Do you have a catch all room?

15 years ago

A room where everything goes when no one knows where it goes?

After redoing every room in the house, this is the room I have left. It is the office, sewing room and throw stuff when you don't know where else to put it room!

I know what I want to do with it, but just the thought of going through it is daunting! I think I just want to dump everything in bins and go from there.

I really want to get my sewing table set up desperately, so maybe that will be my motivation. I have always wanted to make a sewing table out of a hollow core door at a good height for cutting. That gives me lots of room for sewing and cutting out quilt squares as well.

That will be on one wall, I will skirt it so I can stow organizers and a fridge underneath!

Then I will put a new functional desk under the window and make sure I have plenty of file space and drawer space. Never enough of that. I have a organizer shelf unit that is now in the closet, I want to bring that out, add some decorative trim to it and use it for storage and put a cork board on the outside.

The only other wall is next to the closet and I want to put up shelves to store my fabrics and scrapbook stuff.

This is the only room with double doors and I thought about doing pocket doors, but the expense is too much, so I just may do what I did with the kids bath and do an outside pocket door.

I hope you don't mind me running this by you all, but you are all such a wealth of knowledge! After all the little trim work is done with the rest of the house, this is my project. It is my room, all mine!

Thanks,

Laura

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Comments (12)

sarschlos_remodeler
15 years ago
I don't have a room like that anymore, but I have a 3' deep by 6' wide closet that meets that description to a T. toys, games, art work, art supplies, tools, pens, office files, misc. electronic parts, batteries, Fire Extinguisher and anything else we didn't know where it should go.

Some day that closet will be part coat closet and part games closet. But for now it's just a nightmare. We've tried to containerize the mess, but somehow even the containers are seem to be Mary Poppins carpetbags of who-knows-what. I would not even be surprised to find disassembled furniture hidden in there. Unfortunately the disease seems to be spreading to other closets in the house...
TxMarti
15 years ago
Oh yes, I've always said I have more stuff than places to put it, so my extra stuff gets shuffled from room to room until it ends up in the room I use for sewing too.

I'm not sure I would use a hollow core door for a sewing table, especially if you have the supports underneath spread very far apart. I once did a mystery quilt marathon and the place had those small folding plastic banquet tables for each of us. That thing bounced so bad when my machine was running that my scissors vibrated off the edge of it, and because it wasn't solid, it was noisier too.

If you've already got the door, you can try it out before going to a lot of trouble building it in, but my advice is to buy something solid.
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teacats
15 years ago
This house is too small for a room of my Own -- but I would LOVE to have an office/craft room -- and no mountain of any clutter would stop me!!! :)

Jan -- envious of any spare space in any house .....
daisyadair
15 years ago
My sewing room is literally a closet. A dinky walk in closet that's so small I had to assemble the desk IN the closet. It does have a very nice little window, though.

My catch all room would be my entire upstairs. I send stuff up there, but I never go there myself. It scares me.
TxMarti
15 years ago
teacats, I had to wait for the kids to leave home to get a room, and it has to turn back into a guest room occassionally.
bellaflora
15 years ago
no I don't have a catch-all room. But I do have a catch all house. ;-)
ccoombs1
15 years ago
Unfortunatly I do. I HATE that room. But with our current living situation, it's sort of impossible to do away with it. We moved out of a 3000 sq ft house and into an old single-wide trailer while we built our forever home. A lot of our stuff went into an overseas shipping container that we bought, but stuff we use often ends up in the "junk" room. It is bad. VERY bad. You literally cannot walk into that room. The new house is so close to being done after 5 long years. I am putting lots of nice shelves in the attic over the garage and will have additional attic space over the master bedroom which will end up being my craft room. I am putting lots of built-in shelves and drawers in the walls in the spaces between the trusses. So this house will have plenty of storage and since it's only a 2 bedroom house, we can't afford to fill up a room with junk again!! I hate my junk room.
zipdee
15 years ago
No I don't have a catch all room .. I have a whole 'catch all cottage' out back. Unfortunately when you allow yourself that much room, it some how ( magically, through no fault of my own ;) ) gets filled up quick! My DH brought the dump truck home for me, last weekend I started cleaning it out and organizing it, this weekend will be more of the same. *sigh*
rob333 (zone 7b)
15 years ago
I can't have a cathcall room; space is premium in my home. You're on the right track though. Envision what you want the room to be. Draw it out on paper, find pictures of it, whatever suits your need. Get the stuff for your new room, e.g. a new sewing table, shelving, cabinets, chairs, nice pretty stuff that you want to make room for. Then, figure out what types of things you have in your room. Is it papers, magazines, blenders, tennis rackets, socks, sweaters? As you're looking at the items, stack it on one side of the room. Next, make piles of each thing so you only have to tackle one pile at a time. That is, put all the socks in one pile, etc. etc., so you can go through each pile. Last, put it where it truly belongs in the house, or throw it out, donate it. If it belongs in the room, put it on the other side of the room. Whatever is left, put it on your new pretty things and you're good to go.

Here are some inspiration photos. And more... and more....

So how are you going to decorate it? Have you picked out colors? I bet you've picked out fabrics!
Boopadaboo
15 years ago
My entire basement!
bestyears
15 years ago
Hi Laura,
We are in the process of changing our guestroom into a craft/sewing room. I've attached a few pics here to show you... We are a LONG way from finishing so please don't judge too harshly... We will be painting all the furniture white, replacing the chairs with two matching, comfortable office chairs, etc. Across the room, not pictured, I have a small desk set up with my sewing machine on it. I don't know if you have an IKEA near you, but we do and I got the work surface in the picture from their 'as is' section for $9! Also, I have a wonderful drop-leaf table from them that I keep just outside this room. It opens up to 3 ft by 5 foot, but is just 3 feet wide by less than 1 foot deep with the drop leaves in the down position. I put it on casters because it is super heavy. When I want a cutting table I just wheel it in and instantly have a nice big work surface. It also has a few built in drawers so keeps scissors, etc. handy.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: IKEA Gateleg/dropleaf table
laurmela
Original Author
15 years ago
Yes I have picked out colors! A few years ago we did manage to paint the room a nice soft sage green. Don't remember the color, the can is in the garage. Last year I found some file folders at Tuesday Morning that are a paisley pattern with green, pink and orange, those are my colors! With white trim.

I have found some fabric bins at Home Goods for my fabric, mostly flannel remnants. That will go on the shelves. I think what I am going to have to do is start small. I just don't have room to do it all at once, wish I did! Right now there is an old dresser in the corner, I have cleared it out and it is going to my mom's house. Once I get that out, I can attack that corner. The walls need another coat of paint, and then I can put my shelves up. This giving me a place for my fabric.

Now here is the dilema, I have an old sewing machine that was DH's grandmother's. I believe that grandpa made the table that it is in. I don't use the machine I use my old Bernina. Do I keep it? Use the table for something?

Will have to wait till I get that side of the room cleared out. Right now there is carpet in here, but we just recently put down laminate in the hallway and master, and I love it! I want to put laminate in here as well. I think it will be an easier surface to work with and clean.

Well today I have to finish painting trim downstairs and finish organizing the linen closet. I am trying to start small and realize one step at a time.

DH is going fishing next weekend, annual 'guys' trip, so maybe I can get some work done then!

Thanks all, keep the ideas coming!

Laura

PS I would post pics, but the room is such a mess I am afraid it would break the camera lens!

Do you have a catch all room?

Comments (12)

sarschlos_remodeler

TxMarti

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laurmela
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Do you have a catch all room?

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