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sujiwan_gw

Game room organization help needed-major dust trap

Our walkout basement family room is primarily used by my teenagers/young adults and their friends to hang out and play video/PS2 games or watch TV or CDs. We have shelves galore for tapes and CDs, but I'm always finding piles of whatever they played/watched left on the table, exposed CDs not in box or in wrong box and worst, an unnavigable mess. Between kids' personal game systems and the huge DDR pads there are wires from the controllers and from the boxes themselves snaking over the floor area and on the couch. Add the cords from the TV/tape player/CD player electronics and multiprong bar outlets, etc!

The marine tank is in the corner, so I have to make my way over there twice a day through this dreck that is apparently too inconvenient/bulky to pick up daily, We don't have any sort of place to store these "systems" when they aren't in use. The kids don't want to unplug anything if they can help it and there's often an interrupted game in progress. I have a live at home college student with weird hours who plays at 2-3 am, so the game systems are being used at varying times of the day. There's no particular cut-off point.

On top of this, the entire floor of this huge room is linoleum. Mix in one Rough Collie,4 cats and sliding glass doors to the yard--dust bunnies galore that twist around the cords and float under the couch. I can dust mop twice aday and the dust still is attracted to all the surfaces like a magnet. It's impossible to vaccuum up long dog hair that's become twisted around the cords.

We have the same kind of issue with uncontrollable electronics in our adjacent personal computer room with the same type flooring. As I sit here typing, to my right I count 9 cords and to my left 5 heaping onto the floor--all computer related--even more on my son's side of the room. Again--dust bunnies.

I need help on how to make space and order with these game boxes and what to do about the cords and daily dust problems.

Comments (6)

  • Julie_MI_Z5
    17 years ago

    Try using those fabric velcro "strips" to "tie up" the cords so they don't dangle on the floor.

    Give the kids a dishpan sized container to keep the "in use" games in (mine never liked to put them back on the shelves mid-game either). Confiscate all games left sitting out until they get the idea.

    Go wireless on the game controllers and computer peripherals. Power strips can often be mounted on the wall to get them of the floor.

    Keep a swiffer or something at the bottom of the stairs and require the kids to use it daily.

  • talley_sue_nyc
    17 years ago

    what about a low leggy coffee table just in front of the TV? then at least they can pick stuff UP off the floor and set it in a big, jumbly mess there?

    Here is a link that might be useful: sort of like this--w/ no dust-gahtering ridges?

  • Julie_MI_Z5
    17 years ago

    We tried the coffee table idea once... but it quickly became a dumping ground for dirty dishes that didn't get carried back up to the kitchen. Yuck! LOL

    We also tried an area rug on top of the linoleum to capture the dust bunnies... which just meant we had to drag a vacuum down there to clean it. After a couple years I threw it out.

  • talley_sue_nyc
    17 years ago

    but it quickly became a dumping ground for dirty dishes that didn't get carried back up to the kitchen. Yuck!

    OK, that's a different issue. Teenagers & young adults ought to be able to carry up the dirty dishes.

    Or be refused the right to take them down, frankly.

  • quiltglo
    17 years ago

    I can relate. We ended up turning over a basement family room to my oldest for a bedroom and hanging out spot for all of the guys. Frankly, I just kept a path cleared to the laundry room and kept the door closed. He's lucky I didn't kill him when he moved out.

    In regards to the dishes, I just let him know that if I picked up dishes, I'd throw away anything I wanted, so the boys all made a point of getting that stuff back upstairs.

    He moved back home for a couple of years and is clearing out again this week. I let him know this time that if he left any mess for the rest of us to clean, I'd be taking the money for my services out of his account (which I'm on.)

    Really, it was a good trade-off. The room was a mess, but since it was the lowest level I didn't have to look at it except for a few minutes a day. Ours was a walkout basement, so the boys didn't even have to bother us to come and go. Knowing where a dozen 19 year old boys were at midnight on a Friday night was worth the aggrivation.

    I'd focus on getting your work space more comfortable.

    Gloria

  • Julie_MI_Z5
    17 years ago

    Talley Sue,
    We think alike--teens and preteens SHOULD be able to haul dishes back upstairs a couple times a day, not just ONCE a day! (And my kids thought that was a rule I pulled out of nowhere! LOL)
    End result: no table, no eating downstairs.