Where do we spend so much of our time? The prompt for today is bedrooms…your bedroom, the bedroom of your little one, your not-so-little one. Read on to see what I hope to document with my own home and the rooms within.

Bedrooms are supposed to be our sanctuaries. Our safe place. Where we sleep, where we dream and where we try and get some down time. Bedrooms for your children are the same. This is where they plan their futures, where they dream about all that they can become and all that they hope to be. Sometimes their rooms are messy. Sometimes I cannot stand just how messy their rooms are but then I remember that I wasn’t much different. It’s important to document that as well, don’t just get the pretty stuff. In the photo below you will see that there are piles in my daughter’s shelves (trust me, I know that this is not a real mess…we deal with much bigger messes in our rooms and I do photograph those as well). The designer in my cringes a bit, thinking how I wish I would have cleaned that up…how the posters and magazine pages on her wall could be arranged differently. But it tells a story. Her story.

Everyone spends their time doing their own thing in their rooms…my daughter spends a lot of time sketching and drawing and looking through her fashion books. I don’t want her to forget that and it’s something that I want to remember. My oldest does a lot of lounging on his bed thinking and throwing his football up and catching it…over and over again. My youngest loves playing with cards, any kind of cards, and here he is in his mismatched outfit hanging out on the floor playing with his cards. He’s always been so good at entertaining himself and there have been many times when I’ve found him quietly playing in his room. This is him, and I need to make sure that I showcase that in the images that I get of him.

Both of the above photos are camera phone images (I have a samsung galaxy siii). They’re grainy and not perfect. But that’s ok. They tell the story of who my kids are right now and what they do in their rooms.

Aside from getting images of your people in their rooms, makes sure to get little detail shots of their rooms. I remember so much of my room as a kids but I would love to see how I organized my desk. What were the treasures that I showcased on my dresser? What do I still have from that time in my life that I’ve held on to?

I challenge you to grab your camera, open the shades and the curtains in your bedrooms and start taking photos. Make sure to get shots of your children’s treasures. And don’t forget your bedroom as well. The top left pic in this collage is my own dresser top…and that bear? It was on my dresser as a 10 year old. The framed print is photocopied hands of my dad and my young self (probably 7ish?) that my mom had framed as a gift to my dad. The green perfume bottle I purchased on my first trip to New York just after high school graduation. These are some of my treasures and I’m glad that they still hold a place in my bedroom.

This post is part of a 31 day series. Read the first post here about documenting everyday life.