Spring Cleaning...

Tis' the season for spring cleaning. Come on, sing along...

My kids are horrible house-keepers. I have cleaned, I mean cleaned, their rooms many times and they end up looking the same. I am working hard to teach them how to keep them clean so hopefully this will stick. The cleaning help described below came with a caveat though -- This is the last time! Yeah, right! A guy can dream can't he...

Last Saturday, during the snow storm of the century, Kay and I (OK, it was really me) cleaned her room. I did persuade her to help by going through all of her clothes. She had simple instructions -- go through everything; if it fits, fold it nicely and put it back in a drawer; if it's a nice shirt, put it on a hanger; if it's to small put it in a pile for Alyssa or a needy family that a teacher at South High is helping. Kim helped her with this task. While she was doing that, I cleaned her room. The closet, her shelves, her floor, everything. I even hung a new closet rod so that she has double-decker closet space. I put her books on her bookshelf. I put her toys in the toy box, or in her under-bed storage boxes, or in the bins on her shelves. I threw trash away. I vacuumed. Now she has a clean room with clothes she can actually find. The damage was one bag of trash, one tote of clothes for South High, one bag of clothes for Alyssa, and four hours of my life.

Yesterday, I tackled JD's room. It was a pit! When you ask him to clean his room, he sees it more as a time trial. There were certain spots that he could put stuff that would make it appear that he cleaned when in reality he was making a path. He piled stuff in his closet, under his bed, in a corner, and under his dresser. His closet contained a pile about 3' high. It was a mixture of clean clothes, toys, trash, shoes, and old book bags. Under the dresser, I discovered the stove-top griddle that had been missing for some time. It had dried Play-Doh nuggets on it. Not sure why. I did the same thing with him -- clothes drawers gone through, clothes folded, hung up, and segregated by donations to Braden, Tyler, or the South High family. Once the TV was turned off he did really well. When the dust settled -- this is almost embarrassing to write -- we had four trash bags of clothes to give away, three bags of trash, two boxes of trash, one box for garage sale, and one pile of shoes that will be handed down to someone.

When I finished Kay's room, she was eternally grateful. "Thank you, Thank you, Daddy". She still, over a week later, sometimes tells me thanks for cleaning her room, mostly when I'm tucking her in and picking up something stray that managed to not get picked up before bed. JD has not said anything except to point out that his room is clean. I did get a "Wow" while it was in progress, but not a "Thanks". Oh well, at least that was the last time I have to clean it!

D