Right. I am going to do it. Moving the DCs bedrooms around.

[LittenTree]

We have a 4 bedroom house. DH and I have the big room, DS1 (12) has the 3rd room, DS2 (10) the 4th. The second is the spare/junk room. The smallest room (4th one) is 3.2 x 2.3m We have decided to move DS1 into the 2nd room, DS2 into the 3rd room (DS1's 'old' room) and use the smallest room as a junk room. It makes sense and might cause a rethink about what we actually choose to store!

I am quite excited at the prospect of a reorganisation but then I realise how much JUNK we have (we've only been here 2 years but we have the detritus of 2 houses here, effectively, following the shifting of piles of gear here from a house abroad we sold!). I have drawn up a scale plan (yes, really!) of the 4th room and measured everything I want to put there, mainly being my fold out sewing cabinet, a big (185cm wide) Ikea Expedit bookcase, the filing cabinet and a chest of drawers. I believe it will fit OK but bloody hell, it'll be a mammoth task, not least of which because the built-in wardrobe in what is currently the second room, where DS1 is going, is full of shit preloved heirlooms . I'd say 'Chuck it all out!' but I then recall how often I've salvaged stuff from there for school dress up, skiing hols, the wetsuits, my wedding dress, boxes of stuff collected on our travels (1985 Greyhound USA bus-pass, anyone??); boxes of sewing fabrics for projects I'll probably never get around to .

What I need is for a metaphorical fire to sweep through it all, then I can erase it from my mind. Though I have never scoffed at those with a pathological hoarding habit, I have often been a bit but then I realise how guilty I am of it!

Maybe I need and to Just Get On With It. And accept that the boys may be sleeping on mattresses for a few days.

it is very enjoyable moving rooms round! Even if you keep some of the stuff, there will always be inevitably something you can purge....

go for it! I change rooms round quite often, it keeps the skirtings cleaner! Hav e you considered putting some of the stuff in the loft, in very neatly labelled accessible boxes?

We don't have that 4th "spare room" and it means having visitors is less than satisfactory. I think having a dedicated spare room, and minusing the junk is well worth doing. It can always be used as a proper study in the meantime, rather than a junk room. My two boys now have separate bedrooms and I often think what a pity I didn't make use of the junk [box]room as a study whilst I had the chance. It is now ds2's very tiny bedroom, and I had to declutter it anyway, so I should have done it a lot earlier.

Haberdashery can always go under your bed! Wedding dress in loft. Dd will probably try it on when she is older, I tried it on for anniversary, but otherwise it doesn't need to be accessible.

Done it. It was less stressful that I thought it might be, tbh. The big 'plus' was that we didn't have to dismantle the Ikea unit, only one single bed which was easy. DS1 is very pleased with his new bigger room, DS2, about 6 hours into the Great Move, started complaining that he wasn't going into the biggest room- the only thing I could tell him was that DS1 is older and there'd be no fair way of doing it (fwiw, I have an older DB but I always got the bigger bedroom!)- and, the truth is, DS2 could actually use a bigger room in that he's a Lego fanatic whereas DS1 is move books and tech. Oh well!

I am going to go a grand delivery of craft stuff to the school, stuff I amassed over many years thinking 'I might use that one day' but, alas, probably never will! There's also a charity pile which I must get rid of before the DSs show interest in it..!

NOW for some ....