<p>
LOL! I’d love to “clean” my son’s room using a shovel and a dumpster, but he insists that he knows where everything is and that I shouldn’t move anything. Sigh…I guess I know who will be cleaning this summer!</p>
<p>Our house has 2 large bedrooms & one very small bedroom, not much bigger than a walk-in closet. We moved in when d. was an infant and my son was age 5, and put d. in the small bedroom. When she was old enough to be out of a crib, I put a loft bed in her room – the bed had to be raised if there was to be any space for other furniture or for her to play. </p>
<p>It was always understood that when her brother went off to college she would take his room – it simply didn’t make sense with the discrepency in size of rooms. </p>
<p>There was only one catch: I told my daughter I would help with the move, but she had to take charge of moving her brother’s stuff out and her stuff in. I simply was too busy to deal with it until she was ready. </p>
<p>Well, it is 5 years later, and d. is still in the small room, still sleeping in the lofted bed. My d. even had me buy a new chest of drawers from Ikea which we assembled to fit under the loft bed. My son has not lived here for years; most of his stuff has been boxed, but the boxes are stacked in his old bedroom - as well as other boxes, as the room has evolved toward being used as storage. </p>
<p>Anyway, this is all the result of inertia. Its a big job to go through all of my son’s stuff and sort out what needs to be stored from what needs to be tossed, and so far no one has had the energy or inclination to take it on.</p>
<p>My son is not coming back. He lives on his own in a shared apartment, and when I last visited him he had just about every inch of his room covered with posters or other art work – all very much reflecting his personality & interests, much more so than his room at home ever did – so it was pretty obvious to me that he has built his nest elsewhere.</p>
<p>When S1 left for college, we left his room pretty much the same. I cleaned it up, then ignored it, except when the rest of the house was a disaster. Then I would go in there and pretend the rest of the house looked like that. (He was my tidiest child.)</p>
<p>However, he didn’t care one way or another. We moved there when he was in 9th grade, so I’m not sure how much ownership he felt. He did ask me to not toss his posters and such, in case he wanted them in the future. We moved to Germany when he was a Junior in college, and now he’s out and on his own. His room will become our official guest room (anticipating, like someone else said, that he will someday be there with a wife.) Our previous guest room is going to become my office. However, we will probably always refer to S1’s room as “his” room, no matter what it becomes.</p>
<p>S2’s room will stay the way it is (we’re returning to the US this summer, to the same house) at least until he graduates college and is on his own. I expect to do the same for D when she goes. Part of me would love to buy a smaller house – who needs 5 bedrooms with no kids? But then I think how fun it would be to have room for all my kids and their families to visit in the future?</p>
<p>Short answer to OPs question: my kids don’t care. They are attached to their “stuff” but not necessarily to their rooms. It’s me who has a harder time with it.</p>
<p>Their rooms are still their rooms; they do not come home that often but it is their home as well as ours and we don’t really need the space (already have a home office). We do use my son’s closet to store my husband’s out-of-season suits and sweaters, but basically the rooms are as they were. </p>
<p>My parents eventually changed my brother’s room and my room considerably after we left home (actually, after we both had married, which is really leaving home). Even that was jarring and I missed seeing my room as it used to be when I visited them wtih my children. So I plan to keep the two rooms here pretty much as they are; if/when we move, obviously the situation will be diifferent.</p>
<p>Other than a thorough cleaning, my son’s room will still be his room while he’s away at college. We don’t need the space, but if we did, we’d use it, and he wouldn’t mind. He’s not very sentimental about things like that. Although, if we made it a shrine to him, he’d definitely go for that. :D</p>
<p>
Oh dear, dig. Our first lovers’ quarrel. 
<em>I</em> cleaned DS room (never do when he’s at home) and get immeasurable pleasure every time I peek in there and see it in good order, color coordinated linens unmarred by stray laundry items. No sign of plating, moundbuilding or other archeologically interesting behaviors.</p>
<p>We don’t need the room, so that’s my game. We plan to downsize but will wait until DS gives some indication that he sees our home as a visiting place rather than “home.” Personally, I stopped coming home for summers after Junior year; kind of guessing he’ll do the same.</p>
<p>We have left D1’s room as she left it. I dust and water her plants.I like that it’s clean, until I open her closet. D2 uses it as a music practice space. I KNOW D1 doesn’t really “live” here anymore. Her life is transient, she has places to go and things to do. When she does get home, it’s important to me that her space is hers. Stable, familiar, safe. At the end of the year, she will pack her dorm room belongings into boxes and store “stuff” till she returns to school. And since she’s studying abroad all of next year who knows when that will happen, I am sure we will get the bill.</p>
<p>My parents immediately turned my room into the office. For the first year, they left my bed and dresser in there. Now there’s no bed, just the office furniture and my dresser, which I suspect is only there because it’s extremely heavy.</p>
<p>I sleep on the couch when I visit. I think they’re trying to tell me something…</p>
<p>Hope the couch is comfortable! Our folks didn’t do much to the bedrooms, but our sibs would tend to take over (we all shared bedrooms) when anyone was away. My 3 brothers all shared one bedroom & the girls were two to a room. The only way my brothers were able to have a place to live when they moved home was to clean out the storage room by dumping everything that was in it, accummulated over many years by the entire family & living there. I was still the only one who moved out to an apartment before getting married, everyone else found a space in the family home, one way or another.</p>
<p>MY froash D enthusiastically supported giving her little the bigger bedroom with the super closet. We moved frosh D’s stuff in with college senior d’s stuff, no problems, joy all around.</p>
