Laundry Room Makeover - Your New Home Office!

By T.B. Heeler

 

Every modern married woman needs a home office these days, just like lady writer Virginia Woolf told us in her 1929 A Room of One's Own. A properly organized homemaker's office can be just like a real office, with a desk and coffee cans full of pens and everything. Even better, it can serve a variety of functions. The best multi-purpose 'offices' these days combine pantry, laundry and combination gift wrapping station/crafts table/desk. If space allows, you could even have filing cabinets like in a real office (old cardboard boxes work well) and use them to build up your recipe library, keep household accounts, file coupons and organize your children's homework.

 

This room is also a good place to feed your pets or stash your kitty's litter box. You don't want that stinking up the rest of the house now do you?

 

One of the many advantages to your multi purpose 'office' is that studies show that married men spend almost 99 % less time in the laundry room than married women. This adds up to peace and quiet for you. Unless you count the gentle swish of the washing machine as noise, and even if you do, it's the kind of nice white noise that blocks out the sound of other family activities. If the noise of the washer does get distracting, you can muffle the noise and ease your distraction by taking a short break to sit on the machine while it works through the spin cycle. These breaks can be surprisingly relaxing! The better washers have options like extra spin cycles for longer breaks and this is definitely worth the investment. Men are usually more impressed by mechanized household necessities, as opposed to soft furnishings, and will often open their wallet a little wider for these types of purchases. There might not be much left over for your desk and chair if you get a really great washing machine, but you can create your own workstation surprisingly easily with a few surplus items from the garage and a glue gun. Bricks and boards, milk crates, upturned garbage cans with an old door on top? Thank big - you're only limited by your own imagination!

 

Because 'office jobs', like writing Christmas cards or clipping coupons, can lead to the dreaded secretary spread, you'll want to make sure that your special room promotes fitness and a good diet. Remember the pets? Keeping the litter box right under your desk is a guaranteed appetite suppressant - another bonus! You should also keep ankle and wrist weights on hand to wear while you're in your 'office'. That way you can get a little workout as you type up letters and fold laundry. And if you need a break, just 'do' some laundry. .

 

It is best not to have any windows in this type of office. Windows rob you of precious wall space which is needed for a fold-down ironing board, pantry shelves and if, space allows, a nice big cork board to hold a year-round birthday and holiday planner and cute cartoons from Readers Digest. Besides which, you want privacy in your 'Room of Your Own' - especially when you take your laundry breaks.

 

© 2007 TB Heeler

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 

TB Heeler hates laundry - and windowless rooms. Unfortunately, and probably because she didn't help out around the house as much as she should of in her past lives, she is mired in laundry in this life. And spent most of her misspent youth in a converted furnace room basement suite. No wonder she's a bit bitchy about laundry rooms.