It’s always a good thread idea if conversation has turned to the topic in another thread!
How do you use your guest/bonus room(s) if you have them? Storage? Multipurpose? Empty? Stuffed full?
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Haha—I’m sleeping in D’s bedroom as we speak. I’ve found that both H & I sleep better when we sleep. in different room and different beds. When D is here, I sleep in same room and bed as H but we are more likely to wake one another.
D’s room is right next to ours so I can hear H if he needs me for anything
I can sleep in S’s room as well, as he doesn’t visit as often or stay as long as D. They like us to leave “their rooms” without much change so they can be comfortable when they visit. D visits 2-3x most years for weeks to a month. S visits once or more every year for a week of longer at a time.
I have put a few garments in their closets as well as other items.
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My middle sons room was a rather large upstairs “sunken” bonus room with extra large walk-in close. All travel luggage/bags/cubes and ski clothes, jackets, etc. are in there. The room itself is being turned into a second “den” with television, sectional, swivel chair and is adjacent to the newly refurbished and updated guest bedroom that used to be the kids playroom. The closet in that guest room is empty and I recently updated the bathroom with new paint, vanity top, mirror, lighting, toilet, and hardware on vanity, sink, and shower/tub. Amazing how different and refreshed just updating can do with little $$. We have a downstairs guest bedroom across from the downstairs full bathroom but the closet in that bedroom holds my large appliances on floor to ceiling shelving - crockpot, instant pot, vacuum sealer, paper towels, toilet paper, punch bowl, large serving and specialty dishes. There is a chest at the bottom of the bed holding spare blankets, pillows, throws. Youngest son’s bedroom holds all the crap that came out of the other two rooms 
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Our primary guest room is now in the basement and is just a guest room but, we sleep down there ourselves when it gets above 90 and our A/C can’t keep up. (The basement is a nice a cool 67 through the summer).
Our secondary guest room is set up as a guest room (queen bed, dresser, night stand, chair, and an antique washstand but I have linens in the bottom drawers of the dresser (guests have four empty drawers) and we have the vacuum, tool box, and a step ladder in the small walk in closet. There is still room for guests to hang things but these are the items we use frequently enough that we want them handy. Ideally we’d move those things into the office closet but it’s currently full with our outwear, ski gear, and H’s secondary luggage.
D’s room is still set up as her room and her armoire and closet are empty so she can fully unpack when she’s home.
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My husband & I are in this category, too! I actually sleep in the “guest / storage / utility room” with the treadmill and the giant wardrobe thing with crafting stuff. I admit that I like it in here because I can do all these things without waking anyone 
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I have turned the second bedroom into a study, a place where I work when I am not in the office. I took out the bed, put in a sofa bed, a decorative bookshelf, and a very large walnut table in front of a window. I have big flat monitor on the desk. I painted the room dark grey/blue. It’s a very comfortable place to work.
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Oh gosh yes! I most DEFINITELY sleep better by myself. Second best is separate beds in the same room. I almost always try to get 2 beds in hotel rooms.
Extra bedrooms…
Bedroom #5 (“Daybed room”) was originally supposed to be the more feminine room. It has a white wash finished daybed and a small little white dresser - a $100 purchase from Toy R Us that has held up remarkably well in 28 years. However, it’s turned into H’s toy/ebay room. It’s covered with all kinds of Godzilla and Castle Greyskull sets, and lots of other things. The tiny closet built in the corner of the room, and the dresser housed younger S’ overflow stuff. Drawers are mostly empty. I think H might have some shipping stuff in them. Closet is mostly the same.
Bedroom #4 (“XBox room”) originally had the Xbox, a big wardrobe that came with the house and housed the Xbox, a computer desk, also inherited from the previous owners, a couch and 2 gaming chairs. No closet. Computer desk is gone. Wardrobe is still there with remants of the Xbox. Couch is still there. H has taken over most surfaces with more of his collectibles.
Bedroom #3 (Younger S) looks much like it did when S went to college. I haven’t touched it. Dressers are somewhat empty.
Bedroom #2 (Older S) looks about the same as his brother’s. His drawers were more empty, but H has started putting his extra T-shirts in some of them. He has also added more collectible to the surfaces here, as well as his closet. (Do we see a theme?) The closet mostly looks like it did when S left. There’s a bookshelf with tons of books and more shelves with old toys, cards, misc kid stuff.
I don’t see any real reason to clean out the kids’ rooms any time soon. I don’t need the space. I rarely go in them. I start off sleeping in the bed with H and then when I get up in the night, I move to the XBox couch. The couch is my preference.
