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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

That this is not a bedroom?

75 replies

MTBMummy · 03/10/2018 15:13

Please can we start a Mumsnet Campaign?

I'm sick of looking at properties labeled as 4 bedrooms when 2 of them are only 2m x 3m in dimension - these are box rooms, a study maybe, but FFS how can they be classed as a bedroom? A single bed is 0.9m x 1.9m, these rooms have no built in storage so how the fuck are you supposed to fit wardrobes and basic storage in them and still manage to actually see the floor???

Can we create a new law that states a room has to meet a minimum measurement before it can be marketed as a bedroom?

OP posts:

Blackoutblinds · 03/10/2018 16:11

How many kids do you have that you need five bedrooms

mumsastudent · 03/10/2018 16:21

something that is totally wrong is that (ahem soapbox) re hb. if you have 2 dc under15 same sex they have to share room (or you get penalised - now the way the funding is worked out is the bottom third rent of an area (ie not just a city but area surrounding - ie countryside)BUT how do they work out these bottom third? do they exclude flats only for pensioners (on social housing register) flats which though they are 2 bedroom specifically state they are only suitable for one child? As many reputable newspapers have stated; people are stuck with dc sharing rooms that shouldn't be for 2 small dc let alone mixed aged dc as they are seen as having space by the powers that be. Cracked

ToadOfSadness · 03/10/2018 16:21

Double bedrooms that just have room for a double bed, but you can't open the door properly once it is in the room. Usually marketed as a 3 double bed house or similar.

GarkandGookin · 03/10/2018 16:26

YANBU. We moved into a '4' bed that needed work. If you put a single bed into the 4th bedroom you couldn't open or shut the door. The 3rd bedroom was the size of your smallest one so we took the wall out between them to make a decent sized room thus 'devaluing' the house as it became only a 3 bed

Rhiannon13 · 03/10/2018 16:35

My bedroom is this size. I love it because it's cosy and I don't have much 'stuff' to accomodate. A bigger bedroom would be lovely, but the location of the house more than makes up for a small bedroom that I only (mainly) sleep in. I could have a bigger bedroom in a crap area but what's the point?

Cagliostro · 03/10/2018 16:36

Oooh mtbm thank you that looks ideal! At least where we live now we are allowed to put stuff like that up. 💐

nocoriander · 03/10/2018 16:36

There are actually people on here defending these tiny rooms.

Building standards aren't great in this country, that's for sure.

DGRossetti · 03/10/2018 16:41

Lots of listings don't have floor plans viewable online here, maybe half if you're lucky.

Makes me wonder why I was working on software to make them and incorporate them into property details for upload nearly 20 years ago ....

Rhiannon13 · 03/10/2018 16:46

*There are actually people on here defending these tiny rooms.

Building standards aren't great in this country, that's for sure.*

My house was built 150 years ago, when people didn't 'want' so much. If I bought a bigger house I wouldn't be living within my means so I don't see a problem with it.

MargoLovebutter · 03/10/2018 16:48

If a small bedroom works for someone, why wouldn't they say so DGRossetti? My DS has been perfectly happy in his 10ft by 6ft room.

mumsastudent · 03/10/2018 16:57

as stated 10 by 6 for 1 dc ok but when 2 are expected to share...

MissConductUS · 03/10/2018 17:10

In the US a room has to have a window, a door (two ways to exit for fire safety) and a closet to be called a bedroom. There's no minimum on floor space as far as I know. Here you could not call a hallway a bedroom.

Allthewaves · 03/10/2018 17:12

Dining promised as bedroom - my pet hate

YeTalkShiteHen · 03/10/2018 17:14

DS1 and DD have tiny rooms, but we bought beds which have space underneath so it’s not too bad. It’s the only way we could afford a 4 bed, so we compromised.

SaucyJack · 03/10/2018 17:19

YABU. Minimum size bedrooms won’t make houses any bigger- it’ll just mean that builders put less bedrooms in.

