Ideas for use of DS's bedroom.

As he will be coming home during the holidays, it would be best used for temporary activities, maybe do your craft in there or watch TV, but be prepared to vacate before he comes home. That way it will still be his room.

Craftycat and rubylady

Yes, I liken them to boomerangs.

I don't encourage visitors (daughter and step daughter live in different country ) ....so one spare room has two beds in it, just in case (but I used it as my ironing room and it has a huge wardrobe ideal for 'excess' clothes ! the other spare room is my office and dressing room .....ideally would like another room .....who said something like 'possessions expand to fill the space available ? ....it wasn't exactly that, but a similar saying !! We keep thinking it is time for a retirement flat, but then look at them and discover they have only ONE bedroom mostly, ONE lounge/kitchen/diner .......putting it off until absolutely desperate ......have to buy another one for storage !!

Not sure about your finances- and your location. We rented a room to a student from our local Uni when DDs were at Uni- and it paid for a significant % of ther own living expenses. It was great fun too, and the students concerned are still in touch and have remained part of the family ever since (in their 40s now..).

This also has the advantage that as they go home during holidays- the room is available for the returners.

Beware! They have a habit of coming home again! My younger DS came back after Uni. Left to house share with mates. Came back 18 months later while waiting for house purchase to finalise. Came back 2 years later while he bought girlfriend out when relationship failed. Came back briefly again when he & fiancee waited for another house purchase to finalise. 9 years on room is now craft room with double side bed for DGC so still not totally MINE. But not complaining as love having them to stay. Other DS's room remained a double bedroom & also houses DGC.

I turned our spare bedroom into a dressing room for me - sounds grand, but I just had all my clothes in the cupboard - therefore no wardrobe in our bedroom and much more space (DH put his clothes in the second (guest) bedroom) scarves on pretty hooks along the wall, ditto jewellery, all my favourite photos on the walls, a floor standing mirror to check appearance, a little bureau/desk for writing cards, a radio/TV and DVD player for when ironing or just faffing about, and it really is delightful! Best room to see the sunsets, and a quiet haven when I need one. Might even get an armchair if I can fit one in.

Our large spare bedroom is now my fly tying room, and DH says it is getting beyond a joke because I never put anything away, so there are bits of dead birds, pieces of animal fur and other miscellaneous materials scattered about all over the bed and chest of drawers! If anyone comes to stay I might feel disposed to clean it up! ?

I commandeered the small bedroom as a study / sewing room.when my children left home. The large spare bedroom is now a painting studio with a bed somewhere under the canvasses.

Blimey - both of my kids' bedrooms are still stacked to the gunwale with their junk! I can just about use Daughter #2's room as a spare room, but Daughter #1 has crammed the contents of a flat into it whilst she's travelling...

I don't need the space. The house feels plenty big enough for me to rattle around in without 2 extra rooms.

Have you got a contingency plan for if he decides not to go to university after all Ruby? Or if he doesn't get his grades? Better wait and see what the 18 August brings? He could be in residence for longer than you think!

I've still got DH's train set. I keep mentioning oxfam are good at selling old train sets when he accuses me of hoarding. The children's rooms are now refurbished as the grandchildren's rooms and I've bought single beds with pullout beds underneath. One also has a bed settee in it and my sewing room also has a bed settee as does the study so I have been able to put up a crowd of students when they brought friends back. We also had a tent. So glad those days are over.

When we moved, we had a room going spare and I had all sorts of plans for it; somewhere to paint, somewhere to peg rugs, somewhere to tie flies..... Never happened. I got overtaken and evicted by "stuff". Whatever you decide to do, Ruby I hope it makes you happy ? and that you DS enjoys his university course. I'm now off to buy a Station Master's hat!?

Ours has a comfy chair, a cupboard that takes all our home admin stuff, books, a desk/table, a computer I can watch tv on and listen to music - along with the wardrobes and a bed for guests. It works and I love it, always quiet and peaceful in there. If not always tidy . When our son went to Uni it was important to him that his room remained 'his', he seemed to be at home as much as he was away. It sounds as if your son's room is big enough for some space for you Ruby without him feeling pushed out, think I'd worry about a sauna but using space for your hobbies feels good.

I don't think a sauna is a good idea. It's the steaminess inside a house which would worry me. I can almost see the mould growing as I type.

A "sewing" room, or a jigsaw puzzle room whatever, would be a good idea just somewhere you can leave you work in progess stuff lying about.

With a red flag.

You can be the Station Master

Ooh goodie! Can I come and play? I love trains!

Train sets!

You could start in one corner, so he doesn't feel pushed out (in fact it could be his Christmas present) and then as he starts to come home less and less, you could take over the whole room with track, stations, mountains and valleys, tunnels....think what fun it would be to have your own private signaling box and points, to arrange your own train timetables and train crashes. You can dress up, buy an engine driver's hat and a whistle.

You could even splash out on a new anorak and go train spotting. there are even Clubs you can join.

Solved. Simples.

I have three rooms which have all evolved into junk collections since the boys left home. The eldest, who is married and lives in the US, has left some stuff in boxes, but I made him promise to throw everything away that he really wouldn't need again. I wasn't going to provide storage for five years for something if he was only going to come back and chuck it away.

Middle one has completely cleared his room and that is a useful spare room, but I keep the ironing in there. Youngest still hasn't really done his room out at all, although I ask him to every time he comes home. He is still at university, so I wouldn't want him to think we were chucking him out.

To answer the original question - you could turn your "spare" room into a gym, a private cinema, or a reading room, or a library. The most likely is ironing and sewing, though.

I am in the process of gathering all the bedlinen, bedding and towels together to keep in one single place all together in one of their wardrobes, but much sorting will still be necessary.

And I agree with what others have said. If he's a Uni, he's not really left home. That is surely not until they finally move in with a girlfriend or start a family.

as for a sauna, would it be better to go for the occasional one at the local leisure centre (ask the GP first?) rather than mess up your house? Let someone else do the cleaning.

A sewing/craft/computer table sounds good.

Well, I can see the point of not leaving the room as it is and making some use of it while he's away.

Perhaps for the first year or so he will keep coming home, but after that - well, if he's like mine he will be saying that he's off travelling in the holidays, working overseas or by the coast and he may manage to pop home for a weekend or so to see his Mum! But - he will still want to use his room to store everything ruby , possibly for years!

Also, you have enough trouble with him at times as it is. He is only 18 and going to feel a little pushed-out and unloved if you put his room to another use. You don't really need a craft room do you, and certainly not a sauna!

Ruby I'd caution against regular saunas - do check with your cardiologist.

Don't get one of those cheap indoor ready built made in China saunas. One of my neighbours bought one, they cost a fortune to run, never got hot enough. Whole house got condensation, it got covered in mould, and after a couple of uses just sat there looking hideous. A sewing table is a great idea and you get much more done if you can leave all your stuff out and don't have to keep putting it away. A tv or radio in there while you're working makes it a pleasure to escape to.

It's a huge bedroom, plenty big enough to keep his things in (along with a double bed) and put in a table to do sewing on or/and an at home sauna. That's the beauty of social housing, large rooms, new kitchens and bathrooms and big gardens.

I'm not going to not use it, that would be a waste of space while he is not here. Then he can use the sauna too when he is back. If any friends come back with him, then they will either sleep on the blow up mattress his mates sleep on now or I will get a sofa bed for them. Still plenty of room. I just don't know if he will like the new wallpaper of red roses!