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So we’re redecorating Henry’s room! Because that will solve all my — er, his problems. Right?

Right!

Wade and I had a long talk last week about Henry’s organizing issues, and — very wisely — Wade suggested that we redecorate his room. Or really, get the boy a dresser because his clothes are piled in the bottom of his closet and he’s using two old cd racks to display his Bionicles.

I always like to point out that my brother was in his 30s and married before he got a dresser and he seems to have turned out fine, but Wade really had a point.

So on Saturday we made a family trip to Mathis Brothers (god there’s a place that should serve cocktails at the door) and bought the boy some furniture: dresser, bookshelf, nightstand, and, at Wade’s insistence, a bed. Shopping with Wade is always fun; his motto is “What’s one more torpedo to a sinking ship?” Although Henry’s sinking ship will look like a Pottery Barn showroom.

(For the record, though, we did not even think about buying his furniture at Pottery Barn. We don’t have THAT big a ship, even if we are sinking it.)

To really get that Pottery Barn look, I took Henry to Pottery Barn Kids to pick out pillow shams. Imagine our joy when we were met by a gigantic Star Wars window display that included a six foot long reproduction of Darth Vader’s light saber! I thought Henry was going to climb through the glass.

PBK has some really cute things in this line, including shams that say “Star Wars” on them, but of course my kid goes for the very busy Star Wars patterned shams with the cartoon renderings of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker. I tried to talk him into the other ones, but then I realized eh, what the hell, it’s his room. And I can always cover the shams up with a really cute throw pillow or three.

On Sunday night, Wade and I talked about strategies for getting Henry organized. Since we would have a day’s notice before the furniture arrived, we planned to move all the old stuff out of Henry’s room the night before and then help him sort through it and put it away (or ideally throw a bunch of crap out because the boy has a LOT of crap in his room).

Of course, that’s not how it worked out. At ALL.

Henry’s dresser and bookshelf were delivered on Monday, which surprised me because I had no idea the delivery truck was coming (thanks for calling ahead, Mathis Brothers! And also for delivering HALF of what we bought! And also for having NO IDEA where the bed is!) so now Henry’s room is an even bigger mess because it’s jammed with furniture and every inch of floor space is covered with crap. I guess we’re on the road to improvement, but we’re not there yet.

I’ve been shopping for window treatments, because I am in denial. And also because what’s one more torpedo to a sinking ship, right?

Right.

12 Comments so far

Ah, I do love optimism. If I can recount to you a conversation I had with my eighty year old daughter the other night:

Me - So, Eldest, can you tell me what goes in these three drawers, from the top down?

Eldest - That would be messy clothes, then pyjamas, then underwear

Me - Right! And the other three drawers?

Eldest - Jumpers, then ordinary clothes, then school uniform

Me - Right again! So can you explain to me why everything from today’s laundry, from socks to knickers to jumpers to pyjamas, plus a new school skirt, is all stuffed in this drawer here?

Eldest looks blank

EIGHT year old daughter. Jeez. She’s not going to be EIGHTY, is she?

I can not stand MB. We lived in Stillwater so we took our truck down when we went to buy a bed. We bought the captain’s bed with the drawers underneath. The guy in the warehouse loaded our truck with one box. I asked if that was everything and he assured me it was. It wasn’t. It was just the drawers. I called MB and ended up having a mini-hissy because they said they would deliver the bed in a couple of days and refused to give us any compensation for their mistake.

Ooooo. You got me started.

Love the Star Wars! I am painting my 8 year old’s room right now and was looking for new bedding. I think I found it, after looking at your post. We have a Star Wars fanatic in our house too!

CUTE! I love kids’ rooms.

Don’t worry, Coffee Lady, I also feel like I’ve been saying the same things to my kids for eighty years!
Susan, please let us know if shopping your way to organization works. I’m willing to try anything to help my daughter get organized. Well, except being a good example myself. That would be too hard to keep up.

I was trying to explain to my daughter the other day about the virtues of a clean room. I told her it’s so much nicer to wake up in a clean bedroom.
Her reply…”how would you know”. OUCH! But true.

My mom always used the same method:

#1 Send child to camp.

#2 Get large black trash bags.

#3 Sort through room. Broken things get trashed and unused things get donated or stored for next child.

#4 Buy something interesting to distract child.

#5 Pray that child doesn’t notice that half her/his stuff is missing.

I am laughing WITH you I promise. I went thru the same thing and bought all these shelves and drawers and bins.

And now I have a place to stash all the crap he leaves all over the floor. Because apparently I am the only one that knows where it all should go. *sigh*

I saw your note on twitter about henry wanting to quit karate. I think he should stick out the sessions you signed him up for…doesn’t karate focus on self-discipline, attention, focus, etc. I know it has helped my little guy, and the feeling of accomplishment when he gets a new belt cannot be beat! But, that’s just my 2 cents. And yes, I hate running to multiple activities at the same time, but isn’t that what “mom’s taxi” is for????

Susan says: We were actually in our free trial phase at this particular karate place and we’ve taken all the classes we can without having to pay for the big package. We’re looking into classes somewhere else, like the Y, where the commitment would come in shorter lumps (maybe a six week class rather than a full year commitment) — Henry is going to play basketball this winter, and we’re a one-sport-per-season family — not so much because it’s a hassle to get the kids to practice, but because when you’re in third (and first) grade, you don’t necessarily need more than one sport at a time. At least our kids don’t.

So we’re not entirely giving up karate, we’re just not writing a huge check to this particular place.

I love your decorating skills!! pretty please post pictures of his new room! I desperately need inspiration.

you bad bad woman you! (that is a compliment in our home by the way - usually when we’re firing torpedoes at sinking ships)
My son is huge into Star Wars and I love those pillows! They won’t ship to Canada (boo!) but my husband is going to be in Tulsa in 10 days - with strict orders to find the pottery barn!

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