Welcome back to the third edition of our Interior Design Rules blog series. If you missed the intro or the second post about floor plans, take a peek  now before continuing. Design rules are like building blocks- you need to build upon each Rule before you can get to the completed masterpiece. This design rule should actually be done in conjunction with the previous design rule.

Today we will be discussing ways to determine the best function for your room. Space is a vital commodity now a days with the ever growing number of people, buildings, cars, etc. in this world. Space is no less important when it comes to designing a room. 

I live in two bedroom 780 square foot home with a husband and very entergetic toddler. We have one closet and one small bathroom. We bought our house with the intention of fixing it up and from the very beginning I knew that we would need to be creative when it comes to figuring out storage solutions for our Stuff. Well, mostly my stuff. 

I will admit, I'm not naturally gifted at organization. I've had to teach myself over the years. When my husband and I got engaged he helped me move out of my apartment. When he saw the level of disorganization of my closet, and all the things I had stuffed under my bed, well let's just say he started to realize I was in need of a little organizational TLC. Luckily my husband is pretty good at this kind of stuff so I slowly learned from the best. I'm kind of stubborn.  (Just a little.)

So this is not coming from a place of judgement because, been there, done that. But hear me out when I say- when it comes time to designing your room you may need to purge some things. Keep thinking about this task as Living as minmally as possible (which is so anti-American I know). Part of having a well designed room is also having a place for everything. And everything in it's place. (A little humor for my corny friends.) So, how do you get there. 

1. Go through your stuff. 

You don't need to do it all in one day, taking your room little by little or section by section will work just fine for this exercise. 

Start by dividing your stuff into piles. My piles usually go something like "this is junk, no one will want it, throw away", "this is important memorabilia that I can display or store", "giveaway or sell", and "yes I need this". 

Notice I don't keep a "maybe" pile. My  motto is, make a descision now on each item and don't regret it. If I'm really stuck on an item then I answer the question "have I used this in the last 6 months?" If it's a no then I toss it or give it away. If it's a yes then I figure out if it's memorabilia and needs to stored or how I can make it more useful in my day to day, week to week life. 

2. Start organizing.

Do that for all your items in your room. Then either pack up the items you're selling, throw away the items that are junk, carefully put away the memorabilia items that you want to store, and for now put aside the items that you are keeping. Categorize those items by type (wall hanging items, decor items, paperwork, etc)  so that it will be easier to put them away later.  

This may seem like a tedious venture, but when you go through and organize what items you want to keep (what's essentially important to you), a picture emerges. You start to get an idea of what you will need when it comes to planning your space. Will you need more storage furniture? Or a cool way to display some artwork and pictures? Sometimes you need to go through your stuff to really know why your room wasn't working for you to begin with.

3. You're in charge

Now that the overall picture of your room starts to emerge, you can start looking at all of the details. Sometimes, this part of the process even helps you decide or settle on a design style for your space. It’s a chance to start over with your room. 

Pull out your floor plan that you did in part two of this series, and see if you need to make any tweaks based on all your organizing work. Like I said before, maybe you need more storage. Or you realized you really want an activity table in this room because you love making stuff, etc. Make some notes on your paper, and go back and tweak your plan if needed. 

Some questions to ask yourself while you do this exercise:

Do I entertain a lot? If the answer is yes then you may want furniture that allows flexibility and maybe sitting options (poufs under a console, an ottoman instead of coffee table, light weight lounge chairs, etc.)

Do I read a lot? If the answer is yes then you may want to incorporate a lot of storage. Maybe floor to ceiling bookcases or even try have someone do some built in storage for you. 

Do I watch t.v. often? If the answer is yes then you want to position your furniture to face your television and you want to find comfortable furniture to rest on.

Do I have kids or animals? If the answer is yes then you maybe want to think about durability of your furniture items. Maybe you need extra hidden storage for items, like cabinets or benches that open from the top, etc. 

These are just a few questions you can ask yourself, but it should help you get the ball rolling. Really think about how you use your room on a daily bases and keep asking yourself questions like those mentioned above. 

Guess what? Now you are officially the boss of your room. You are no longer going to feel overwhelmed or struggle to find things that you're missing, or just feel like your room is lack luster. During the next steps we will be bringing your room to life. Sorry to make you do all the boring stuff first. But it's worth it. I promise. 

Until next time!