Order
With school out of session for still over a week left, I feel invigorated and inspired to start the new year fresh. So, I decided to start with the area most in need of my attention-- the boys' room.
Let me tell you something about these boys. A few years ago, I told Micah that he didn't have to put his jeans in the laundry after every wear, that he could wear them a few times and then we'd wash them unless they were dirty or stinky before that. He has since contended that I said he could wear all clothes for two or three days. I have seen him wear an outfit, sleep in it, and then attempt to wear it the next day, which is when I intervene. You can imagine the laundry that doesn't make it out of his room on the days I'm not paying attention. Tre is light years away from Micah. If his shirt-sleeve gets wet, he wants to change everything. For some reason, he doesn't mind being bathed in ketchup and proceeding through the rest of the day in those clothes. He rarely has white socks, even if they're brand new. I have bleached and bleached and bleached, and the socks stay gray because he doesn't have time to take his shoes off to come in the house and put them on when he goes back out, so he just leaves them off and runs through the freshly watered grass and on down the street to where the action is. This is my son. About half the clothes from these two make it to the laundry basket in the bathroom just outside their door. So every day we, Dale and I, take turns stomping around their room complaining about how filthy it is and how much they need to clean it, and then leave them to deal with the disaster. At this point two days ago, there was a foul odor that occasionally wafted from their room. I just sprayed the Lysol and hoped it was just that "boy smell".
The girls' room is better, but not much. It's only better because Kennedy is a typical first-born, severe over-achiever, and is old enough to know that it's more relaxing to climb into a bed that's not piled with stuff, on or around it. Jasmine, on the other hand, doesn't mind the mess and somehow manages to carry it out into the rest of the house, the yard, the garage, the shed; it's like her trademark. If there is any clutter anywhere, you can bet some portion of it belongs to Jasmine. She just wants to have fun, you know? I can empathize with Kennedy because I was the older sister to a younger just like Jas. But I can also relate to Jas because before I got into double digits, I was no better. The clothes just piled up in the closet on Saturdays when we had to clean, along with dirty cups and snack food, and books and scribbled up yearbook pages. But their room desperately needed some order because every night I was dumping a huge pile of stuff off of Leila's bed in order to make a place for her to sleep; forget making a path to walk in. It was beyond that.
My methods are unconventional, but they are successful and I am sticking them. What I do is start with the floor, shovel everything into a pile outside of the room so that the floor is clean. Then I clean out the closet, adding another half of the amount of the pile to the pile. Then I clean: edge carpets, scrub windows and mirrors, clean ceiling fans, clean out drawers, vacuum and scrub the walls. It's my favorite part of the process unless I find a wet pile of dirty clothes stuffed into a drawers, breaking the floor of the drawer and stinking up the entire wing of the house. Once that is done, I don't mind the organizing. I get so overwhelmed with the mess that I'd rather yell at the kids to clean it up and hope for the best, knowing in a pinch I can pile it all in the closet if I have to.
Ideally, I would like to do the whole shebang every month, but let's be real honest here. I have a lot to do to manage the chores of my household, keep up with this little sweetheart of a hobby, and still get naps and plenty of time on the couch next to Dale at the end of the day, which is what gets me out of bed in the morning. So it actually only gets done about once a quarter. And that's only because Dale starts getting a little cuckoo it's any longer than that. I don't like to think about how long I'd postpone it if it was just up to me... It used to get done every time we had company. Unfortunately for my company, I have had three shifts come in since the last cleaning and I just pretended like it wasn't that bad. Now that I have seen every nook and cranny, I'd like to express my sincere embarrassment to all 9 of you that had to endure any playtime in either of these rooms while you were here. Please come back. Please, please, please come back! There is really floorspace to play on, and the windowsills don't have dirt on them anymore! And the ceiling fan won't drop dust bunnies on your clean clothes! Just come back, it will be worth the trip! I'll even make waffles and custard pie and tapioca!
The entire process, both rooms, took about 12 hours of constant work, which I did in two days because I needed to sit next to Dale in the car running around town doing whatever we could find to do on his day off, because I adore him. *Usually when I start something like this, I like to work straight through, skipping meals and ignoring cries, fights, and only coming out to eliminate screaming, which I cannot tolerate for one minute.* What surprised me was not the sand, it goes everywhere. The dirt wasn't much of a surprise either, it comes with the sand in the yard. But the rocks in the boys' room I should've expected. I threw away lots of pebbles that I found in drawers and under the bed and in the beds. Then in the girls' room I found not only rocks in the beds and drawers, but a bag full in the dresser, a bag full of rocks. I don't know what they were for, but I guess I should be thankful they're not smearing the bounty of their pickings on the walls anymore!!!
I woke up this morning and felt like I had something new. You know that feeling when you're excited but you're not sure why? Then I looked down the hall and remembered that everything has a place and is in it's place. I love it when my life is ordered! So I'm excited to start the new year right and even more motivated to clean everything, closets, kitchen appliances, drawers, storage sheds, the works. We'll see if this is nesting in full bloom or if I fizzle by tomorrow. There's a chance, my friends. But at least I got the big stuff done, and that's something, darn it!
