The Things They've Left Behind

One of the things I’ve noticed is that when your kids move out, they don’t move out all at once.  It happens in stages.  They head off to college with most of their clothes, but otherwise, their rooms look pretty much the same.  Then they might move from the dorm to a townhouse or off-campus housing, and they take a few more of their things.  After college, they make the big move to their first apartment, and they take even more of their things.  Their rooms look different now; they are heartbreakingly neat and silent, but they are not empty.  They house old clothes and books and stuffed animals.  There are still boxes of treasures under their beds and posters on their walls. The things that remain are things neither they nor I am ready to part with.  So for now, I’m leaving their rooms the way the way they are.  Eventually, though, I’ll have to go through the things they’ve left behind.  Clothes they’ve outgrown and old college textbooks will be easy to box up and give away.  But what am I going to do with all the bits and pieces of their childhoods?