It’s taken us only six months to finish painting the spare bedroom, aka First Born’s former bedroom, but it has reached the final stretch. This newly painted room is an experiment for me, as I have zero vision when it comes to decorating. I’m not calling my sister for advice. We didn’t paint this room the same color, or even a related color, to the other rooms in our home. There is even an accent wall, something I’ve never before envisioned or attempted. I’m picking out new curtains and possibly some artwork, just like a grown-up with taste. It’s important that it looks like a guest room and not a rummage sale. We’ve collected a tad too much rummage over the years.

By the time you read this we should be moving furniture back into the room. Unfortunately, there was a whole lot more than furniture in there.

 My old electric piano, which hasn’t been touched in a couple of years, was still set up and surrounded by my dad’s old fake books. From a large box of clothes ready to be donated, I ended up pulling two pairs of pants to wear for painting. I collected several envelopes of school pictures of various sizes taken over the years for both girls. Exactly how many relatives did I think I was going to send these to?

We removed the white shelving originally intended to store my winter sweaters and pants, due to lack of closet space (which I may have mentioned). It hadn’t taken long for the shelves to become the drop point for old notebooks from both kids’ school days, empty picture frames, and magazines I swear I’m going to read. If you glance into Second Born’s room today, you would see that her bed is the new drop point.

 The scariest discovery of all — to the surprise of nobody — was under the bed. When Spouse and I moved the bed out, we uncovered shoe boxes crammed with small toys, stuffed animals, cards, middle school notes and photos. Even though I was sure every shoe box that entered this house was used for a school project, First Born somehow managed to fill several of them and “file” them out of sight. Until now.

Among the treasures were photographs from unidentified destinations that I don’t recall visiting, pieces from an aerobic stepper I’m pretty sure I donated to a church fair, and cards from First Born’s first birthday and baptism. The latter will probably remain hidden away for a while. If Second Born gets wind of the cards, I’ll have to go on a search for the collection of cards from her first birthday and baptism. Based on the fact that I was a little more tired the second time around, I am not totally convinced there is such a collection.

I resorted to sending a photo of one collection of things to First Born, asking if she wanted them. Naturally, she would like to hold onto them until the next time she and The Groom visit. They have no such plans for 2017. Sigh.

 At the moment, Second Born’s room could be mistaken for an indoor flea market, featuring a bedrail, mattress and box spring that block the doorway. We have two weekends to clean it out before she gets home. Funny how I think of the next time we see her as still so far away … until I realize what has to get done if she wants to enter her room. Her cat has been sleeping on top of the pile of blankets that are covering her bed. She’s the only one that could possibly climb over the many obstacles blocking the way. 

The fact is we need another spare room, or two more closets (did I mention the lack of closet space?). Since that’s not going to happen I will continue to purge some items and find new hiding places for others. For a brief moment, I thought a new location had been discovered. Then I remembered Second Born has carried on the tradition.

There isn’t a spare inch under her bed either.