Let me tell you something about these boys. A few years ago, I told Micah that he didn't have to put his jeans in the laundry after every wear, that he could wear them a few times and then we'd wash them unless they were dirty or stinky before that. He has since contended that I said he could wear all clothes for two or three days. I have seen him wear an outfit, sleep in it, and then attempt to wear it the next day, which is when I intervene. You can imagine the laundry that doesn't make it out of his room on the days I'm not paying attention. Tre is light years away from Micah. If his shirt-sleeve gets wet, he wants to change everything. For some reason, he doesn't mind being bathed in ketchup and proceeding through the rest of the day in those clothes. He rarely has white socks, even if they're brand new. I have bleached and bleached and bleached, and the socks stay gray because he doesn't have time to take his shoes off to come in the house and put them on when he goes back out, so he just leaves them off and runs through the freshly watered grass and on down the street to where the action is. This is my son. About half the clothes from these two make it to the laundry basket in the bathroom just outside their door. So every day we, Dale and I, take turns stomping around their room complaining about how filthy it is and how much they need to clean it, and then leave them to deal with the disaster. At this point two days ago, there was a foul odor that occasionally wafted from their room. I just sprayed the Lysol and hoped it was just that "boy smell".
The girls' room is better, but not much. It's only better because Kennedy is a typical first-born, severe over-achiever, and is old enough to know that it's more relaxing to climb into a bed that's not piled with stuff, on or around it. Jasmine, on the other hand, doesn't mind the mess and somehow manages to carry it out into the rest of the house, the yard, the garage, the shed; it's like her trademark. If there is any clutter anywhere, you can bet some portion of it belongs to Jasmine. She just wants to have fun, you know? I can empathize with Kennedy because I was the older sister to a younger just like Jas. But I can also relate to Jas because before I got into double digits, I was no better. The clothes just piled up in the closet on Saturdays when we had to clean, along with dirty cups and snack food, and books and scribbled up yearbook pages. But their room desperately needed some order because every night I was dumping a huge pile of stuff off of Leila's bed in order to make a place for her to sleep; forget making a path to walk in. It was beyond that.
My methods are unconventional, but they are successful and I am sticking them. What I do is start with the floor, shovel everything into a pile outside of the room so that the floor is clean. Then I clean out the closet, adding another half of the amount of the pile to the pile. Then I clean: edge carpets, scrub windows and mirrors, clean ceiling fans, clean out drawers, vacuum and scrub the walls. It's my favorite part of the process unless I find a wet pile of dirty clothes stuffed into a drawers, breaking the floor of the drawer and stinking up the entire wing of the house. Once that is done, I don't mind the organizing. I get so overwhelmed with the mess that I'd rather yell at the kids to clean it up and hope for the best, knowing in a pinch I can pile it all in the closet if I have to.
Ideally, I would like to do the whole shebang every month, but let's be real honest here. I have a lot to do to manage the chores of my household, keep up with this little sweetheart of a hobby, and still get naps and plenty of time on the couch next to Dale at the end of the day, which is what gets me out of bed in the morning. So it actually only gets done about once a quarter. And that's only because Dale starts getting a little cuckoo it's any longer than that. I don't like to think about how long I'd postpone it if it was just up to me... It used to get done every time we had company. Unfortunately for my company, I have had three shifts come in since the last cleaning and I just pretended like it wasn't that bad. Now that I have seen every nook and cranny, I'd like to express my sincere embarrassment to all 9 of you that had to endure any playtime in either of these rooms while you were here. Please come back. Please, please, please come back! There is really floorspace to play on, and the windowsills don't have dirt on them anymore! And the ceiling fan won't drop dust bunnies on your clean clothes! Just come back, it will be worth the trip! I'll even make waffles and custard pie and tapioca!
The entire process, both rooms, took about 12 hours of constant work, which I did in two days because I needed to sit next to Dale in the car running around town doing whatever we could find to do on his day off, because I adore him. *Usually when I start something like this, I like to work straight through, skipping meals and ignoring cries, fights, and only coming out to eliminate screaming, which I cannot tolerate for one minute.* What surprised me was not the sand, it goes everywhere. The dirt wasn't much of a surprise either, it comes with the sand in the yard. But the rocks in the boys' room I should've expected. I threw away lots of pebbles that I found in drawers and under the bed and in the beds. Then in the girls' room I found not only rocks in the beds and drawers, but a bag full in the dresser, a bag full of rocks. I don't know what they were for, but I guess I should be thankful they're not smearing the bounty of their pickings on the walls anymore!!!
I woke up this morning and felt like I had something new. You know that feeling when you're excited but you're not sure why? Then I looked down the hall and remembered that everything has a place and is in it's place. I love it when my life is ordered! So I'm excited to start the new year right and even more motivated to clean everything, closets, kitchen appliances, drawers, storage sheds, the works. We'll see if this is nesting in full bloom or if I fizzle by tomorrow. There's a chance, my friends. But at least I got the big stuff done, and that's something, darn it!
I totally understand, and I only have three little boogers. I feel it is so much easier to go in and clean it myself, if I leave it to them it wont get done. My mom and dad came to visit a few couple weeks before Christmas. We have my inlaws in the same town. Oh how I too long to go to the plaza or goes to FA of G for Christmas Eve Service.
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a happy holidays. If I had your phone number I would call you, I am at the point where I need an "old" friend. HUGS to you and the family!