Organizing a utility room for functionality and storage space - Part One -

Whenever you designate a space in your home as a utility room, you run the risk of using the space for too many purposes. It becomes a storage space, a workshop, pantry, freezer space, wine cellar and laundry room.

And, as new items are brought into the home, older items are shuffled into these general use spaces and bury pre-existing items. It becomes a dark and dank corner of the home where objects go to be forgotten.

Even if the room was once functional, it soon becomes impossible to find or do anything in the space. The room becomes an unproductive and unappealing wasteland.

In the next 3 posts we will look at organizing a utility space so that it meets your storage needs and becomes a functional work space.

Posts:

Part 1 Define the purpose of the room.

Part 2 Designing and organizing the space using online applications

Part 3 Practical practices when implementing your organization plans and goals.

Part 1: Defining the purpose of your utility space

It is easy to define most spaces in your home. That room is the den, that is the play room and that is the master bedroom.

It is critical to stamp a permanent purpose to a utility space. Defining a room will focus your organization assignment and your brain will automatically decide what should go into that room and what should not.

When you use general terms like “utility” room or “junk” drawer, you are inviting people to store any object into that space.

It is if you went into a kitchen and saw a dollhouse or a dishwasher in a bedroom.

Two problems arise with this scenario. First, it is impossible to know what is stored in that space and second, useless and surplus items fill up much needed storage space.

If you define it, you own it.

The process of defining a space:

For example, let us imagine that we are creating a laundry and storage space in a utility room.

After you define the room as a laundry and storage space you need to make sure that the area is going to meet your needs.

It is about optimization, so you do not want to undersell or oversell your definition of the space.

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A valid thought about piracy

The Perils of Copy Protection

Tech companies handcuff our files to protect against digital pirates. The strategy isn't just annoying for customers—it could be hurting sales.

---- Article by David Pogue

I think David Pogue makes a valid conclusion.

Allowing people easier access to material gives them less reason to gripe and feel justified in stealing it. Also, many people download pirated material because it gives them a satisfaction in using illicit avenues to find it and download it.  Taking away the rush of the theft mitigates the reason to do it.

People develop a pattern and rarely stray from it even when facing major consequences. Adding copy protection invites people to crack it and show off their skills to the world. If it was made by man it can be destroyed by man.

 Education and compromise always creates a better outcome than suing someone.