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You Asked... Each month, readers write asking questions about organizing their homes or offices. This month's question was asked by Margot in Knoxville, Tennessee. Margot writes, "I would like to see some organizational tips on combining my small spare bedroom into a guest room and sewing room." 1. First, you'll need to think about how often you use the spare room for overnight guests. In my experience working with clients over the past seven years, most guest rooms end up being used only a few times throughout the year, which wastes space that could be used every day. The name of the game here is making the room into a multi-use space. Consider using a futon or pull-out sofa in place of a regular bed in the room. This will allow you to use the room for other functions but when guests come, it's easily and quickly converted into a bedroom. 2. Face it, unless your guests are staying for months, they won't need more than a few feet of hanging space for clothing in the guest room closet. This room is part of your home and you deserve to have it work for you. Turn the closet into an effective storage area for sewing equipment, crafting items, fabrics and other items by dividing it in half and shelving one half top to bottom. This way, you keep a few linear feet of hanging space for guest clothing (and your own out of season clothing) and you create homes for the items you want in that room. 3. Set up the room according to the most important function first. If sewing will be its primary function, put in the sewing machines and work tables first, adding the guest room furnishings after the fact. Don't worry about providing a dresser for guests' clothing, as you'll lose a lot of floor space. Instead, place a set of plastic drawers inside the closet on the floor, which should suffice for most overnight guests. 4. If you wish to add wall shelves for storing items close at hand, check out the Elfa product line. It's one of my favorite products for closet and shelving components. The great thing about Elfa shelving is that it's very strong, yet it attaches by affixing a top track with just a few screws at the top of your wall. If you move, you just unsnap the shelves from the standards, remove the screws from the track and you can take the entire system with you. 5. Remember that you don't have the luxury of keeping everything. Undoubtedly, you have accumulated items that are not necessary, useful or valuable. Cull out any old items as you set up your new space. Be ruthless! Donate the cast-off items to a local charity or directly to people in your community through your local Freecycle program. Remember, don't let your guest room just sit there unused 98% of the year! You deserve to use all the space in your home, so turn that guest room into a multi-purpose space that works for you every day and converts quickly to accommodate guests when necessary. Blog American Style I've been having fun blogging for a few months now. I'm writing about the organizing industry, interesting things that happen to me, my travel, my work, and have also begun recommending books that I've read and enjoyed. I invite you to stop by, check out my latest blog entries and let me know your thoughts, opinions and comments on Key West, Canada, organizing, hockey and Jack Canfield's books. Upcoming HGTV Appearances Be sure to catch me on these upcoming episodes of HGTV's popular show, Mission:Organization! Episode #503 Restoring Office Functionality We take a chaotic, disorganized home office and make it beautiful and functional for a young professional couple expecting their first baby. Airs: November 23, 2005 at 2pm. Episode #513 Multipurpose Activity Room We transform a messy, disorganized craft room into a gorgeous, functional and organized space where this creative homeowner can craft, sew, relax and be herself in comfort! Airs: December 6, 2005 at 2pm. Episode #609 Home Office Cleanup Watch as we take a gigantic, chaotic loft space and turn it into a combination room where the residents can hang out, entertain, work in the home office, and guests have a place to sleep! This is truly multi-functional! Episode #702 Reclaiming The Bedroom A single professional woman gets a bedroom makeover that goes from paralyzing to perfect! This suburban townhome's bedroom starts out cluttered and hard to live in, and ends up looking like a swanky New York studio! Book Review My new book, Organize Your Office In No Time. (Que Publishing) is available at Amazon.com and through most retail booksellers. Here is a recent review posted by a reader on Amazon: I was looking for something to help me organize my office. As owner of a busy company, I need all the help I can get in keeping things straight. This book was recommended to me by a friend and it was exactly what I was looking for. I found it to be very easy to read and easy to implement. The structure of the book was organized (go figure) which helped me fit it into my busy schedule and start implementing recommendations immediately. "Organize Your Office in No Time" is filled with great ideas and easy to understand tips and tricks for organizing my workspace and I highly recommend it. -M. Donnelly, Miami FL Declutter Your Life By Freecycling! Decluttering your life is a wonderful way to rid yourself of the things that no longer give you value. It is also a great way to help someone in need at the same time. All over the world, people are helping others and decluttering their lives by giving away the things they no longer need, through FREEcycle.org. This means fewer items are going into the trash and filling up the landfills of our planet.
Monica Ricci is an Organizing Specialist, the author of the book Organize Your Office In No Time and the founder of Catalyst Organizing Solutions, an Atlanta based company that helps individuals be organized and effective at home and at work.You can see Monica on the popular HGTV show, MISSION:Organization. For media interviews or appearances, or to schedule Monica to speak to your conference, team, or association, or for an on-site organizational evaluation, contact her at 770-569-2642 or by email at Monica@CatalystOrganizing.com (c)2005 Catalyst Organizing. All Rights Reserved. | ||