I started with the walls. Took all of the stuff off the walls, and the room didn't look that much like my daughters any more.

Next came the stuff "out", then the dresser, the bookcase, and finally the closet.

We had talked about it, before she left, after her first visit home from the Navy.

But, she could not get herself to help.

Her clothes was the only thing she had gone through. We had purged all the "mom, I don't think I will ever wear this again" items.

I packed it all in rubbermaid totes, and hauled them to the basement.

When we moved, it all moved with us, as Lori was at GITMO at the time.

After she finally came back to the states, she got a tote at each time I went to visit, till she came back. We went through the rest, and donated all she no longer wanted to a womens shelter.

Now, the stuff from the daughter that was in Korea for years, it's a whole new story.

We hauled it with every move... and when she finally came back I forced her to go through it (but honest, it was only 3 totes) and take all she still wanted.

It was liberating, to get it out of my attic and basement.

Moni

Totes work the best.
Each time DD would come home for a visit I would send her down to the basement to go thru and downsize some stuff. She was a terible packrat and saved every school paper I think. When she was married and settled into her own home in Wisconsin, I would visit and bring one or two totes or "stuff"! She would moan and groan, tell me to just throw it all away, but nope. She saved it and she needed to deal with it!
the 3 boys were much easier, but I'm sure their DW's wondered why they kept that "stuff", mostly toys and video games.
Kathy G in MI

I haven't been able to move her stuff out yet. I still have a few things in her room but most of it I moved to the basement. She rents a really small house and doesn't have much room. I told her when she bought her own place, she'll be taking her stuff. She said she imagined that most would go to goodwill or thrown. She went thru her clothes already so that's not a problem. Right now it's household stuff that is down there.

If your son is still in college, doesn't he come home? And when he graduates, won't he be coming home until he finds a job etc?

I AM the grown child and while I've taken most everything from my parents' home, I still have one closet where I keep clothes, toiletries, books and some gifts for the following Christmas. I go home at least once a year for two or three weeks and having some things already there makes my travel much easier.

Do be sensitive to your grown child's feelings. No matter how old you are, it's emotional when you go to your parent's home and no longer have a room that's yours. I know it must sound irrational, but emotions sometimes are irrational.

Everyones post has a little of something I want to think about when making his room into my dd's room. DS has given the ok to the room change and agrees she should have it. He sure doesn't seem too sentimental about his high school days.
Luckily we have a king size bed in the basement, where he stays if he comes home. He might come home one or two nights a month. Mostly comes home to help on the farm or sometimes helps me around the home or yard, doing odd jobs. There is always a chance he may have to move home for a short while so I will keep that in mind.
We seem to be in slow motion in this transition but so far have gone through the clothes. I'll put his remaning clothes in the basement or in his sisters OLD room.

Over the past years, what seemed to be a roomy house has turned into everyones storage room. I really want to manage all our stuff and get organized. Sometimes I think I would like to have an organizer come in and help me get our STUFF in order again.

I like the idea of having totes hold some personal items, pictures and important memory items. Don't want to keep every book, paper or dust collector. He's not a packrat so this shouldn't be to hard.

Thinking about moving my DD's room, oh my, that will be crazy. She has so much on her walls! Do I really want to do this!?? focus, focus....

We moved into our house when the youngest child was a couple of months old. Each child had his own bedroom, and we had lots of room here. Now we are empty nesters and still here. But we have kept the kids bedrooms usable so that they will feel free to come home any time for a visit. Our oldest is married and has two children. So though most of the junk is out of their rooms, the rooms are still there with beds and dressers. We love to have them visit, which tends to happen only at the holidays for the boys. Spur of the moment visits are great too. We are glad we can offer accommodations when they visit.

Have you tried dynamite?

o j

What Fun2BHere said. It is a hard thing to have
that last bit of "stuff" moved out of Mom & Dad's.

Luckily, no one wanted my room, and the furniture
just stayed there for quite a while.

I know this isn't the answer you were looking for, but
just a different view, maybe? :)

I don't know, Alex still comes home almost every weekend but then he's only 25 miles away.

lol lol lol i'm still living with my "personal bedroom"(the mistress room) with aweful mi state green walls! but all of ds and dd's stuff is gone...started to redo everything but with my medical blips just havn't had the strenth...anything i thought they might want, pictures, some old report cards, went with them...but don't get too sentimental! they don't want to add to the stuff they already have (each child is married and have children) havn't a clue what they did with the letterman jackets...with trophies, removed the name/sport engraved plate, and tossed the statues...

the only problem with a jr, is the possible transion stage...each child lived with us for about 6 months-year right after college...mostly while they were job searching..,so we kept the itty bitty bedroom as the drop-in spot...(it's all bed our old king) it can also sleep up to 3 grands...

What are you doing with his sister's empty room? Assuming there isn't already another child in there you could make the empty one a masculine spare room for when he does come home (as well as for out of town guests) and store his things in the closet.

Once my DD was a senior in college I turned her basement bedroom into a entertainment room with a flatscreen TV, a sectional sofa and a bar. Her disappointment at losing "her room" didn't last long and if she wants to sleep on a 'real' bed when she visits (several times a year) she just needs to come upstairs and stay in the spare room.

We still have a lot of her things stored here in different parts of the basement.

Lydia, you've pretty much have the same thing going on as we do. Our basement is as big as the main floor. Several sections down there. Where he sleeps has a king size bed and the other side of the long room has our first set of leather lane furniture and a big flat screen. He's had many sleep overs down there! Now that he's grown he's plenty used to the set up and it's kind of a man cave. Still caters to my girls but not feminine either.

It's a good place for a young man. He likes living on his own so much that coming back home would be very likely, short term.
When I finally move his sister into his old room, I'll have to repaint her colorful room and make it a guest room, or a study room for the girls.
The hardest part isn't deciding whether to move him but how to move him out. I can see now that it's just time consuming, not so sentimental.
It's time to have the garage sale that was suppose to happen last fall too. The dreaded rummage sale..

If your daughter really wants her big brother's room, then perhaps part of the deal should be that she, herself, must also help get her current room in a good state to turn it into something else (when the time comes). That means she should be taking stuff down off the walls and helping you clean the walls and paint. And going through everything in her room to decide what, if anything, she wants to donate or toss.

If I were in your position, I wouldn't be the one "moving grown children." The kids each agreed to the room change, so they should be doing the packing, sorting and transporting (wherever the items need to go). All you should be doing is keeping them on a timetable to do the work.

We have been empty nesters for a couple of years now. The kids still come home for week long stays here and there so their rooms look pretty much like they did when they left. If we have guest, they can pick which room they want to stay in, Johnathon's or Jessica's. That is how we still refer to them.

When my stepdaughter moved out she left almost everything at home because she was in a furnished apartment with a girlfriend. After a couple years of reminding/threatening/begging her to get her stuff, I finally packed everything. (and I mean EVERYTHING.) Books, toys, pencils, kitty posters, hair bands, clothes...if it was in her room, it went in a box. I took everything to the basement where it resided for last 12 years. She just wouldn't take anything with her...

So finally a couple months ago I decided I had looked at it long enough. I loaded it all up on an 8' - completely full- trailer and delivered to her house.
I love her to pieces, but she had the nerve to call me to tell me her Nintendo unit was there but she couldn't find the games...did I have them? (she moved out 14 years ago!)

Her room (it is really large) is now the man cave. Deer mounts, fishing rod racks, gun safe, a large oak desk, 1 recliner and a big screen TV for NASCAR.