<p>Along cam Christmas and Frosh D felt very bewildered and sad, she felt there was no place to call her own, as the D1 &D2 shared room is also the guest room for holiday visitors. D2 took all her stuff and set up a bedroom for herself in a loft area that is kinda shifty and not really a room, but makes a nice “space” for her and feels like it is hers. We were all surprised how strongly she felt, especially since she spent more time out of the house than in the house over break!</p>
<p>They don’t know how they will feel, my D actually got teary 
It is all part of the growing up and separating, I was glad to have a space for her to claim.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that if at all possible, you should not make any changes to your child’s room or change your place of residence in their first year of college. For all the obvious emotional reasons.</p>
<p>H and I have been SO tempted to commandeer the kid’s closet, but we have refrained. Every time S comes home, he talks about how happy he is to be in his room.</p>
<p>In truth, how many of them really come home for the summer other than after freshman year? As much as we may be coveting that office or sewing room, I suspect to them, in that first year or so, it feels that losing their space at home might be equivalent to having been erased or forgotten.</p>
<p>We moved across town when my younger SD was a junior in hs and she pitched a fit of epic proportions. Said ALL her memories were in our house and that we could NOT move. This puzzled us, since she spent less than 50% of her time with us. For whatever reason, it was a big deal to her. She has come to love the new home as much as the old, although she has never been as attached to her room as she was in the old home.</p>
<p>My sister is a year out of college (and I am in my 1st year), and her room is STILL her room - she comes home for holidays, family events, etc., and its there for her. Granted, most of the stuff she uses is gone, but she still has loads of books, old cards, childhood items there. I have taken over her closets to store stuff I rarely wear (formal clothes, summer clothes in winter, etc.), but that’s really the only change.</p>
<p>(maybe this is because it wouldn’t make sense to use her room for anything else - its very small, and on a smaller top floor that only has her room, mine, and a bathroom)</p>
<p>We don’t need the space so it’s pretty much like he’s left it the last year and a half, with computer parts strewn helter skelter on every surface. Younger son did take the spare parts off the bed so he and the dog (the dog who is forbidden to even think about getting on the furniture) can wrestle on it. I commandeered the closet.</p>
<p>However, my son doesn’t care a whit what we do with his room as long as he has a place to sleep when he’s here. I’ve read the stuff about not changing things the first year but he has never been the sentimental type and truly doesn’t care. He is truly puzzled that I’ve kept some of his baby clothes, toys, books, etc. The second one won’t care either.</p>
<p>We will downsize when they’re both out of college. We plan to retire immediately upon payment of the last tuition/loan payment and have given ourselves the next few years to decide where we want to live. (I hope it’s just a “few” years!) My only requirement is a spare bedroom or two for visits from the grandbabies I’m hoping for.</p>
<p>My parents have left my room, and I assume they’ll leave my sister’s when she goes to college as well. My room though will be different when I have my own apartment that isn’t furnished because I’ll be taking my furniture, I think that will cause my parents separation anxiety. The furniture was a gift to me so I want to take it with me once I’m out of college, I suspect if my room is going to serve another purpose that will become clear when my furniture leaves and my parents can do whatever they want with it.</p>
<p>We had to redecorate S1’s room when we moved out – actually, allowed our tenants to. His room was decorated with all things aircraft, and he had a huge wallcovering of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Obviously, this was done before the explosion. Our tenants were understandably not thrilled with this, so we gave them permission to remove it. S understood, but was sad about it. Now that he is on his own, though, he doesn’t care what we do with the room when we return this summer, as long as there is space for him to visit.</p>
<p>S2 seems to care more, so we won’t change anything there till he is on his own. (He’s a musician, so it may be awhile…)</p>
<p>Did not need to, and therefore left DD’s room exactly as it was, except for removing an icecream bowl from under the bed!!!</p>
<p>My ds are actually kind of excited about the changes that will occur. My oldest is looking forward to coming back to an "adult’ room for her new life next year</p>
<p>All she said was to make sure she has drawer space, closet space and that her bed is comfortable</p>
<p>We offered Son his sister’s room, and he turned it down. So when she left, we immediately did two things – turned off the waterbed and (remembering that I do day care in my home) put up a permanent playpen for the baby! During the school year (minus Christmas) we use her bedroom for storage. Her underwear draw now holds my latest “treats” from the yarn store!</p>
<p>When she comes home, which isn’t often, we plug in the waterbed and put away the playpen. And her room is hers. But she also spends a lot of time sorting and going through things. She is a sophomore, and my guess is that by the time she graduates, her room will be down to the basics. I hope so. We can use the space and I have plans for her room . . .</p>
<p>My D is weighing her options for when S leaves for college in the fall. On the one hand, she loves her room, but on the other hand, brother’s room is larger & has a larger bed. We will see how things unfold but in any case we have told her she only gets ONE room, not two. <grin></grin></p>
<p>S who is going to college currently shares room with S who is HS sophomore. It’s not a big room, we literally had to sit down with graph paper to fit the two of them into it once they got too old for bunk beds 
Younger S is half of twins and we didn’t plan on 3 kids when we bought the house… </p>
<p>So anyway we’re already trying to figure out how to give the younger S a little more elbow room after older S goes to college, while still leaving enough of the older one’s stuff in place so he’ll feel like he has his old room to come home to. We were thinking maybe a futon…</p>