Worried About the Economy? Prepare a Room for Rent

Date Posted: Dec 10, 2008

A drastic step to earn more is to rent a room in your home. Check on local zoning regulations before making plans.  In Athens-Clarke County, only two unrelated individuals can reside in one single-family home.  So you could rent a room to one person unrelated to your family.  Contact the ACC Department of Planning for more information:  706-613-3515 or http://www.accplanning.com/.    The AARP Bulletin, November 2008 states that you should screen potential tenants and check with their previous landlords for payment history and how well they treated their last place of residence. 

Do you have a relative who needs a place to live temporarily?  How can you clear out a room?  Many of us have a room that is primarily being used to store "stuff.."  It is an overwhelming task to sort through the items and find other homes for them.  So, where do you begin?

Allocate several hours to clear out the room, separating items into:  keep, trash, give/sell.  Items for the trash should immediately be put in bags and removed.  Put the items that you will sell or give away in boxes and store in an out-of-the way place.  Items that you will deliver to a charity can be put directly in your car.  Now comes the hard part -- deciding what to do with items you keep. Sort them by the room in which you will store them and put them into those rooms.

Now you are ready to prepare the room. Whether you offer the room empty or furnished, you need to clean it, make any needed repairs and perhaps paint and/or replace flooring.