I’m sure if you asked a 15 year old girl with a 7 year old brother if she’d rather have a small room to herself, or share one that met your standards- then you’d soon get your answer.

Andtheresaw · 03/10/2018 17:21

My eldest took the smallest room as it meant they didn't have to have anyone else's stuff in there. I built a high bed (by cutting down and old one) so it fit exactly along one end of the room: dressing table/chest of drawers and desk/stool under it. Wardrobe next to the door. There's even room for a beanbag and a guitar and amp.
Then DH came and at the weekends it has to be a room for two of them, so I built a drop down 'bottom bunk' for one or two nights a week.
Appropriate furniture solutions can make really good use of a tight space and after all, it is really just for sleeping in.....

seven201 · 03/10/2018 17:32

I think my two year olds room is probably 2m by 3m. I think it's actually fine. Can fit a single bed in easily with quite a lot of floor space left. We have chosen to have a large chest of drawers instead of a small wardrobe and small drawers though.

PickAChew · 03/10/2018 17:33

Sometimes it's not just for sleeping in, though. Older kids may need room to store their own stuff, other than just clothes and somewhere quiet to do homework. A lot of town houses have a minute amount of living space compared with a traditional semi or terrace and a lack of built in cupboards so everything ends up having to live in the bedrooms.

SweetheartNeckline · 03/10/2018 17:39

2 x 3 m really isn't that small, it's a good sized single room. Our city is full of 1930s houses with bedrooms of 2 x 2 m. It's a standard layout to have 2 3.5 x 4 m bedrooms (matched downstairs by same sizes of front and back reception rooms), 2 x 2 m bathroom over the kitchen and 2 x 2 m bedroom over the stairs. In our 2 x 2 m bedroom we can have a room, single wardrobe and chest of drawers no problem (granted door and window placement is good). The kids play downstairs.

Rules for bedroom size don't apply to private houses. If they change those rules it will either not effect property prices at all in which case nothing has been achieved, or existing owner-occupiers will end up in negative equity as their 3 beds become 2 beds.

Janleverton · 03/10/2018 17:40

According to national housing space standards for new builds I believe the minimum for a single bedroom is 7.5sqm. It has to be at least 2m wide i think.

SweetheartNeckline · 03/10/2018 17:40

We can have a bed, single wardrobe and chest of drawers I meant.

mostdays · 03/10/2018 17:43

so how would you fit that in and still have room for your children to play in their rooms

I'm not sure that 'sufficient floor space for children to play' is ever going to be counted as must have criteria for a bedroom, though. You asked how someone could fit bed, wardrobe and basic storage in and still see some floor and people have suggested that's where cabin beds and the like are useful. Wanting bed, wardrobe and storage plus decent floor space to play is reasonable, I think, but it would be going a bit far to say that's what a bedroom must have as a minimum standard.

PinguDance · 03/10/2018 17:48

Out of interest I just measured my spare room and it’s 230 by 370, that’s actually fine as a single room but id agree that shaving off the extra cms to 2 by 3m would be a small for a teenager. Ok for toddlers and kids though.

BigChocFrenzy · 03/10/2018 17:50

I live in Germany and if a room is less than 10 sqm, it has to be described as only a ½ room.

So, 2 rooms with more than 10sqm and 1 smaller room would be 2.5 rooms
That tells everyone it could be a study / boxroom / tiny guest room or whatever
Fairer and more accurate, imo

mostdays · 03/10/2018 17:51

Oh and I've just checked rightmove, as I remembered one of our neighbours has recently put their identical house up for sale. The smallest bedroom in our houses is listed on the floorplan as 5'7" by 7'9" (1.7m by 2.4m), with a chunk of floor space lost due to the stairwell underneath jutting up into the room (I am aware that is a terrible description, I can't come up with a better one!). 9'8"x 6'6" rooms seem pretty well sized in comparison, tbh.

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