Which Rooms Do You Use?

I love this essay about the spaces that actually get used in a home, and how we all have a different home map from the other inhabitants. For instance, I like to work in the kitchen, and I usually sit in the Wolvog’s chair because it’s next to the window. And then I move back to my chair for an actual meal. I only sit on the side of the sofa in the living room close to Quentin. If someone is already in that space, I’ll usually sprawl across the floor. And I love spending hours in my bed. It’s the only place to watch television in the house, and I can surround myself with my books and notebooks and lounge about.

And obviously, other people in the house spend time in other spaces, such as their room or their side of the bed. Josh usually works in the basement. The ChickieNob works at her desk or on the floor but never on her bed. The Wolvog moves between his desk and a chair by the window.

Shangrilogs writes: “We rarely make a conscious decision that we no longer use a part of our house. We stop going there because something about another place is easier, warmer, closer, brighter, quieter, more convenient. We make that choice a few hundred times and eventually stop experiencing it as a choice. Then the kitchen counter becomes where I work. The chaise becomes a superstition.”

I love everything that comes after that about how our choices reveal big clues into who we are or who we wish we were. It will make you look at your home in a different way.