Let me start by acknowledging the frivolousness of this post. I am not complaining so much as consulting the web on an annoyance. see, I am blessed with a large living space. According to the paperwork my home is 4100 sq ft of interior space ( and like 7 sq ft of exterior, but that is another post). Having so much living space is what my wife refers to as a ‘first world problem’ but it is a problem nonetheless. I don’t believe in waste and we waste a great deal of this space by practically avoiding in on a daily basis. There are only a handful of areas in the house where the family actually spends time. We congregate in the downstairs family area and the kids haunt my office and the occasional closet. Outside of that, the rooms get little use. I’ve tried to create spaces that invite them to use the house, but it doesn’t work. So the problem is: how do you make the unused spaces more engaging?
When we moved into the house the first thing I did was divide the front room into a library and a sitting room. I expected those two spaces to get a lot of use, because three out of five of us are big readers. We use the space solely to collect reading material and then go elsewhere. Even the cat abandoned the library, preferring to stare out of the yard window in search of potential prey.
Beside the library is the sitting room, a quiet place to congregate, relax, and read. The eldest uses it for his daily school-mandated reading hour, which is the only use it gets. The lighting is good and there is seating here for 5 people spread across two couches. Still, only one person enjoys the space.
My office is a nightmare in progress. Files lay strewn haphazardly across the floor flanked by beyblades and the discarded body parts of Lego heroes. Torn paper and forgotten origami completes the picture of what was meant to be my fortress of solitude. I’d rather have the space to myself but invasion and destruction is a weekly occurrence.
When they aren’t destroying my personal space, they’re in the family room/living room where the big TV and the Xbox reside across from a couch that can seat about 9. This room is linked to the kitchen for easy food access and to the small open dining area, which we use when we pretend civility.
The loft and the bedrooms are upstairs. I recently converted one of the bedrooms into a study room and offered additional ‘allowance’ for those who used the space for homework and reading. No go. The space sits empty and wasted. The loft is home to the wii U and the homemade treehouse in which their gaming computer resides. A drum set in the far corner of the room completes the space. The only time this room sees action is when video games are being played. Given their predilection for all things x-box, this room sees the least amount of action.
So, there’s the problem. All of this amazing space wasted on a family that seems to want to be on top of each other most of the time. I’ve heard of worse problems, but this is the one I am supposed to solve.