We almost never have guests beyond the kids. You can count on one hand the number of guests we’ve had in 30 years. And even so, it seems odd to me to save the space for their clothes? If I am a guest somewhere, it wouldn’t occur to me to use the drawers and not just live out of my suitcase, but I haven’t been a guest anywhere for lengthy periods of time (weeks). Edit - the only time I have ever used drawers while traveling is when we were a beach condo for a week and then the cruise ship with its tiny cabin. Otherwise, I leave everything in the suitcase.
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We have four bedrooms. The smallest was the guest room, but we turned D’s room into a guest room after she moved out. We turned S’s room into a bedroom for our GD - it’s bubblegum pink and filled with Barbie’s Dream House & lots of kids’ books. I decided to turn the old guest room into a sort of den/study, so we donated that bed to a family who was in need of beds for their kids. (I still haven’t really turned that room into a den/study … it’s got a dresser, S’s childhood desk, the grandfather clock we got stuck with, and two “extra” dining chairs that we can’t fit in the dining room. But no true junk, at least!) Then … H started sleeping in the new guest room because he wakes up every time I move (which is a lot). So now we don’t technically have a guest room, but H can suck it up & sleep in “my” room if we have guests. S stayed over on Christmas, and he was fine staying in the Barbie room.
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We have three extra bedrooms. So any of them really could be a guest room depending on how many guests we have at once. Both of our kids’ former bedrooms have some of their “stuff” in them still, but less and less. It is still very obvious which room belonged to which kid. Our kids both have their own places with their own rooms now…so they don’t really care about their old rooms at home much.
DD’s room is usually first up as a guest room.
DS’s room is closed off from the cat so anyone with allergies goes there to sleep. But it’s also the area where I gift wrap all gifts. So…there is wrapping paper, tissue paper, tape, ribbon and scissors. I also buy gifts when I see them, and they are in that room also (in the closet).
Our upstairs office has a single bed in it. Seldom gets used. That closet has older blankets on the shelf (I’d get rid of the LLBean wool blankets, but DH is not on board). And it has all the gowns my DD won’t part with…yet. I cull those one at a time…and she hasn’t noticed..yet.
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As I wrote in the luggage thread, we have three spare bedrooms. All quite small at 10’x12’ each. Two are upstairs and one is down. The downstairs one is being used as an office. One upstairs is a guest room. The other will be for guitar playing and exercising. Will keep it sparse for future use as another guest room/nursery for grands if necessary. True guest room only has nightstands. Too small for a dresser. The closet in the guest room is empty. Closet in the guitar playing/exercise room has bedding for our blow up bed, so it can currently be used as a second guest room for sleeping if necessary. Office closet has office-y stuff.
NB - all bedrooms awaiting window treatments which have been ordered but aren’t in yet. Also, no stuff on the walls yet - we are getting there.
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Both kids have their dressers full of clothing that they wear when they visit—tshirts, jeans, shorts, swimsuits, etc. They both have some clothing in closet hanging too.
DIL always wondered why S could travel with so little until she realized how much S had in his dresser.
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We have four bedrooms.
One is the master.
One is the guest room, and is kept pretty pristine waiting for guests. I keep my overflow shoes and bags and suitcases in that closet.
One is what we call DH’s “paint room.” His hobby is painting and that’s where he works, at a big desk. There’s also a twin bed in there, and he makes that his “nest” at night. I generally go to bed waaaay before he does and that’s where he reads.
The fourth is the “library.” It has a couch and a loveseat and lots of bookshelves with books from when we used to buy them. If it were up to me, which it’s not, they’d all be gone. I use that room to pack my suitcase when I’m traveling to S1’s or S2’s, so I also leave stuff in there that I’m taking to them so I don’t forget it.
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In our 3 bedroom house, where we raised our daughter, her room was left as hers (to use when she visited) and the 3rd bedroom was my office (desk, computer, etc.) In our downsized 2 bedroom apartment, the second bedroom serves both purposes. It has a small bed, which we can use to nap or my daughter sleeps in when she visits, and it also has my desk, computer, my comfy reading chair, and bookcases.
As I have mentioned in the storage of luggage thread, in all cases, the storage in the extra bedrooms are mine for off season stuff.
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When we bought our house it was described as a 4 bedroom home. Indeed it was but one of the bedrooms was right off the front entry (with a small foyer) and had French doors on it! (Not sure who’d want that for their bedroom)! When we realized that our house, somewhat open concept (but built in 1940) didn’t really have a dining space or dining room our realtor suggested we make that 4th bedroom into our dining room! French doors, perfect! We removed the doors and “insides” on the double door closet and turned it into a recessed bar area. I still need a little art in this space (it looks more spacious than it is) - it has special lighting for that space only and really cozies up the room.
