Bedroom Sharing and Bad Habits…

Mrs. McCardell – In our current house we have 3 bedrooms upstairs and 1 room downstairs in the basement. The boys are in 1 bedroom upstairs (a bunk and 2 twin beds). One room is The Library with a desk and 2 bookcases in the open part of the room. The closet has 2 large bookcases and a smaller one. There are a few toys in this room – a big castle, a pirate ship, and 1 basket of the toys that go with those. The other bedroom upstairs is the schoolroom. Table and chairs in the middle, 3 large bookcases across one wall, and another in the corner.

In the basement we have 8 bookcases in the open area along with 2 shelving units. The toys are all organized in plastic tubs, with lids. The rule is – one toy in the house, one toy leaves. And if the toys don’t fit in the bin they have to get rid of enough to make it fit. (some are large boxes, some are shoe box size) I also purge about twice a year. We have another bookcase in our room with our books, and 1 in the weird spare room without a closet. And 3 bookcases in the living room. The books are all arranged by subject – all the science books together, picture books, etc.

We’ve moved 9 times in 10 years and had all sorts of different houses and we’ve always been able to make things work so that they all share a room and the other stuff fits in the others.

They DO play in their room, but since the rest of the house is basically set up for playing they spend most of their time in other places. Sometimes I walk in and the bedroom floor is covered with Bionicles or Legos or whatever. They usually have it picked up by bedtime (during their afternoon chores) and if not I let them know it should be clean the next day.