The most important room

The concept of important, like all concepts, varies from person to person, age to age, gender to gender, culture to culture. What may be considered an important room in a house to a 19 year-old girl in Thailand may not coincide with the definition of the middle aged military from Kansas.  It is central from the beginning to establish what this concept represents to me. Important to me in regard to a room in a house is that it provides safety, infra structure, minimum of comfort, and chiefly that it provides me privacy. A house is not a house to me if there can’t be any privacy in it. In the contemporary life where one is to study, work –sometimes in more than one place, raise a family and manage a house, privacy and time for one’s self is of utter importance. The criteria thus that will be used here to choose a room is that which fits better in my idea of importance.

To do so, it is necessary to know all possibilities in order to choose from them. So, a question that could be risen is: what are the rooms a house can have?

Some say a house is not a house without a kitchen. This is probably one of the most requested rooms in a house. The kitchen is equipped to prepare food, which is one of the basic infra structure of the human being. Whether it is mandatory to have one inside a house or not, is another matter altogether. Well, it is well advised to have food in a house – in contrast to eating out, but having a room only for this purpose is not compulsory. One can after all eat food that has not been prepared by one’s own hands.

Dining rooms represent to me a less of essential more of aesthetics room in a house. That is to say, evidently one can eat in a bedroom or porch or any other room without the need of a specific place set only with a table and chairs used for eating. Despite this fact, it of course  makes a house more complete and welcoming.

As much uncomfortable as a house would be without a living room, I am convinced a house would still be very livable nonetheless. Sure a living room provides a house with coziness and a better sense of organization, but one can live without a television set in a room for itself. One can live without a television set, period.

It is said that without a bedroom, nobody would be able to sleep. Or rather, it would become quite an unpleasant rest. Or else, a rest with little privacy. Nevertheless not even teenagers can have complete privacy in a bedroom, no matter how much they try and mind you, they try it greatly. The reason why that is lies on the fact that bedrooms were architectured for the solo intent of resting and keeping one’s personal possessions. Although even with this aim, the room was not planned to necessarily fulfill its function for a person only. How many bedrooms after all don’t we know that are shared among sisters or brothers and husbands and wives? I myself shared my room with my elder sister for years. Moreover, isn’t it a waste of space having a room served only for sleeping?

Lastly we have the Bathroom. Oh, the bathroom. There is no such place a person can have more privacy in than a bathroom. I mean few people- to say the most- would dare trouble one when one crosses the threshold of a bathroom. Consider that a person is a married adult with children and who works like any ordinary breadwinner; consider further that the family is a typical Italian descendant family that is very keen on Sunday lunches with aunts and cousins and grandparents and all the sort. Now consider that it is a Sunday, the day reserved for rest, and the whole family is united. Now picture the house and all its rooms. The kitchen will most definitely be crowded with the women, cooking and excitedly chatting about grandmother. The latter of which will very comfortably be sitting by the television with the favorite uncles, in the living room, discussing the president’s newest speech. Right beside it, in the dining room, the preacher aunt will be having a stern conversation with the eldest son about the seriousness of marriage, while, in the bedroom, the daughters will be showing the cousins daddy’s new medal. Now, where can daddy stay for five minutes to catch his breath in this midst? Yes, exactly: the bathroom. There, no one will bother him – at least for some minutes. He can always just shut the toilet’s top, sit on it, take a deep, lone breath and think straight for the first time during the week. Maybe he can even engage in a quick reading before returning to the mayhem.

In summary, it is clear that all rooms are assets to a house. Though if it is needed to prioritize some over others, or better, one over all, choices have to be done, which obviously rules options out and, though the general importance of most rooms is undeniable, the one room that cannot be left out of a house is the bathroom, for reasons altogether unconventional.