<p>This is the mirror image of Princess'Dad's thread about moving his D into school. For the record, I agree with those who say less is more when it comes to moving in. </p>
<p>This thread is about plans for rooms and belongings when they move OUT. </p>
<p>The week my D leaves for BS I am going to take every stick of furniture out, everything off the walls, and everything out of the closets. I am going to steam clean the carpet - twice - and try to kill whatever has been living under those piles of wet towels for the last 15+ years. I am sure there are creatures inhabiting the space behind the bureau where the hamster, the gerbil, and most recently, the baby-sat hermit crab, bird and fish lived. I want them gone. I am then going to leave all her windows open, rain or shine, for two weeks. Then I am going to repaint her walls to a normal, neutral shade that a human can stand for more than ten minutes. Then, and only then, am I going to return a select few of her belongs to the room along with a bed, a bureau and a nightstand. </p>
<p>I am reclaiming my house, one room at a time.</p>
<p>But how will she feel when she comes home at Christmas? I'm going to leave my daughter's room as is. I might clean it up a little so that I can vacuum but I don't want her to feel like she's visiting grandma when she comes home on break.</p>
<p>Ditto to photoOp's comments. Cleaning the room is one thing, changing it is totally different. It's still her bedroom even when she is at boarding school.</p>
<p>Valid points, sure. But you have to understand, D's room is beyond normal teen pigginess. It is on a the federal Superfund toxic waste site list. People tell me their kids' rooms are bad until I show them pix of D's room. It is seriously bad. The reality is D will be happy to have a fresh start in a clean room. For a while now she has wanted to repaint her room to get rid of the toxic (in color, not chemistry!) yellow paint she chose a few years back, and her current furniture is cheap stuff that we painted pastel colors when she was pre-adolescent. There's no reason to have a room in our house that we are embarrassed to have guests stay in while D is away at BS. </p>
<p>In contrast, S, who will also be away starting in September, has kept his room far more manageable. His will get a thorough cleaning but not a full bore makeover.</p>
<p>My son's loft bed is falling apart and his room is disgusting... We have the same plan to clean it out, paint and then get some new furniture that is not falling apart. He doesn't mind at all...</p>
<p>We just moved in with my mom's significant other and a teenage boy lived in my room (he now lives in the basement while home from college), so my room is pretty.. bland. My old room was purple (yeah!) but we painted it... white. For selling, of course. I miss my purple, but the second I leave for school next year (if I get accepted) my mom would paint it white. Again.</p>
<p>my room is green,
and i set up special sensors to tell my if my little brother sets foot in there while im away,
and if he does,
an alarm is going to sound loud enough for me to hear it 2000 miles away,
and ill push the button that lets the gaurd dogs in the house to drag him out.</p>
<p>haha
totally kidding,
but i know i wouldnt be happy if i came home to a white room mesed up room..</p>
<p>if i get accepted somewhere and leave next year i know EXACTLY what my mom will do:
a) vacuum my room -twice.
b) wipe the floors -twice.
c) wipe my windows -twice.
d) sort my remaining clothes out -once to keep them orderly and neat because half my shirts are always off the racks, the next to put them in color coordination because i mess them up every month
e) call me because she found a stash of snacks and yell about how many ants are probably around
f) call me again because i never called her back
g) stow away all my video games because she knows they'll never be used again
h) close my door and never open it again -twice.</p>
<p>westcoast: pretty much the same here!
My mom will:
Remove the TV and put it in her room (mine is 3x the size but I got it by drawing straws <3 )
Remove the computer and put it in the living room or basement.
Basically redistribute all resources that were being sucked into the black hole that is my room. Haha
Vacuum, sort clothes, get rid of books that I've had since I was 8.</p>
<p>My mom cleaned my room/reorganized it and repainted it when I was gone....without asking me. The color she repainted it was pretty much the same as it was before, but I still wasn't too happy because she took down some stuff/took down all my horse show ribbons that had been lining the walls. I guess if she'd asked first I probably wouldn't have minded so much, but I don't really like it when my parents go through my stuff without me.</p>
<p>Westcoast, Saer, you guys got it right. You left out the stage of texting when D doesn't return phone calls but that's nitpicking. D knows I'm going to be doing this, we were talking about it last night in her room (I was wearing shoes so my socks wouldn't stick to the carpet). Warriorboy648 sees it the same as me as well. I expect D will be happy to come back to order. Also, though I threaten that I am going to use a chute out the window into a dumpster, in reality I have lots of plastic storage bins to keep her stuff for her to go through when she's ready.</p>
<p>oh.. my mom WOULD have texted. it's cheaper than calling, especially internationally.
then again when i ignored her this summer camp she gave up texting. now it's more of the 18 missed calls in a row and then on the 19th call i pick up and she screams. XD</p>
<p>Ahahaha, westcoast, i have to pick up because my mom only calls when it's important... Typically, we don't talk except in person. O_O That might make boarding school difficult... Though I do flood her inbox with email when I need/want/saw/love something. I'm a weirdo, though.</p>
<p>Lax,
My wife has thought of the same and my d had me put a lock on her door "to keep sisters out so they could not steal her stuff", but I think it is also to keep mom out.</p>
<p>I guess I would be very upset if similar happened to my office while I was out of town (they threaten to throw away my 30 yo Lazi Boy and I have gone into detail about what would happen to them. It is nice knowing the anatomy of the nervous system...).</p>
<p>So, while her room will get a major cleaning (I am with you for the steam cleaning, vacuum and airing out), that may be all. Hopefully when she packs for school, the clothes will be picked up enough for one to walk in...</p>
<p>What I am wondering is how BS "cures" this behavior. I know they won't let them have a room like we "lax" parents (no offense meant, I am probably worse) do. ????</p>
<p>That's what I was thinking too Princess'Dad. When she gets back next summer or even over Christmas, I have a feeling she'll want to clean up the mess she calls her room herself. At least I hope so.</p>
<p>^^^I see no chance of that happening. I think that even if she learns some aspect of room hygiene, she will lapse immediately into habits when she gets home. Just as I expect S will forget he ever learned to cook and expect to have food put on the table for him!</p>
<p>At school, some house counselors do room check every week, demand that rooms are neat, everything is off the floor and vacuumed. But that's rare, most aren't that strict. Still, some level of cleanliness is demanded for fire safety. That might help.</p>