It can be nice to have a spare room in your home in case you need the extra space. If you’re not doing anything with it though, it’s probably costing you money.
As The Simple Dollar points out, if you have a room (or rooms!) that aren’t being used, you’re paying for space without getting any benefit in return:
Many people view their empty room as a “guest room” or something like it to justify the expense, but unless it’s almost constantly in use, you’re losing significant money on that room — money which, sometimes, you really can’t afford to be losing.
If you have one or more guest rooms, consider subletting them. Or, if you’re the adventurous type, get paid to host space on Airbnb. If you have a storage unit, get rid of it and move your stuff into the extra room. It may be cluttered when you have guests over once or twice a year, but you’ll save a lot of money in the long run.
The Expensive Extra Room [The Simple Dollar]
Picture: Loozrboy/Flickr
Comments
3 responses to “Treat Empty Rooms As Wasted Money To Make Better Use Of Them”
I wish I had a spare room..
Or… Appreciate the fact you even have a house to live in and stop measuring everything in financial terms.
House? You were lucky to have a HOUSE! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of FALLING!
I know this is ‘probably’ a joke unless you’re describing somewhere in Bangladesh, but when my father came over to Australia his first place was renting out a unit with 20-odd other migrants. They pretty much only used the place to cook and to sleep, and one person would rotate out onto the balcony cause there wasn’t enough room inside for them all to sleep.
Or that empty room could be quietly appreciating in value anyway. There is a difference between a business and an investment.