The Biannual Brady Bedroom Shift

I've been trying to take my decorating cues from Carol Brady.

Not necessarily the pane-less sliding glass doors or the orange Formica countertops, but I'd really like to be able to fit six kids in two bedrooms with a half a dozen single beds made perfectly everyday.

Actually, I'd settle for two kids in one bedroom and an Astroturf back lawn.

Because this weekend marks the biannual bedroom shift--that event in which I believe that I can successfully redecorate and transfer the kids' stuff from one room to another and somehow pick up 200 square feet and clutter-free dressers in the process. I have never been exactly successful with this pilgrimage, but we attempt it regularly nonetheless, much like playing the lottery or remembering my recyclable bags when I go to the grocery store.

To fit two kids in one multiple-age appropriate newly-decorated bedroom is no small task. We will make untold trips back and forth between the two rooms. Argue about paint color. Donate several dozen bags of outgrown clothing. Compromise on who gets the right side of the room and who the left. Conduct dicey negotiations on who gets the top bunk. And no doubt reinstate the "No food in bedrooms" rule after cleaning up a cereal-aisle's worth of Froot Loops under the bed.

But I do think ultimately it is a necessary exercise. Not only to redistribute the clothes in the drawers and the furniture impressions on the carpet, but it changes up the dynamics of the house a little and gives everyone a chance to stretch their quickly-growing limbs and even faster-growing imaginations without leaving town.

So unlike my Brady Bunch inspiration, hopefully, we'll be mixing it up a little more than Greg moving into the den or sharing the attic with Marcia.

Anyone know where Cousin Oliver slept?