The Transitioning Bedroom

I knew it was coming, we all did, the "I'm too grown up for this bedroom". (We made it out fairly easy actually--he still wants his bunk beds for the built-in desk and cubby, and he liked the framed pictures we already had of trees and fish, thus avoiding the band posters). It was hinted at a few months ago when he complained that the World Map, United States Map, and Flags of the World poster on his wall were "too colorful". He also mentioned this about the little blue plastic cabinet with the red, yellow, and green drawers in his closet that stores miscellany, but it's still storing miscellany because it's in the closet where no one can see it.

Anyway, yesterday was the big clean out day, and it took nearly all day because every toy that was pulled out had to be played with or charged and then played with. It's great that he shows such sentimentality for the toys, but all that playing tires a little man out. The afternoon seemed to drag on without end for him and for us. (It didn't help that we also had to run into town to his bass lesson at 3:30).

While the sentimentality was precious, it also was a little frustrating. As usual he had to be redirected to the task, otherwise he would not have been able to sleep in his bedroom last night. At times he would get frustrated because he is at the nervous nexus of childhood and being a teenager and he wouldn't know if he wanted to keep an item or not. Our simple rule was to keep it if he didn't know, better to have it than to regret it later.

The important lesson from having to transition your bedroom from one stage of life to the next (or moving for us adults); is how overwhelming material items can be when faced with organizing and getting rid of the less important. All the moving I did in my early twenties taught me that I really only need the necessities. A list of necessities is going to be different for everyone, for me it was clothing, kitchen cookware, at least one if not two pieces of furniture for each type of room, and pictures to hang on the wall. (I would figure out the curtain arrangements after I moved in since windows are never the same size).

Our culture facilitates purchasing extra items at the store that we didn't intend when we went to the store in the first place. It's easy for all of us to eventually box up items, store them, and promptly forget about them because "we might use them later." It doesn't hurt to take the hard line and unload what we haven't even looked at for a few years.

What I do know for certain is that a donation center will be pleased with the load that we bring in this afternoon.