<p>I sent my first s off to college this year, and two younger brothers share a room. They’d like to separate and make the college kid share a room with one of them since that would mean they’d have their own rooms during the school year. I thought this made sense but hadn’t wanted to tackle it, but after Christmas break I’m wondering how my nocturnal college kid can live with a 7th grader this summer and not completely disrupt his sleeping patterns. On the other hand, his room is sitting un-used while my 7th grader is stepping on my 3rd grader’s legos. </p>
<p>Have any of you moved your student out of their bedroom when they went away to school?</p>
<p>We did. D1 packed up her room during the summer and D2 moved in after she left. However, D2 was making design plans and using paint chips to decide on repainting colors, etc. while D1 ws still at home. D1 wasn’t happy with that–she said she felt that she was being measured for a coffin while still living.</p>
<p>We turned D2’s bedroom into a library/study room, complete with bookcases, comfy recliner and large desk. When D1 comes home for visits, she stays in the guest room. When she comes home for longer periods of time, we’ve moved the desk downstairs and the guest bed upstairs. </p>
<p>I can’t see making a shrine out of bedroom.</p>
<p>Last fall I knocked down two non-loadbearing walls and built one new one giving about a third of what was his room to my bathroom and 2/3rds to the now much nicer livingroom. All the “stuff” he left behind is boxed, labeled and stored and he can live/sleep in the guest room whenever he’s here.</p>
<p>We did, too. Our D had the preferred remodeled attic upstairs bedroom with bathroom during high school. The day she left for college, our S moved into her room. The empty downstairs bedroom became the spare room where D stayed while on breaks.</p>
<p>Now D lives on her own, and S returns on breaks from college. We went from filled-to-overflowing in our tiny home to two mostly empty bedrooms.</p>
<p>Absolutely. We had a similar cases of an early-rising high schooler & later sleeping elementary or middle schooler. Whoever got up to the early alarm got their own room. </p>
<p>The college student who was hardly ever home got whatever was available. He didn’t seem to have trouble sleeping really late!</p>
<p>We didn’t have kids sharing a room but had a son that wanted to upgrade. We waited until No. 1 had graduated college and officially moved away. Different scenario, but I wish now I’d moved on it sooner. S spent four years in a smaller room when a larger one sat empty and waiting for the occasional visit.</p>
<p>No really taking over a the bedroom, but there is a sitting room outside of my college girls room that my 11 year old has used for playing Wii and slumber parties. Originally , it was supposed to be for everyone, but it has mostly been for the older girls.
I prefer she use it because it keeps the noise level down from the rest of the house</p>
<p>Last year D2 didn’t like her room and bed. She would go sleep in her sister’s room, have their study all to herself and had clothes in her old room. She basically had all 3 bedrooms to herself. We redecorated her room, got a new mattress for her, so now she is back to her room again. Her sister didn’t like her using the room. We have plenty of bedrooms, so it’s not worth it to move them around. But I also like to keep D1 room as a shrine.</p>
<p>Absolutely. No shrines. There is no reason to keep at-home siblings sharing a room while one is gone. After all, the oldest had his turn at his own room already. And it really is time to let the 7th grader have some personal space. </p>
<p>In our house the oldest had the best room at the end of the hall. Next one couldn’t wait to get to move into it when the previous one left for school. So we changed it 3 times, until DD in the end had the largest bedroom that used to be the one shared and did not want to move. When we finally got to 2 away and 2 home, the tiny room was for the 2 gone, fortunately both S’s. </p>
<p>With such an age gap I think you have to tell the college age one that you expect them to be respectful and quite when they go to bed. The reverse will also happen since the 7-8th grader will be up before college age wants to so make it a pact between them that they have to negotiate themselves. Let them solve it. .</p>
<p>Pretty much cleared out the college kids room the weekend he left. Made it up into a very neutral guest room. His room when he is here, nice guest room when others are here. He did comment that now he finally has a TV in “his room”.</p>
<p>19 year old daughter has the larger room and 15 year old son has the smaller room. She has left so much stuff in the room it would be an ordeal to do a switch, but it really isn’t fair. I think I will ask him if he wants to switch. I hope he says no, but it would force us to go through all of the stuff she left behind.</p>
<p>Only child here, so now we have a guest room that looks very neat when he is not home (no redecorating except for new bedding and a massive cleanup). This semester I’m going to use it as my exercise room.</p>
<p>When I went away to college one of my siblings used my room while I was gone, but moved out when I came home for vacations. That was a good solution. But after my freshman year my family moved, and I definitely did not have prime real estate after that–and it was okay with me.</p>
<p>My kids would decide among themselves which bedroom belonged to which kid. They rotated around…I think everyone has had each bedroom as their own for a period of time. Sometimes H and I came home from a night out to find they had exchanged rooms once again.</p>
<p>For myself, when I was about 16 I redecorated my room to be like a sitting room using a convertible sofabed. When I went to college it became a family room with the TV but it was still my room when I was home. No shrine though. There is a photo in my wedding album that shows me and my dad in the room. There was nothing personal of mine in there, even the top of my dresser has my mother’s knicknacks. I didn’t even realize it at the time.</p>
<p>I shared a room with my brother (2 years younger) from about age 4 until I was a junior in high school. When my sister who is 2 years older than me went off to college, we finally got our own rooms. My sister who is 6 years older than me lived at home at that point as well. It was pretty much always a matter of when a kid went off to college, the next oldest moved into that room. My brother decided to stay where he was when I moved. </p>
<p>Now, we have a back bedroom that is full of junk and two beds. It gets used whenever any of us come home. My brother is still at home and now my grandpa has moved in with my parents so he took over my bedroom. It was interesting when my oldest sister and her boyfriend came to visit at Christmas; I ended up on the floor in my brother’s room (somehow he found the floor!). Next summer will be interesting too-- I spent all of Christmas break living out of my laundry basket and duffel bag.</p>
<p>I don’t feel like it needs to kept as a shrine at all, and it isn’t like my older son spent loads of time hanging out in his room. It’s a very small room–no tv or anything, so he did his hanging out in the basement. I do admit though that I want him to want to come home, and I have a little concern that if the sleeping arrangments are a hassle he’ll be less interested in that. But I also know that it’s more important for the kids who actually live here full time to be happy and comfortable. It makes sense–except for the summer sleeping issue. Although, it just occurred to me that he’s living with a roomate right now that wakes early every day and goes to bed early and he seems to be dealing with it so I guess he should be able to work it out with his brother too! Thanks for the suggestions!</p>
<p>Parents + 2 kids; 3 bedrooms. Older kid had substantially larger bedroom and “amenities”. Older kid knew a year or two before going away that bedrooms would be switched. Conversion happened before Thankgiving break of Freshman year.</p>
<p>Hasn’t kept older kid from living at home every summer. Hope it will keep older kid from living at home after graduation!</p>
<p>We let Son #2 move out of his shared room and into Son#1’s room when the oldest left for college. The deal was that Son#2 had to move back when his big brother came home. Had no problems for three years - oldest didn’t come home that often. However, now Son#3 has grown a lot, is as tall as his brothers, and, when they are all home, the fight is not so much over rooms, but over the queen-sized beds versus the one twin bed. We actually had them rotate every five nights for two weeks!</p>
Thanks for the suggestions!</p>