In February, the zone I tackle is the spare bedroom. I like to do this room the month after the office because one of the uses of this room is off-site storage for my office. At this point in time, there are items jammed into this room that were pulled out of my office. The chaos bothers me, so now I am motivated to work in this zone. I want my spare bedroom to look neat and inviting. I want my guests and myself to be comfortable in this room. I want to be able to put my hands on all items stored here. Many of us use our spare bedrooms for multiple purposes. Mine serves as a place for guests to stay, a place to store wrapping paper and gifts, a place to store off season or rarely used clothes, a place to store pictures and memorability, and a place to keep items for my office that I don’t use on a daily or weekly basis. When organizing the bedroom, I think of all the different zones in that room (guests, wrapping/gifts, clothes, memorabilia storage, office storage) and then I organize my items in that zone to maximize the space available. As more items come into the area, some items need to be purged. I have purged more clothes this year and now have room to put in a couple more shelves in the closet pictured. This closet zone will hold my books, mailers, and items I use for presentations. There is still room for some long hanging clothes on the left. I have not redecorated this room since I moved into this house. I plan to change pictures, the bedspread, and other items with the help of organizer Tami Puckett of Mindful Redesign – http://mindfulredesign.com. I want the room to have a fresh look and reflect my interest in travel. I want this room done by the end of the month. The first week I will tackle the closet on the wall side shown. Then each week I will attack another wall. By the end of the month I hope to have this zone the way I want it for another year. What are the purposes of your spare bedroom? How do you make the one room serve multiple purposes and zones?
Jonda S. Beattie Professional Organizer