Losing My Playroom

When we first moved into this house 12 years ago, there was a large unfinished room in the basement. It seemed to be the perfect playroom for the boys. We could keep the clutter and mess of the Legos and Little Tykes behind that door and still have our family room space in the rest of the basement. Well, the kids never actually used it as a playroom; they seemed to always play where we were, so it became unused space. I had a revelation....if the boys didn't want anything to do with that room, maybe I could take it over, and it could become my playroom! I set up my stamping and scrapbooking supplies in there and it became a wonderful area to work on craft projects. It wasn't pretty...cold cement floor, unfinished ceiling, and concrete block walls...but it was so handy to have an area for even the messiest painting projects.

As the years went by, I went back to teaching, and my craft supplies got shoved over to make room for more shelves and all my teaching supplies. I had toys, books, game and center supplies at my fingertips for any unit or lesson that was going on at school.

At the same time, something else was happening. I was becoming a hopeless pack rat. As any teacher will tell you, there are items that look like garbage to most people, but are valuable raw materials for craft projects. Since I had the space, it became a matter of policy for me to save egg cartons, paper towel rolls, strawberry baskets, and ice cream buckets. This had never been a problem, though, because by shutting the door, no one had to see the mess of the room that was becoming a catch-all space for the items that didn't seem to belong anywhere else.

Well, my family grew up, and now the boys want their playroom back. This week, the idea became a plan, and it looks like that space will need to be converted for the purchase of a pool table. Joey is home from college this week, and he showed his enthusiasm by offering to sacrifice his bedroom for this project. My new challenge is to sort and pitch, weeding out what has accumulated in that large room, so that the most essential items will fit on bookshelves in Joey's room.

Time to get out the trash bags and get started.