We recently moved our two boys into separate rooms, and after all the painting and shuffling and reorganizing, each son was given the task of setting up his own room however he liked it.

We only had one rule: no piles of stuff. Everything had to have a place.

My oldest took me into his room to show me after he was all done. It was impressively clean.

“Wow,” I said. “This is great. And the drawers are all organized?”

“Yup,” he said.

Something about that yup set off my alarms. “Oh yeah?” I asked, pulling open the topmost drawer. “What’s in here?”

It was packed with papers and toys.

“Stuff,” he said.

“Ah,” I said. “Well, everyone needs a stuff drawer. How about this one?”

“More stuff.”

“And this one?”

He was smiling now. “More stuff.”

“So if you are trying to find something?”

“I know it’s probably in one of the drawers,” he said.

Tough to argue with that one.