The following is a guest post from Kathy Tyson, who has been there, done that and whose advice I’m more than happy to take.
Kathy says:
My oldest daughter was recently shoved out of the nest. She left kicking and screaming – very unhappy because I made her move into a college dorm room rather than have her face a daily commute. I mean come on! She got a full ride scholarship so why not enjoy it on campus? Besides, as anyone who has attended college anywhere in the U.S. know, parking is a son-of-a-gun!
But the real knife in her back was when we told her that she was losing the big room upstairs. Her little sister who started high school at the same time she started college was moving on up. One baby girl was elated, the other baby girl was highly peeved. The challenge was sifting through the piles and piles and tubs and tubs of stuff she left behind. Here are my tips on how to make a move like this:
1. Tell the kid moving out that whatever they leave behind needs to be presorted OR there’s no guarantee that their stuff won’t go into permanent storage … possibly never to be found again.
2. You’ll be both delighted and horrified by what you find. The delight was when I discovered one daughter was highly organized at some point in her life. The horror was knowing that all those labeled hangers were empty so somewhere a fail occurred!
3. Crusty cat barf found behind the TV does come clean with Scrubbing Bubbles.
4. Big plastic garbage bags work almost as well as the $10 storage bins. Don’t be afraid to pile clothes you plan to donate to Goodwill or Salvation Army in trash bags. But you might want to put a masking tape label on them to be sure you don’t accidentally haul them to the curb.
5. Hidden among all the posters hanging on the wall may be little surprises
– pictures of you as a young Mommy holding your little precious – that could incite tears.
6. If you have allergies, the paper towels you’re already using are just as good as regular tissues!
7. When personal belongings have been packed and/or changed, you may discover that PAINT is the only solution to covering white board markers that strayed from the white board and stained the wall. Or is it? Look carefully and you’ll see where – in a crunch with company coming and no white paint – I taped plain white paper on the wall to cover the stains. That’s just how I roll, people. If you don’t have a solution to save yourself from embarrassment, invent one!
8. Finally, when you think you’re done you may be wrong. After the room was all put together, baseboards cleaned, cat barf eradicated, curtains, sheets & blankets washed, spider webs cleaned, and you *think* you’re done… you might discover you forgot to clean behind the door.
I still haven’t done it, either. I’ll get it done before our next round of company arrives!
To read more from Kathy visit her at Shak and Jill.
If you’re interested in contributing a guest post send an email to Heather@Home-Ec101.com.
Thanks for your nice comments. College girl can stay in the guest room at Thanksgiving, Christmas and summer so it's not like we're making her sleep on the porch! Haha! The bad news is I'm still staring at four plastic bins full o'crap... I don't want them in the guest room. To get them OUT of my bonus room, I have to clean out our attic storage and at this point I think I'd rather stare at the bins than to tackle THAT.
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