Give your spare room a new lease of life

A heap of ironing. Old gift bags and crumpled wrapping paper. A stack of CDs from the early noughties you keep meaning to send to Music Magpie. And we’re not judging, but perhaps there’s some almost-new weights stacked up in the corner…

Sound like your spare room? Many of us have grand plans and pipe dreams for the blank slate that is the ‘guest room’. Perhaps that’s to transform it into a personal gym, library or games room. But more often than not, it becomes a dumping ground for clutter, things to organise and stuff that ‘might come in handy’.

Room for potential

You might hastily shut the door to your spare room when visitors come over. But did you know that space could be the best place in the world to a foster child? There aren’t many boxes you have to tick when we look for foster families. (For example, it doesn’t matter if you’re single or married, renting or own your home.) But one of the few things all our foster carers need to have is a spare room.

Lots of foster children have never had a bedroom of their own before. And your spare room could be the safe, private space they need to adjust to their new life and routines. Because some foster children have grown up in homes with few to no boundaries or rules, it can take time for them to adjust to living with a family that has these structures. Their bedroom can help them find their place in your family and understand these boundaries. That’s why it’s important you have a spare bedroom, and your foster child doesn’t just share a room with someone else in your family.

Helping a foster child settle into a loving family and seeing them thrive into a happy, healthy adult is one of the most rewarding, fulfilling and generous things you can do.

Find out more about why you need a spare room to foster, here.