The last, but certainly not least important way to use your spare room is to turn it into a prayer or meditation room. Much like how we mentioned it can be hard to find a quiet place to open up your favorite book if you do not have a dedicated library, it can also be hard to find a place to center yourself spiritually or religiously if you don’t have a dedicated reflection space. Having a place that is, in essence, you own temple, you can always guarantee an escape to your own type of serenity.
If you are religious, this space can be decorated with religious devotions and reminders from whatever religion you practice. If you are not religious, it can simply be filled with items and things that provide you peace and tranquility. Whether you decorate your room with candles and incense or motivational quotes, having a space that you can enter for the sole purpose of centering yourself is certainly a great idea, and a fantastic use of your spare room.
Thank you for reading our post on 10 ways to utilize a spare bedroom in your home! Hopefully these points have inspired you with ideas for your extra space. Whether you choose to turn it into a guest room, a game room, a bar, or something else, we hope that these points have at least opened your mind to the vast array of possibilities that exist for you in your own space. While this list is certainly not exhaustive, it should at least get your creative gears turning!
If you decide to visit Myrtle Beach or any other place in South Carolina and fall in love, reach out to us for help. We at The Boyd Team are always here to help you figure out whether Myrtle Beach is your next home or not, and we are committed to helping you find the right property for your needs and dreams. Any question that you have about moving to the area and finding your dream home by the beach is our pleasure to answer. Feel free to send us an email at eddie@boydteam.com or text or call us at (843) 222-8566, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Being true natives of the Grand Strand and Horry County and with over 25 years of experience in the local real estate market, whether buying or selling, we can help you make your dreams a reality.
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