I live in an old cape in Maine by myself, with my three dogs as a rule. I have a friend living in a basement apt/man cave that he has made for himself for a while.

Like you, there are rooms that I don't use, despite making them 'pretty'. I work from home, often very long hours, so spend most of my time in my home office/sewing/upholstery room. I have a Hancock & Moore office chair in here that is SO comfy that I can spend many hours in it. After work, I tend to use my PC in here and watch TV . There's a loveseat in here too, that is good for dog cuddling.

I watch TV for maybe an hour in my bedroom before falling asleep.

My kitchen gets a lot of use as I love to cook and bake. The living room and dining rooms tend to be passed through to get the rooms I use more often! Guest Bedroom is where my youngest dog often perches on the antique spool bed to watch the wildlife such as turkeys out back.

My basement - the part that isn't the man cave - gets a lot of use for projects, and I have a wood working 'shop' off it with most of my power tools for projects. Those areas get a lot of use, too.

Even a couple doesn't always use all of the rooms in their house. One of our bedrooms and baths only gets used when we have guests or when I'm drip drying laundry. There is also one powder bath that is only used by guests. Once my parents no longer come for visits, we will probably try to downsize. The problem is that most smaller homes still cram as many rooms as we have into the smaller square footage and thus, feel really cramped to me.

I live in a small three-bedroom house. My sister stays here 2 or 3 nights a week, as her job has her working in my town a couple of days a week.

I find that I tend to hang out in whatever rooms are the most "finished," i.e. decorated and functional. And if one room is messy, for whatever reason, I tend not to use it as much. Which makes me keep things neater.

I have a home office that I use for most of my computer time and paperwork and stuff like that. The living room has the only tv, so that's where I watch tv. There's also a comfy reading chair, but I have to make myself use that instead of reading in bed sometimes. The living room also has an old library table that I use for writing short notes to friends and projects that I don't want to keep putting away, like organizing all the family photos.

The dining room gets used for meals, most of the time. Sometimes I eat in front of the tv. There's also a comfy reading chair in there, because a) it's a huge room and b) it gets the morning sun and the living room doesn't, so on weekends, I like to spend a morning reading in there.

You really have to plan what activities you want to do where, and then work to make the room support those activities.

For example, I have a lovely porch--it's a big part of why I chose to live here. But I had a rag-tag collection of not-very-comfortable outdoor furniture, and I almost never spent time out there.

So I bought a wicker love seat and table, and created a comfortable place to sit. And then discovered that the evening sun slants in right in my eyes when I try to sit out there after work and relax. So I bought a solar shade that blocks the light but not the breeze and offers a bit of privacy, as well. Now I'm using the porch a lot more in the warmer months. I go out there to read, and there's a comfortable place to sit, a stool to prop my feet on, a table to hold my drink and no sun glaring in my eyes. The porch is screened, so I can leave the door to the house open and the cats can come and go as they please.

If you moved to the house from a smaller apartment or condo, you might not have the right furniture to use each room to its fullest yet. Spend some time in each room, sitting there and maybe trying to read or surf the net or figure out if this is where you want the tv to go. Which rooms work best for day? night? quiet activities? working out? visiting with friends?

Then you get the fun of decorating and furnishing each room to work for you.

Yes, I'm still furnishing my rooms--functionality and visual interest first, and working on filling in the "blanks" next.

Hence, my addition of a screened porch; and my intention to pretty up the "office." I'm thinking of painting the walls in that room, putting in laminate flooring, and shelves. But pretty! With color!

But my living room/dining area/family room which is all one big space is about 70% done, and very pretty. I feel like I should spend more time in there . . . . I need more comfy sitting areas, I think.

Very nice comments, guys -- glad to know I'm not the only singleton out there.

Nope, you're not the only one. :) I spend most of my time in my living room -- it's the first room I got done. I have a three-bedroom, 2-bath, 1500 sf house I bought in May and moved into in July of last year. I have a fully furnished dining room, and I never eat in there solo. I've found that I'm spending some more time in my bedroom since I put a TV in there, but not that much more. My guest bedroom ... I'm never in there. And the third bedroom is upstairs, and I just use it for storage. I NEED to get up there and get those boxes unpacked, but ... :) Here's the thing: It's YOUR house. Hang where you want to! :)

I think this is a great question and as F2BH said, it doesn't only apply to singles.

