My roommate came back to clean up the rest of her stuff on Tuesday night, so yesterday, I went into what is now my guest room for the time being to see what I could do with the room now that she's gone. Not surprisingly, her version of clean and my version of clean are two very different things. But once I got the cleaning done, it was time to see if I wanted to move things back into the room.
I knew that I wanted to bring in some pictures for the walls. She had taken them down when she moved in, and the room looked bare now that all of her things were gone. I was glad that I had kept everything.
One of the other big things in the room is a floor to ceiling bookshelf. I've had it for years, and always kept it full (or close to overflowing). Now, all my books have been moved to different rooms, boxes under the bed, boxes hidden in the back of a closet, everywhere. I also got rid of a lot of books while I was at it. So the next step was to unearth all the books I had stowed away and go through them, putting them up on the shelves and also getting rid of the ones that I no longer wanted.
I'm most excited to have the closet space back. My closet is currently crammed with clothes and boxes and all sorts of things, and it's nice to be able to use that closet space for the time being. Again, it will be useful to really go through my stuff, spread it out, and see what I can get rid of.
I may be looking for a new roommate after the holidays. There's just too much to do between now and Christmas to worry about getting a new roommate, and I'm reluctant to have someone move in and then be out of town for the holidays. But for now, I'm going to use the extra space and enjoy the extra space. Nothing worse than a lonely, empty room.