Possible uses for extra bedroom in apartment?

[Recon]

Long story short - had a bad experience with my current apartment, and the company is cutting me a good deal on moving to a larger unit in a different complex.  The thing is, the smallest 1-bedroom they have is about 830 square feet, which is way more than I need.  I could probably live on half that without much trouble.  So...I could easily set up the bed/all my other stuff in the "living room" and live studio-style, leaving me with a 150 square foot "bedroom" as completely extra space.

I can't have a roommate according to the lease terms, and I don't particularly want to anyway, so that's out of the question.  I briefly looked into renting the room out as a storage space, but there doesn't seem to be a big market for non-professional storage, the logistics/legality scare me, and I wouldn't be able to charge much if I wanted to stay remotely competitive with professional places.  Certainly not enough to justify the enormous hassle.  I saw an idea on another site for turning it into a ball pit (yeah, like the ones you'd find at a Chuck-e-Cheese or somewhere like that), and that sounded like a hell of a lot of fun, so I'm really open to anything.  I should also mention that a lot of other ideas online were centered around a TV/game room, but I don't have a TV or a video game system, so that's not really an option either.

Of course, I could always just put the bed/dresser/etc. in there and enjoy a ridiculously spacious apartment.  But I gotta admit - I'm very curious to see what you all might have in mind.  Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[Philly]

What makes you productive?  What do you enjoy?  Here are a few thoughts in no particular order, and some with questionable judgment:
-Big dining room for parties
-Beer pong room
-workshop/bike shed (careful not to destroy the room or be excessively noisy)
-gym/workout room (same with workshop)
-sewing table
-An air mattress makes it a guest bedroom (couchsurfing???)
-room sized chess board
-Brewing beer
-Close the door and the vents and stop heating/AC for that area
-Data center hosting
-Ping pong table

Maybe that gives you a start.  Good luck -- it sounds like you have a winner's problem!

[Recon]

What makes you productive?  What do you enjoy?  Here are a few thoughts in no particular order, and some with questionable judgment:
-Big dining room for parties
-Beer pong room
-workshop/bike shed (careful not to destroy the room or be excessively noisy)
-gym/workout room (same with workshop)
-sewing table
-An air mattress makes it a guest bedroom (couchsurfing???)
-room sized chess board
-Brewing beer
-Close the door and the vents and stop heating/AC for that area
-Data center hosting
-Ping pong table

Maybe that gives you a start.  Good luck -- it sounds like you have a winner's problem!

Thanks for the ideas!  I thought about the workout setup, and that may well be a frontrunner.  The complex has a nice 24-hour gym, but it would be neat to have a place where I could do most of my bodyweight stuff and maybe some free weight exercises as well.  Always liked drumming as a hobby, but the electric sets are tough to justify in terms of cost.

Do you freelance? You can set up the bedroom as an exclusive office for that and deduct a percentage of your rent and utilities as upkeep.

Well...no, but maybe yes in a way?  I do sell stuff pretty frequently on eBay.  If I declared the income as taxable (less shipping expenses, etc.) would this qualify?  I could definitely set the room up as a home office.  What percentage of rent are we talking here?  (Edit: looks like it's pro-rated based on square footage)  This could be an interesting idea to pursue.  I'll start Googling to familiarize myself with the tax rules.

[Recon]

Here's now it works for us:

My husband uses the second bedroom in our apartment as an office, exclusively for the business. It's 20% of our square footage. So 20% of our rent, electric and internet services are deductible. In our case, my husband makes more than enough after all expenses to still be making money, which you have to. If you don't make money too many years in a row, the IRS will declare your business a hobby and you won't be able to take deductions any more.

So if I'm understanding this right, I would have to make more profit in a year than the amount I'm deducting?  i.e. if I rent at 700/mo and deduct 100/mo for the home office, I would have to make more than 1200 in profit?

Edit: Yeah, looks like that's the rule.  Can't deduct more than you make from the business...keeps people from avoiding taxes on other sources of income.  Makes sense.  Maybe this will finally be the kick in the pants to get serious about a side hustle!

[Recon]

OK - I'll have to see how the whole time/effort equation works out.  It's not the world's largest tax deduction after all, so I wouldn't want to just chase after it if I'm not already in full freelance mode.  Definitely something to consider though!  I'm going to take this weekend to do my homework on all the pros and cons.

I also like the workshop idea.  I've always wanted to learn how to rebuild a car engine, and I could probably throw sheets of plastic on the ground to protect the carpet...?  I do have a nice portable workbench - maybe I'll dedicate part of the room to that, and the rest for exercise.  Either way, this is definitely a Certified Grade-A First World Problem if I ever saw one.  If anybody has more ideas I'd love to hear them.

[Russ]

AirBnB is one way to make some money, but can be of questionable legality depending on your lease. I'm doing what others suggest above, just using my spare room as the 'stuff I like to do' room. Right now that's bikes. might rearrange to split the space with music stuff in a few weeks. Other ideas:

- art gallery
- reading room
- put up a bunch of sound absorbing panels and make a silent room
- construction area for big woodworking / similar projects
- second bedroom for yourself, not guests
- dance floor
- trampoline room (attach springs to studs?)
- indoor garden
- hot tub room
- build a car, so everyone can be like "how'd you get a car in here?"
- BDSM dungeon

[Recon]

- BDSM dungeon

The sad thing is (thanks to my initial internet searches), that's not the first time I have seen "BDSM dungeon" suggested for this type of room.  Maybe I could combine it with the ball pit.

[vespito]

What about finding someone that does acupuncture, meditation or massage?  Maybe they could rent it out a few hours a week.  If you limited the amount of time, you wouldn't have too many strangers coming to your home and it could provide some extra income.  There is the safety aspect to consider, but maybe it could work.  Not sure how viable an idea it is...

[ritchie70]

Two words:

Meth lab.