Is Your Kid Heading Off To College? 3 Steps To Turn Their Old Room Into Your New Space

Summer is almost here. If you have a child that will be graduating from high school this year, it's time to start thinking about college. More importantly, it's time to start thinking about the spare room you'll have once your child moves out. If you're like most parents, you've probably already started planning your man-cave, or she-den. However, you might not have planned how to get rid of all the stuff that your kid is going to leave behind when they head off to college. Before you can take over the space, you'll have to clear a path. While that can seem like a daunting task, don't let it prevent you from achieving your goals. Here are three steps you can take to clear a path to your new space.

Rent a Dumpster

Once you start clearing out your kid's room, you'll need to rent a dumpster. You never know how much garbage, and useless junk, you're going to find in your kid's room, but chances are good that it won't all fit in your curbside trash bins. A dumpster will give you all the space you need to properly clear out your kid's room.

Divide and Conquer

Once you have the dumpster in place, it will be time to tear into your kid's room. The best way to clear up the space is to divide and conquer – their belongings. While you're going through their belongings, you'll want to create three separate piles.

Toss Out the Garbage

The first pile you'll create will be the discard pile. This pile will be all the things that hold no value – to anyone. These will be the things that you fill your dumpster up with. While you're tossing out the garbage, remember to ask about questionable items. You don't want to toss out something that your child would want to keep. 

Give Away

The next pile you'll create will be the giveaway pile. Those are the items that hold no value for you – or your kids – but that would hold a value to someone else. These items you can donate to charity. If you'd prefer to make some money off your kid's leftovers, you could also hold a yard sale with these items.

Hold on To

The final pile you'll create will be the keep pile, for the things that you want to hold on to. This pile will contain all those keepsake things that you just can't bear to get rid of. This should also include any clothing your child left behind, as well as their bedroom furnishings – if you won't be using it any longer.

Rent a Storage Unit

Once you've cleared out the room, and gotten rid of everything you won't be keeping, you're going to be left with all the things you couldn't get rid of. That's where a storage unit comes in. By renting a storage unit for your kid's belongings, you'll be able to keep them safe while still clearing up space in their old room.

Now that your child is getting ready to leave for college, use the handy tips provided above to clean out their room and make way for your own personal space.

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