DH and I are still in the 4 br, 2.5 ba 2 story house we raised our boys in with never-ending plans to move.
We no longer use our dining room regularly, maybe 3 - 4 times/year.
We absolutely do not use our living room , though it's cozy, not at all formal. Once in a blue moon I'll go in there to read.
We *live* in our kitchen/family room which is one open space, has comfy sofa and chairs, the tv and the eating nook.
One bedroom is DH's office and used regularly.
2 bedrooms are for infrequent visits of far-away sons (or another guest although that's another blue moon scenario)
One bedroom is ours, of course.
There is an additional room on the 2nd floor that we've turned into a gym and that gets regular use.
Then there's the 3 season sun room and a large deck that get some use, but enough to justify? Maybe.
And a full unfinished basement that houses DH's business workshop and stores some of the overwhelming inventory of a remodeling business.
And an oversized 2.5 car garage, rafters packed with more business inventory.
And a large shed.

So what do we really *need*?? A tiny 1 br house and a HUGE workshop/gym (that I DO NOT HAVE TO CLEAN)- that's what! Except that when we move it will be away from family/friends here, even farther from our sons than currently and to a lovely area where we anticipate people will want to visit so we'll need space to entertain and put up guests comfortably!! Will we actually downsize/minimize our lives? Don't bet on it.

wow, dim2000. Lots of space!

I think this really gets into the minimansion and "not so big" house issues, too, as well as trends in multi-generational living and downsizing. How much space do we really need? How much space do we really want to clean and heat/cool/light?

I know if I were a home designer (in my dream of dreams) I would design homes so much differently!

This post was edited by Violet.West on Fri, Feb 7, 14 at 12:22

I was thinking more about the guest bedroom situation and I started to wonder about the necessity. In all the years that we lived in apartments, my parents would stay in a hotel when they came to visit us. Why, now that I own a home, am I expected to provide guest quarters? I'm not complaining about it because I love having guests stay with us, but just wondering about the psychological aspect. Our apartments often had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so I don't think space was the issue. Hmmm...

I wish I could combine my two small bedrooms into one spare room/office. I think that would horrify real estate agents and appraisers should I ever try to re-sell, though.

Sometimes people just prefer their own space when visiting friends or relatives. They can get up when they want, have breakfast etc. basically keep their own routine as close to possible. I'm wondering if this is an "older" person thing?

My sister and I often joke about the perfect length of stay for a house guest. We both feel that anything over five days is out of our comfort zone.(Although we don't count the travel days of coming and going as part of the five.) Of course we put up with longer if necessary. But, when we visit each other, we find shorter visits best and more enjoyable.

My little place is way smaller than most; I spend time in my LR and bedroom, and usually am too busy to get involved in my basement studio plus the stairs are an issue most days. Two upstairs rooms right now are mostly storage and not so accessible, either. The other bedroom on the main floor is not used as it holds my beloved antique dining table and china cab and is too awkward to use. Don't know how families were raised in such small homes without suitable dining space! There's no room in the kitchen! I am looking for a larger home on all one level which includes a garage, for my retirement home. MUST have a dining room or large eat-in kitchen area and would love to have a screen porch. I do not want a second "living room" (family room) ; one's enough..Need a guest room combo office, and a third bedroom, most likely, to convert to laundry/fitness/storage. Where ever I go I need to be able to fit in my current furniture....and a large outdoor area with suitable gardening space....finger's crossed.

I find this thread fascinating. My mother in law will be downsizing into an attached in law apartment in the house we are building. Her new apartment is on ground level with its own patio, screened porch and small side yard. Inside she will have about 800 sq ft: a pantry/mudroom, large eat in kitchen, livingroom, bedroom and bathroom with laundry.

She keeps her privacy and can maintain a small side yard but no longer needs to worry about house maintenance, ground maintenance or cleaning 10 unused rooms. Her old house was too large for just one and she was having a difficult time finding a small home in a great location that was not a high rise or a restricted community that didn't allow dogs over 25lbs.

We as a family have lived in small and large. I prefer the medium sized house with no unused rooms. Knowing how we live, I'm confident we won't have that room that sits empty 96% of the time.

As a single I think it would be key to just redefine spaces. If you no longer dine in the dr make a library or sewing/craft or even music room instead.

Violet it would be fairly easy to tear down a wall or cut out a wide wide opening and then throw a wall back up for resale. If it's a huge negative on resale. Live for today not for the what if.

Peegee- good luck on your new house hunt! My fingers are crossed for you.

your MIL is so lucky! In fact, I think the mother-in-law cottage is a viable and up-and-coming reboot to the housing situation. When I was house shopping, I really tried to find a home that I could have an Accessory Dwelling Unit that I could rent out for income, or later have a family member live in or live in myself, but just couldn't swing it. It's about the only thing I compromised on when I chose my house.

I'd really almost like a studio set up--with a usuable outdoor space and utility areas, but there doesn't appear to be such an animal. As far as joining the rooms -- dunno, the connecting wall has the rooms closets, and the doorways/hallway is shaped funny, so not sure it really could be done.

This post was edited by Violet.West on Sat, Feb 8, 14 at 12:25