The Great Bedroom Swap

With Lauren out of the house for college, vacating her bedroom, there was much discussion among the siblings about what was going to happen to it. Originally, when Lauren was given her own room when we moved in, I anticipated that Sarah would move in to it when Lauren left. Tensions between Sarah and her little sisters escalated earlier than that time frame and Sarah had moved into the guest room a year earlier. William was pressing for single room privileges as he did not like being awakened early when Steven's alarm went off in the morning. So we evaluated our options and we had what is now known as the Great Bedroom Swap.

Here is how it all went down:

William won the toss and got to move into the room Lauren vacated.

I decided I would rather have the queen size guest bed in the larger bedroom. Sarah is enjoying the queen bed and didn't want to relinquish it so she moved with it into what was once the boys room.

Steven moved into the room Sarah had been occupying.

The little girls greatly desired the bunk bed the boys had been using so it was moved into their bedroom.

Steven got one of the twin beds from the girls bedroom. And the last twin bed stayed in the girls room for Lauren to use when she comes back.

We made the dismantling and moving of the beds, dressers and bookcases our family home evening activity for Monday night, a week before school started. Over the course of the next few days, everyone was to move their belongings into the bedroom which they would now be occupying. This worked out great until I discovered that there were many things in each room that no one wanted to claim. So a few boxes were employed to put the flotsam that has collected over the past few years. These boxes got sorted into keep, donate and trash. Let me tell you, I had some very full trash bags that week. But now everyone has a new home with the items they love and cherish. The extras are cleared out. It was like moving with a lot less stress. I think room swapping every few years may become a tradition. With kids moving out every couple, it could happen.