I solved the household item hoarding issue by buying an RV. It holds all my extra pots, pans, appliances and bedding.This will also solve a lot of college related issues. I don’t need to book a hotel early for move-in/parents weekend/graduation, I can carry anything and everything, and after I pay tuition, I may need to use it to live in!
Have I said lately how proud I am of my son? We told him today that we will do everything possible to make Furman work, if he’s accepted. But if the finances don’t pan out for Furman or the other 2 colleges, than S18 will have to go to the local college and at least get his core finished, commute and live at home. I felt like such a financial failure telling him this. Surprisingly, he was FINE with it. He said he’d be disappointed of course, but he’d play the hand he’s dealt. He also told me to have faith. I don’t deserve my son.
Never heard of trout as a term of endearment!
I agree about Southern manners. That’s how I’ve raised my children, and how they see me interact with adults one generation older.
If any of your kids end up at the University of Oklahoma:
I live about 30 miles away (north), and I would be happy to offer up my garage for storage of your big-shipping items.
Will Rogers World Airport is halfway-ish between my 'hood and Norman.
@HeliMom74 I doubt any of mine will ever have scores to make U of OK an option, but your hospitality sure makes me want to visit!
C’mon down!
New question:
For those of you who will remain in your current house after C18 flies the coop, what will become of C’s room? Will you leave it as is, so C has his/her room to come home to? For how long? When is it okay to “repurpose” that room?
We have a whole mess of kids, and D18 will be the first to leave the house. Two of her brothers currently share a (less desirable) room. I’m sure you can see my quandary…
Leave as is while in college. Repurpose when C18 permanently moves out. That’s what my parents did with me.
Lol - D18 has a great room and D22 has her eyes on it big time and has offered to pay her rent while she is away! I love it . . . all business and why let a great option lie dormant.
We will talk to S about possible occasional use of his room as a guest room while he’s gone. If it gets to the point where he’s staying in ABQ for the summers and only visiting for a few days ( :(( ) at Christmas, Thanksgiving and spring break, we might discuss a more thorough re-purposing.
S is an only child, so there aren’t any siblings behind him casting covetous eyes on his room. 
We’ll be leaving it as is as well. But we don’t have the space considerations you do @ShrimpBurrito . I think in your place some changes might need to be made, but I would make sure to include her in the planning of any changes so she doesn’t feel pushed out. You know best how she’ll react.
2015’s room is used as a de facto guest room (she lives year-round on campus). She is only here maybe a dozen nights out of 365.
When 2018 leaves for college, his room will probably fall under the same design, only he will be home more often. I hope.
By 2020, I expect both rooms will have lost their occupants’ personal touches (those items will either be in their new year-round digs or given away) and will be repainted and whatnot.
Wow.
It seems…strange to see it on a timeline like that.
Man.
Like @DiotimaDM’s son, my son is an only child. Even if we downsize after he goes to college, it will be to a three-bedroom house and he’ll have a dedicated room with all his stuff. Once he’s out of college and on his own we might downsize again to a two-bedroom condo where the second bedroom wouldn’t be just for him, but while he’s in college we want him to have his own room to come home to. I’m sure it would be very different if we had a small house and/or a lot of kids, but we’re fortunate to be able to leave a dedicated room for him that we don’t need for anything else.
We’ve announced that D’s room will remain her room, at least for awhile. If she ends up in Canada, she won’t be coming home for Thanksgiving, and spring break may be up in the air. I’m not even sure how much we’ll see her in the summertime…I mean, think about it…winters in Canada and summers in Oklahoma? 8-} It may be hard to justify keeping it “her” room for very long. But you’re right, @1822mom, she needs to be fully on board with it.
@apraxiamom Where you are is exactly where we’ll be if S doesn’t make NMF. He’d apply for Regents at UNM, but if he didn’t get it, he’ll be living at home, going to CC and then transferring somewhere.
There’s no failure in that. Lots of families do it that way.
S’18 basically annexed S’13s room. All the personal stuff remained in the room, but S’18 uses the bed to lay around on, the desk to write on, and so on. Now that S’13 is heading west for graduate school, my wife talks about making more permanent changes…Not sure how S’18 will feel about losing his “other” room.
Oldest sons room will be taken over by middle son, since it’s upstairs, complete with a hang out room and bathroom. No sense in younger son staying in the tiniest room in the house while the big room is empty 90%of the time. Oldest son was fine with that. I suspect when middle son goes to college, daughter will be moving upstairs to take ownership, lol.
We are looking forward to downsizing…
@ShrimpBurrito The first thing I will do with S18s room, the very moment he sets off to college, is to CLEAN it. … Then I will keep it for him until he permanently moves out. But we only have one younger child, and he already has his own room. if I had younger kids still sharing a room, I would probably let one of them move into S18s room, with the understanding that the two younger kids would have to bunk together again when S18 comes home for breaks.
DS31 will likely move into his older brother’s room. That’s right ladies and gentlemen. DS31. 3 children, born to us in three decades and two centuries.
Our S16 experienced a “failure to launch” freshman year, so his room will stay ocupied for a while. He’d rather be on his own, so he’s figuring out how to make that happen. By the time both are employed the house will be almost paid for and I’ll be thinking about retirement in a few years. We bought low in a high cost of living area, so we may be looking at moving at that point.
@LOUKYDAD haha, that was my first thought, a typo.
I have a ds18, ds22 and dd26