How often do you use the guest room? Our kids have small bedrooms, which isn't a problem for my two sons, but my daughter is an "accumulator" and I am about to let her take over part of our guest room, which is rarely used and is right next to her room. I am putting a desk in there for her to use, since there's no room for a desk in her room. We can still easily use the room for guests -- just tidy up the desk and move her stuff out of there for as long as the guest is there (usually just 1-2 nights). Maybe you could do something similar with your guest room? A desk may not make sense, but you could use some cabinets (with doors to "hide" the toys when guests are there) along one wall, or even under-bed boxes to stash the toys in.

Could she use a twin bed? Maybe one with storage underneath? There are so many cute and practical storage/furniture options these days...I'm sure you can give her plenty of space in the bedroom and maybe incorporate some other storage, in the guest room. The garage sounds like a great bonus space :)

8.5x11 is not that much different from 10x10 in terms of space. Unless there is a particular layout problem the 10x10 room solves, I don't think swapping bedrooms will help.

You might consider a daybed with a trundle. It will free up a lot of floor space for play, but she'll be able to pull the trundle out when she is older and having friends sleep over.

I have 3 kids (one going off to college tomorrow). They all have small rooms and taking another bedroom or putting stuff in the garage were not options and, though we have a family room, I prefer all their stuff in their rooms after they outgrew the preschool years. All of them only had twin sized beds but in each case we made the most of the under bed for either storage drawers or a trundle for sleepovers. Next I made the most of their closet space by installing a modular closet system so that I could store not only clothes, but storage bins for toys with smaller pieces or arts & crafts supplies. The combination of adjustable shelving paired with closet poles for clothes proved very versatle over the years because as they age, they always seem to need lots of storage, it's just the contents that differs. I also would include drawers as well and in two of the three rooms were able to eliminate the need for a dresser. All my kids have had desks in their rooms, the older two had a hutch top making use of the vertical space. I also tend to use wicker storage baskets in both of my DD's rooms which are attractive spaces to store extra stuff. I recently upgraded my DS to a double bed as I felt he could use the larger bed plus I could use it as a guest room when he is away at college. His room is about the size of your DD's room and it has really cut down on his floor space A LOT. I much prefer kid's rooms of this size to have twin beds. As they grown older, it becomes more important for them to have a space of their own to play and/or with friends. I do think there is some merit, though, to creating a separate homework/crafts area, if space allows, perhaps using the closet and a desk in the adjacent guest room.

Here are my two DD's rooms which may give you some ideas.

DD2 has a popup trundle below this bed which she uses for sleepovers.

DD1's room is the tiniest at 9x9 so we made use of every inch. Bed is a captain's bed with storage drawers below. She is typical teenage girl now, lots of clothes, accessaries, sports paranephelia, and needs space for school stuff like books, supplies, laptop, etc. This is about as clean as it ever gets. The bones of her room, the furniture, was bought when she was around 10 and then we added the folding bookcase when she started high school.

A few closet pics before we remodeled DD2's room:

Your house situation sounds a bit like ours. I have two girls sharing a room. I just repurposed our guest room into our school/craft room. I currently have bunkbeds in the girl's room, but I'm swapping with my sister for her twin beds so when we have guests, they'll sleep there. The girls will use a blow-up mattress in the school room when guests are here. I figured that having a whole room devoted to visitors who only come a few times a year made absolutely no sense. We really need that space for homeschool and all my craft stuff...and it's made a huge difference in how our home functions.

I will say that you have to be the one to set a limit on toys and things your child/children accumulate. My girls have two medium sized boxes that most of their toys have to fit in. When those boxes overflow it's time to donate. Thankfully they are very happy to share with others and they are the ones to decide what gets donated. We've always talked openly with them about why we don't allow an overabundance of toys and never have a problem saying no to things we don't want in our home. I would continue this in any sized home, but it's especially important in a small home to keep things under control.

Being that you have an extra room that probably does not get alot of use by guests, I would use it as a multi-function room. If you have a closet that's large enough, you could make that your office closet and the room could be her playroom. Get the toys under control so the room can be easily transformed into a guestroom with a blow-up mattress.

my 2 boys have tiny bedrooms, much like yours. They have drawers under their beds and built in drawers inside of the closet, which eliminates the needs for a dresser. Because I have minimal furniture in the room, the room feels larger than it is. My older son (12yo) has a desk in his room which he has NEVER used to study. He prefers to do all his homework in the kitchen. We have plenty of space in the kitchen.

We have a huge playroom which has 90+% of their toys. Because we have a large playroom, I have not felt the needs to have a larger room. I actually prefer having a play room where the kids can sprawl out and play when other kids come over. We also have the kids sleep in there for the sleep overs.

I like the idea of separating bedroom from the playroom. It makes the bedroom more of their sanctuary, quiet place and a private place.

Why do you need to have a guest room? How often do you have guests? I do not see the need for a dedicated guest room which is basically a wasted space unless you have guests often (weekly!). I would nix the guest room and use it as an office or even a media room. I don't like having TV in a room that blares the sound everywhere. I like going to people home and having people over where there is no presence of TV, but that is me.

If you are not using the garage to park, use it suit your needs. No need to NOT use it. Again, this is great opportunity for a playroom/media room since this is a large room.

Thank you everyone for sharing; and all of you made really valid points and offered great suggestions. I'd still love to hear how others have solved this problem,since hearing more stories will expand my awaeness of various solutions possible.

While on this topic, how often is it reasonable to change the room decor? I realize that what we have now worked great from yr 2.5-now and may be another 2 years. After that, as homework+project time grows, we will really need to provide her with a lot of space to do her projects etc. Does this seem reasonable or should I expect things to go differently? Thanks again for your help!

Valinsv -- amazing spaces btw!

My DD's room changed around age 6-ish when we got her some "real" furniture and then again just this year, when we had a whole wall of built-ins installed in her room (drawers and open shelving) so now the only furniture she needs is a bed and a little fold-out chair for sleepovers. She's now 10, so this time around she chose the bedding, rug, and paint color (with my assistance!). I expect her room to now stay generally the same through her teen years in terms of paint color, rug, etc. -- of course I'm sure the items on display on her shelves will change many times!

If you can afford it I'd look into purchasing a day bed with a pop up trundle. Get an extra long twin so when it's popped up you basically have a standard size king bed for guests. If it's possible you could turn the mattresses so your guests could sleep as they would in a standard bed. Something like this...

If that's not in the budget, then I'd use under the bed storage for all her toys. The lack of space probably bothers you more than it does her. If you've ever revisited a place you've not seen since childhood you'll understand this since most often we find ourselves thinking "I remember this being so much bigger!" Besides many things a five year does could be done while sitting on the bed. She can certainly spread out allot of things on full size bed when playing. When she needs a desk for schoolwork I'd look for small secretary. We had a very simple one for our son that looked pretty much like a chest of drawers with the top section being the fold out desk and the bottom two worked as extra storage for clothing and later for school needs. This is very similar to our sons only his was stained wood.