There are six bedrooms in our house, but only four being used as actual bedrooms (the other two are the den/homework room upstairs and the scrapbook/lego room downstairs). So excluding the master, that means three bedrooms between five boys; two of the rooms have had double occupancy almost forever. When the kids were young, it was always the "baby" who had the third room to himself, but as we grew out of the baby stage, Landon received this honor.
With Landon off to Mexico for two years, it was time for the great room rearrange! Callahan would move into Landon's room, Keaton would move into Colton and Cooper's room, and Colton and Cooper would move downstairs into the room that Callahan and Keaton had been sharing.
Landon had packed up most of his things, he didn't have a ton of stuff. Many of the clothes he left behind would work for Callahan, so they were just left in the closet. We moved up Callahan's clothes and he was pretty much done. We didn't redo anything ... the same bed, comforter, desk, chair. It looks just the same.
Then, in the closet and drawer space Callahan vacated (which actually wasn't much! As he took just his favorites to move upstairs, he left almost a full closet of clothes. Big piles of discards and giveaways ensued) we moved in Colton's clothes. With spots in the upstairs closet now empty, we moved Keaton upstairs. Then we moved Cooper's clothes down into the empty spot just vacated by Keaton.
There was a little rearranging of furniture downstairs. We got rid of one of the old dressers (one that had been mine from childhood), but the rest of the room stayed much the same (bed, bookcase, dresser with the TV on top ... all in the same spot). There were piles and piles (and piles and piles) of clothes to go through from every closet/drawer move. These piles were all in the downstairs family room.
It was Keaton's new room that experienced some change. We had promised him we could paint the walls ...very needed. New carpet would have been great too, but that didn't happen. We pulled out EVERYTHING. The old queen bed C&C had shared. A dresser, multiple plastic drawers, a nightstand. Off to DI it all went (well, the bed went to the dump). Gray bought a twin bed, and we moved in an extra desk from the den. I ordered a new comforter, and picked up a cute lamp and locker-type nightstand. We washed the walls, and did eventually get around to new paint. One accent wall in navy, the rest in a nice eggshell. At last ...
The new arrangement has been really nice. Keaton keeps his room nice and clean, much better than Colton and Cooper. The basement room actually works out quite well for Cooper. It was where we would have him retreat during storms anyway. He can't really see the lightening or hear thunder. I don't walk by the room as much, to notice the mess ... or smell. Callahan ... he's not quite as clean as Landon was (I like to have the door open to let the natural light into the hallway, thus it's very visible).
Previously ... I'd have to trek downstairs and wake Callahan in the mornings before school. Often this would require a couple of trips, as the boy likes to sleep. I'd attempt to tickle or spank him awake, but it was difficult wrangling with him on the bottom bunk there. It's SO much easier to attack him upstairs. I can just grab his legs and pull ... and he's out of bed (much to his chagrin)! The little boys are almost always up on their own, so I don't have to make a morning trek to the basement bedroom anymore.
I also did eventually get through all the piles of clothes. It was good to go through all the closets, seeing what we actually have, what actually gets worn, getting rid of everything that was just taking up space. It is nice to just start fresh sometimes.
When Landon comes home ... I'm not sure what we'll do. We'll probably clean out one of the two "other" rooms and stick him in there. Who knows if he'll even be living at home, or be off to college. And Callahan would be leaving the nest around that time as well.
But for now, we're all rearranged, and it is good!
