I’ve lived in a lot of houses and apartments. Some were larger than others, but all were on the small side.
One thing holds true for all of them. Eventually I end up spending all my time in one room. I’m writing this now from my tiny bedroom. Where my couch and desk have also ended up. Kind of absurd given that I’ve actually spent the night in jail cells larger than my bedroom, and I have other rooms in my house that currently do nothing more than hold piles of ungraded papers and my dirty clothes.
Of course I have a good reason (only room with heat.) I had a good reason in my last house, too. The bed was broken so I used the couch beds in the living room. In the last house I had less of a reason- one day the futon got folded down and soon it became the bed. Before that was the studio, and then another house where we had the futon phenomenon. I don’t know how I always end up with beds in my living room to begin with, or what my sick obsession with sleeping on them is.
The pattern is there. I think it’s fixed. Now and then I try to break it by putting essential stuff in other rooms. But it never lasts. I mean, there is nothing really wrong with sticking to one room, right?
In the future, it might be more economical for me to look for nice studios, since apparently I will never use the other rooms even if I do have them.
Let’s see… I sleep in the bedroom, obviously, which counts for a big chunk of time, but other than that I probably spend most time in the living room. Kitchen and bathroom are contenders as well, and that’s really all there is to my apartment. So it’s just about the right number of rooms for me.
I spend most days in my office, mainly because I work there. But I tend to spend a lot of time here on the weekends/at night, since this is where the computer is.
Non-office time is divided between the kitchen, the living room, and a little time spent in the basement where Mr. Athena’s office and our exercise equipment is.
But overall, I’m in my office a lot. It’s the only room of the house that is totally mine, and I can keep it messy, and if I don’t want to vacuum I don’t have to.
I move around quite a bit: I split reading 50/50 between in my room or on the living room couch, and I watch TV in the living room. I spend a lot of time on the computer in the study. Now, our “study” is where the dining room is supposed to be and it’s pretty open to the living room, so you could call that one room, I suppose. But they feel pretty distinct.
I never sit at the kitchen table. It’s pretty much a grocery and laundry staging room.
Nah. I have a five room apartment, and I’d say I spend plenty of time in four of those rooms (my daughter’s bedroom being the fifth). Computer is in the office, tv, stereo, and bookcase in the living room, I cook a lot, so lots of time in the kitchen. Hell, even the bathroom gets more than its share of my time, given how often it seems to need cleaning (which is waaaaaaaaay too often). I mostly only use my bedroom for bed-type activities, and for dressing.
It sounds worse than it is. I have a built-in desk in the kitchen, so any computer time is spent there. I also write letters and do bookwork at the kitchen table. I feed the baby in the kitchen. Also, our house has an open floor plan and was designed with the kitchen as a central room. So it’s sort of natural that it’s where I spend my time.
I spent virtually all my waking (and some of my sleeping) hours in the graduate student lounge at my school. It’s pretty ridiculous, actually. It’s to the point that people have actually claimed to worry about me if I’m not there.
But it’s winter break right now and I am spending all of my time in my bedroom right now, even though my roommate is gone and I could dance around the living room naked if I wanted. I dunno. This is just MY room.
Also, our living room is a tad underfurnished. Maybe if there were a sofa, it would be more welcoming.
Hmm… Yea, usually in my bedroom because I intentionally put the computer and TV there.
Not always, though… In my first apartment by myself, the TV and computer were in the living room and my bed was in the bedroom… So I divided my time between those two.
Afterwards I lived with roomates, and since most of the “common” furniture was actually theirs (I still don’t own a lot of furniture), I never felt comfortable staying anywhere but in my own room with my own TV and my own computer (and internet!).
I cook, but I cook a lot once or twice a week and survive of leftovers the rest of the time, so I’m not always there. I eat in my bedroom, since that is where the desk (only flat surface in the house) is.
My bedroom. It’s where I sleep, naturally, and it’s where my computer is. I don’t watch much TV, and if I feel like reading I tend to just lie back in bed and listen to music from my computer as I read.
We have a big sunroom at the back of the house and I spend almost all of my indoor time in there. All of my books, music, yarn and material, lots of plants and my computer are in there and there are comfortable places to read, a wood stove and enough room for all 5 animals to fit in here with me. The doors lead out onto the porch with a rocker and great views. It’s without a doubt my favorite place. My partner has his shop and the den and we only use the living room and dining area to eat and watch movies. I’m only in the kitchen to cook and in the bedroom to sleep.
I just moved from a three bedroom apartment. I barely used two of the bedrooms, and they took up half of the apartment. I’m in a two bedroom now, but I spend most of my time downstairs in my family room.
Of course, I just moved, so a lot of the rooms are in chaos.
Nope. I like having order in my home, and I can’t do that if all functions are concentrated in one room.
In order of where I spend most hours:
Office downtown - working Master bedroom- sleeping, playing with the baby on the big bed early mornings My roomy, light kitchen - fixing food for everyone, eating, cleaning, reading the paper on weekends, doing stuff that needs a clean uncluttered table; we just adressed all our Christmas Cards there this afternoon. Computerroom/home office - internet, e-mail, all stuff I used to do at my writing desk. Home administration and phone work also go there. I used to pump breastmilk here, too, and that took quite a chunck of my time as well.
TV-part of the living room. For watching DVD’s. Also, the baby’s playpen and excersaucer stand there.
We’re down to no more then an hour a day, now.
Dinner part of the living room, with currently cluttered table and too little day light; far less then an hour a day. Laundry room/hobby room about two hours per week. The rest of them, in descending order: Bathroom, baby room, toilet.
I live alone in an apartment, and I was thinking idle thoughts one day about having a house of my own, so I had a look at some standard floor plans. Holy crap, houses are huge open plan multi-room behemoths! I’d feel weird living alone in such large empty spaces, with so many rooms I’d end up just being in one corner, and barely spread at all.
My last apartment, when I was in Sydney, was intended for two people to share (not as a couple) but one of the two abandoned the idea, so I was left on my own. It felt large and empty, and entire swathes were pretty much untouched by me.
In my current, smaller apartment, I use my living room 90% of my awake time. It’s a small room, has my TV and computers and a single 2-seater couch, and I have access to everything I normally need for an evening.
My bedroom is only for sleeping. I am no cook, so the tiny kitchen is only for grabbing snacks etc. I also have what is, I suppose, intended as a spare room or an office or something, but I use it as my DVD library.
I change apartments every 12-18 months and have had all different layouts but I do end up using one room. The one I currently live in seems to be the best for my current location. It’s a two bedroom with separate dining room. When alone I only use the living room; it has my desktop computer, TV and an over sized couch that I sleep on(its real comfy) there is also a slider door to the balcony which I open and sit next to (with a clear view of the TV, course) when I smoke. The kitchen has a bar area that faces the living room and I set the microwave, hot plate and Foreman grill there.
I live in an area near some tourist areas so when friends from up north* or family visits I use the dining room to eat. They stay in the 2nd bedroom and I sleep in my bedroom so they can get up whenever/do whatever without worrying about waking me up, and of course put the hotplate away and use the stove. The only other time I use the bedroom or dining room is when I have a girlfriend/date over. The bathroom does seem to get a lot of use even when it’s just me… but, well, look at what I use to cook with.
I also find that if actually use more than one room I usually never clean up and move to another room with the laptop until I run out of rooms then spend the entire weekend sometimes two cleaning up and organizing. I am physically incapable of actually filing (in the square or round file) one or two pieces of paper at a time.
*New England and I live in Tampa, FL I seem to have more friends in the winter.
