End of an Era (or: 1-800-GOT-JUNK vs. My Feelings)…
My oldest son is 25.
He hasn’t lived at home since he left for college at 18. Sure, he came back for summers. Sure, his laundry mysteriously reappeared clean and folded during those visits. But after graduation, he moved full-time to New York City for work, and after that, Boston for law school. He’s been launched for years now.
Which makes this whole thing irrational.
My wife has been antsy to turn his room into a guest room. To be fair, the furniture is still straight out of his elementary school years. The bed has seen things. The dresser has been opened by small hands sticky with Popsicle residue. I get upgrading.
But I love that room.
I love the paint color. I love the paintings on the wall. I love the framed historical documents he picked out himself—because of course he did. I love the giant cube bookshelf that somehow made the room feel both academic and slightly chaotic, which is exactly right.
While he was home over Christmas break, my wife talked to him about it. He was fine with everything being changed except two things: keep the color, and keep the framed documents. Deal struck. Reasonable. Adult.
Fast forward to today.
I came home from work to learn that 1-800-GOT-JUNK was scheduled to arrive in one hour to take everything else.
Everything.
I am taking this far harder than my son, who—if I’m being honest—did not take it hard at all. He was cool. Casual. “Yeah, whatever,” energy. Emotionally healthy. Annoying.
I understand the logic. I understand that my kids have moved out. I understand that they will almost certainly never move back home in any permanent way. But those are still their rooms. They always will be.
In my head, someday they visit with their own kids. They walk down the hallway and say, “This is where your dad used to sleep.” There’s a bed. There’s a wall. There’s a sense of continuity. Proof that this wasn’t all a dream.
Instead, there will be a tasteful guest room.
I know—this is how time works. Rooms change. Kids grow up. Houses evolve. Still, watching a crew haul away the physical evidence of a childhood feels… final. Like a chapter being boxed up and labeled miscellaneous.
Nothing is actually lost. My son is fine. Thriving, even. The memories are intact. But the room mattered. It held a version of him that only exists now in photos and stories and my increasingly unreliable brain.
End of an era.
Apparently, it ends with a phone call to 1-800-GOT-JUNK.
— Coda (Yes, I See the Irony)
I should probably admit that I’m typing this while sitting in my younger son’s room.
Recently, I removed his bed to make room for a drum set.
So yes—I am 100% a hypocrite.
In my defense (which is weak, but still), he lives and works in town, so we see him all the time. He’s here regularly. He comes by to use the weight set in the basement. He has a presence. A rhythm. Evidence of life.
Also—and this feels important—the bed is going back. The drums are moving to the basement. This is temporary. Transitional. A borrowed moment.
All his decorations are still on the walls. Nothing has been stripped. Nothing hauled off. It’s still his room. I’m just… occupying it for a bit. Like a subletter with emotional baggage.
So maybe that’s the difference. One feels like a pause. The other feels like a conclusion.
Still, if you need me, I’ll be over here, judging myself quietly while trying to convince a drum kit to behave.