In addition to our very spacious master, we have 2 bedrooms upstairs, a large loft vaulted area (our second living space) and a full bath. This is where our kids stay when they visit - or anyone else I guess. This is not the home any of our kids grew up in so they were “clean slate” rooms. One of the bedrooms had a funky build out in it - we had NO idea how to use that space - good space for a little person if we had one? Well, it turned out to be the most perfect spot for my office. I love the coziness of it and yes, I can stand and walk into it without hitting my head. It’s very quiet and I LOVE it. Outside of this cubby hole is an entire full bedroom with plenty of room for visitors and a big walk in deep closet - almost a small attic that I use to store some things but there is also some shelving for hanging clothes.
The final bedroom is a bed room with a good sized closet and we do store our holiday stuff and wrapping/gift stuff in that closet - the daughter that uses that room uses the floor anyway for her stuff lol. (There is a dresser in the room and she could use part of the closet!)
I love thinking of new ways to use spaces in a home. I want no rooms that don’t have a purpose but also are orderly and not overburdened with stuff.
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Most of you have more room than we do. We have two decent sized bedrooms and one very small third bedroom. I’ve already told D22 the second she moves out I’m taking her room and moving her stuff to the tiny room. In fact, as she would be quick to tell you, I’ve already taken some of her room over. I actually tried to get her to move into the small room this summer while she’s living at home; she declined. There is only living room, dining room, and kitchen (not eat in, not a lot of space) downstairs. While I am able to throw things out, I’m no minimalist so I need ALL the closet space and then some. Guests are relatively infrequent and make do. It never occurred to me to leave closet space or dresser space for a guest. Even my very proper mother never did that even when she had a proper guest room. Honestly the one bathroom situation in my house is more of an issue when we have guests than lack of closet space (everyone makes do, it’s fine).
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- Largest Enclosed Room – Home theater with projector, speakers built in to walls, stadium seating, etc.
- Large Open Room – Gym #1
- Bedroom – Gym #2
- Bedroom – Gym #3
- Bedroom – Has appearance of a home office, including desk with computers. Computers are older and run home automation for house. I do actual home office like work elsewhere.
- Bedroom with best view of street / front yard – Guest room for visitors. My dog has taken this over as her room when there are not visitors. She spends a lot of time monitoring activity outside and sleeping in this room.
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So I gotta ask – three different gyms??
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We didn’t have a guest room when the kids were here, but S’s room is now the guest room (except his sisters don’t like to stay there because he apparently convinced them it was haunted…?).
Girls’ room is now my office/second guest room for anyone who wants to chance the leaky air mattress.
And apparently the sofa bed in the living room is unsleepable, so we can’t comfortably host multiple guests. Which, actually, is just fine with me.
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S’s bedroom has a futon double bed with a great mattress pad, and is further from our bedroom, so that’s our official “guest room.” It’s slightly larger than D’s tiny 10’x10’ room & also has our only TV.
D’s room has a very comfortable single bed but her uninsulated bedroom single wall is shared with our master bedroom so it’s less optimal as a guest room, for their comfort & ours.
We rarely have house guests other than S and D and now DIL. Our few guests have been happy enough in S’s bedroom, even with no dresser space and little closet space.
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We have an en suite guest room and a casita at the AZ house, and the lower-level walkout of our cabin is a private guest apartment that includes a sitting area and dry bar. I’ve posted many pics of these spaces over the years here. DH is currently building out another bedroom with bunk beds opposite the apartment area of the cabin’s lower-level which I posted recently here.
Our guest spaces are maintained for guests only, no storage creep from the rest of the dwelling. Each features a fully stocked medicine cabinet, nightlights, coffee machine, hair dryer, essential toiletries, soaps/body wash, shampoos/conditioners, fluffy towels, robes, nice hangars, extra blankets/pillows, etc. and the closet/dressers/nightstands are completely empty for guest use only. Years ago I read an article that encouraged hosts to spend a night or two in their own guest room to determine what it might be lacking. From that experience and our years in hotels, I’ve attempted to ensure nothing is amiss. Before guests arrive, I stock the mini fridges, turn down the bed, fill the bedside carafe with ice water, and put a vase of fresh flowers, a small bowl of fruit, and assorted K-cups/pods on the dresser or table. Our goal with guests is to provide them ample space, storage, supplies, and total privacy so they do not feel they are imposing on us in any way. We encourage long-term stays. When they leave, I do not want them to attempt any stripping or cleanup. I am happy to take care of all of that.
When our son left for his first duty station, I turned his casita into a guest apartment that acts as my she-shed on occasion.
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