The Closed Door Phase
Last summer, I cleaned up the storage room in the basement. I went through boxes of stuff, sorted and organized it all into plastic totes, and got rid of tons of stuff. It's amazing how much room you end up with when you get rid of stuff. This summer, we cleaned out the garage so some of the stuff from the storage room could go out there. Then, we had room for the hockey gear to be moved from the den to the basement.
Next came Steve's clothes. I cleaned out the guest room closet and made room in there for his suits, sweaters and shoes. I cleaned out the linen closet upstairs and that's where his shorts and T-shirts went. After going through the rest of his clothes (jeans, dress pants, dress shirts) and getting rid of about half, what was left was put into plastic totes and hung downstairs on clothes racks. Fairly soon, the boys will take all their coats and hang in their own closets and that will free up the rest of the guest room closet, so Steve can hang his shirts and pants in there. Whew, what a lot of moving of clothes! And just so you know, Steve couldn't put any of his clothes in the closet in our bedroom, because that closet is full of my clothes (and I need to go through mine too).
So, now each of my boys has their own bedroom with their own closet and their own door to shut. There are still things of mine and Steve's in their rooms, but they are just going to have to stay there until I can get rid of other things and find a place for them. We've told the boys that they will have to live with how the rooms are decorated right now until possibly Christmas break. That will give each of them time to really decide how they want their room decorated.
"The Closed Door" phase is alive and well here in our house. If I remember back to when I was thirteen, I believe I wanted privacy and time alone. What I am hoping and am seeing a bit of is this: they go in their room with the door closed and then they open it and pop into their brother's room to see what he is doing. They want their privacy, but they still need to know that brother
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