What to do with extra bedrooms in a 5 bedroom house?

[Adamsmama]

Ok -- I think you ladies are pretty creative and realistic so I would like some opinions. If you lived in a 5 bedroom (3 up, 1 down+MB) what would you do? The MB has a bathroom connected and is right next to a small bedroom and full bathroom (smallest in the house). The upstairs consists of 3 very large bedrooms and a laundry room. We are expecting our 4th ... our 2 boys share a room, DD has her own room, baby will probably room with us for a while, like DD did and then eventually have own room or share with DD if she's a girl.

So ... right now 2 of the rooms aren't being used ... one has a bunch of toys in it but it isn't played in because it is upstairs and the kids like to all be with us all the time and will only play up there if I go up and sit with them and there is no where to sit up there (no furniture), the other room used to be my oldest son's room but now is completely empty (no furniture and really nothing in it). I hate going upstairs ... it feels dirty, messy, unorganized ... our downstairs is so uncluttered and nice ... laundry gets piled upstairs in the hallway because I can't keep up.

Any ideas???

[rere]

How about turning the empty room into a laundry room and make the toy room more of a friendly place.Then maybe the kids would play there a bit while you were able to get some of the laundry done.Also with a laundry room you could have enough space for everyone to have their own basket and the kids could help out.Or you could just close the door and forget about it all.

[Drummer's Wife]

We have a similar set up (and four kids), but our laundry room is on the main floor, so we use te spare room downstairs as a large family closet. It's currently a mess , but I like it b/c I don't have to carry all the clean clothes upstairs to each bedroom. In your situation, I'd probably use the extra room downstairs as a playroom, office, exercise room (ours was briefly), theatre room if you watch a lot of movies - you could get a projector, or just as storage if you need it. If you also have the extra room upstairs (the kids may switch around - mine did), then maybe a family closet there?

[ILoveMyBabyBird]

i know how it is, ds's toyroom is the sunroom adjacent to the living room and he still drags his toys in the living to play. I would think maybe a guest bedroom, hobby room for mom or dad, office-maybe office/toy room so you could do some computer time while they play upstairs. Right now we have ds's room upstairs and the extra room is an office, but want to put a guest bed in there eventually. But depending on the size, the rooms could have dual purposes.

[hillymum]

We had an empty room upstairs which became the lego room. Nothing in it but lego! It was great for keeping all those annoying bricks from being underfoot. Now each son has his own room so the upstairs rooms are all occupied.

We have a computer/quiet/craft room on the first floor. There is a table with the computer on it and space for drawing or writting etc. There is also a love seat so if someone wants quiet undisturbed time they can hide in there. We all call it the hidey hole.