The other day I realized that we needed to once again switch up the bedrooms. Ugh. I thought the last time we shifted bedrooms, which I think was about two years ago, that would be the last time. But when you have five kids and three bedrooms to put them in, there tends to be a lot of shifting going on. It wouldn’t be fair to let one child continually have their own room, so there is much sharing. Sadly, the basement is not finished yet, and our son continues to grow. It came to my attention that Cole, my nearly 16 year old son who is now taller than me, does not fit very well in the top bunk of the bunkbed we bought for him when he was 4. He can’t be sleeping that well up there, and although I don’t think it’s a bad thing to share a room with your little brother, he’s been very good to share for the past couple of years. I guess it’s time he gets his own room again.
On Friday I announced to the kids that we would be changing roommates, and that everyone would need to help out to perform the shift. Megan, who has had the biggest room and the biggest bed, which doubles as the guest room, will no longer have the room to herself. The bunk beds will be going in there, as will Natalie. John will then go into the room with Jenna, and Cole will stay in the same room, but he will get the queen bed again, and no roommate. BUT, there is the stipulations that he keep his room CLEAN, as when guests come, as they frequently do, he will vacate the room and sleep on the couch bed in the unfinished basement.
So Friday night, before we all went to our parties, activities and concerts, Megan and Cole switched beds. Dad helped take the bunkbed apart, but they did most of the hauling. We stripped the beds, threw that bedding in the wash, and started pulling out new bedding (boy type bedding for the queen bed, and girl AND boy type bedding for the bunk beds). We can move everyone’s clothes, books, toys and other crap later, but I wanted to at least get the beds situated.
Saturday I told the kids to go ahead and start moving their stuff, and I took Natalie to a volleyball game. When I came home, I saw that the entire hall was full of stuff. Look, there’s John’s dresser, and his toys, and a pile of books, and piles of bedding. *Sigh* As long as we can get past, I can deal with it. I left again to go to a baby shower for my dear friend, Maranda, and asked them to please continue to work on their rooms, and don’t spare the garbage bags!
I came home to find all the kids down in the basement playing wii and other games with Cole’s friend Sam, who had come to spend the day with us. Nothing more had been done. Off I went to a soccer game for Megan. I ended up sitting in the shade of a tree back by the goal instead of the usual parent place on the sideline, and I was completely happy there. I spent almost the whole game time (about an hour and a half) talking to my sister about their whirlwind trip across the country with all ten kids in the van. I really should blog about THAT, shouldn’t I? Can you imagine taking 10 kids on a 7 week roadtrip? Well, neither can I, and I only have 5 kids, but that’s another story for another day. After the game, we came back home, to see that of course NOTHING had been done on the rooms. Ryan had been outside mowing the lawn, and the kids were just playing.
Oh, well. I don’t have the energy to go through the piles and piles of stuff, and move dressers, closets and bookshelves right now (maybe not ever), so I’ll just let it stay that way. For now.
Before bed, I did actually go into the room that will be shared by Jenna and John and threw away two garbage bags full of stuff. I also sorted a bunch of John’s toys so that he can have a bin for star wars guys, a bin for cars, and a bin for dinosaurs, but I don’t know how long they will STAY in their assigned bins.
I’m hoping that Monday I’ll wake up bright and early with a BURST of energy and enthusiasm and be able to tackle at least one room. And when they get home (Monday’s early out day) I’ll put them to work at sorting, organizing, and moving, so that someday soon we can get the dressers out of the hall. I’m sure it will take at least a week.
So, if you don’t hear from me for a while, you might want to check under one of the piles. Just in case I fall and hit my head and no body can find me for days and days. Wish us luck.
Wow!!! Good luck with all that. Just reading about it makes me tired.
I never thought about switching bedrooms to accommodate the kids, but I guess that’s a pretty good idea. If nothing else, it does force a major cleaning every couple of years! When you live somewhere a while, things do tend to get “entrenched” there!
Wow. I feel for you. Think of all of the great cleaning you will get done in the process.
Yes, we went through the bed/room changes frequently, but we only had 4 kids. Its definitely not fun, and you have to stay on top of things because kids don’t know what to do with their stuff. So I wish you all luck.