Worked room · 13 × 17 ft
Kid-split family room
Noise and adult talk share one rug.
A family room over the garage. Toys have no edge. Adult conversation has no back. The television tries to referee.
ReportedThose dimensions were declared for the example. They are not a tape in this room.

What Room Lab concluded
Buy nothing yet
moderateFunction · severepressure on its worst conditionFunction looks like the governing problem. Clear the primary walk — no money yet.
- Why
- Function is the primary friction at 82. Function scores 82. Multi-job capacity, storage vs. use, work/rest zoning. Reset at 78 is real, but it is not the thing a body hits first. The primary walk measures 12" at its narrowest, 24" under the minimum. Addresses congestion and storage pile with a derived cause behind it. It costs nothing, takes about 30 minutes, and is undone in a minute.
- Caveat
- Unnamed: floor load for a heavy bookcase; nap schedule. Reset at 78 is close. If that score is wrong, the sequence may swap.
- NextTest
- Remove anything that is not furniture from the walk. Bags, mail, laundry, the chair that became a hook. What to watch: Tape the walk. It measures 12" now and must hold 36" with the door open.
This holds until: The “Clear the primary walk” step is complete and a second reading shows what changed.
Driven by Function score (82). Moderate — enough is scored to rank, and the top two are close or something is unnamed.
Where the walk narrows
The widest way through measures 12" at its tightest. The minimum is 36".
Free moves first
Clear the primary walk
Remove anything that is not furniture from the walk. Bags, mail, laundry, the chair that became a hook.
How to tell it worked: A body walks it without turning the shoulders.
Empty the pile onto a table
One surface. Sort: leave the room / stay in the room / leave the house. Do not buy storage yet.
How to tell it worked: The walk does not grow a new pile in 48 hours.
Then one reversible test at a time
One reversible split
Place a folding screen, a tension curtain, or a planted trough on the line between the two jobs. Live with it for seven days. Do not also move the bed in the same week.
What to watch: Can you do job A without seeing job B? Time the walk around the split — it must not pinch 36 inches.
Move the largest piece once
Shift the sofa, island, or bed off the crossing. Live with painter's tape marking the old footprint. Do not buy a new piece this week.
What to watch: Primary path ≥ 36". Conversation or work still functions.
Planted edge as a wall
Three sides. Two can be plants in pots. One chair with a back against the third.
What to watch: You stay for twenty minutes. The body feels a room.
Not worth buying yet
- Another rug before the walk is clear. Rugs do not fix circulation. They hide it.
- Hardwired statement fixture. Fixtures wait for a passed light test.
- Decorative storage cubes for the pile. A lid is not a sort. Empty the pile first.