Four Bags

Four bags of trash-that's what I hauled out of Clay's room today.  I was sick and tired of being sick and tired of him not cleaning his room.  It was okay on the surface, but I pulled back the curtain on the side of his bed to walk down along the wall to make the bed, and wrappers.  I saw trash, valentines, candy, just junk, and dirty socks.  Awful.  I sat down and cried in his room.  There were literally hundreds of food wrappers stuffed under the bed, desk, corners, everywhere.  I was so stressed that they'd draw mice.  I had to get it together and eliminate the offensive.  I didn't have time to worry and be upset-time is too valuable.

I got started around 9:30 and cleaned until 2.  It is like eating an elephant--one bite at a time.  I picked up all the stuff in one corner (even dead bugs..no, not spiders or creepy things, but his icky bug-crumble collection.  June bugs, cricket legs, huge Japanese beetles, a massive moth minus a wing.  Gross stuff.)  I figure if they were really important to him, he wouldn't let their body parts get ground into the carpet (and be buried by trashy wrappers).  Anyway, I cleaned, vacuumed, and organized, until it was clean again.

If I'd have realized how far I'd go, I would have taken before and after pictures. I even washed his bedding this afternoon, and he ended up getting the last two pieces of his Lionel train track (I had him pay for it out of his stock money-E*Trade returned our $115 last week.  You have to have at least $500 in your account, or they close it.  So much for a young, first-time investor.) so we put the track into a figure-eight.  He was even unhappy about that.  He was frustrated that I wanted to plug the big (heavy!) control box away from the walkway, so I don't bump into it each and every day.  He was upset I threw away some valentines, but I didn't get ruffled.  I think I should be thankful I'm too tired to get worked up!

We did fine, the kids played outside, had dinner, and we played more cards, had baths, read books.  A great evening.  I only realized we'd missed dance at seven-too late. : (  And she just got the okay to go back to dance!

I'll leave you with a list I found in Clay's room.  I'm really hoping that it's old (based on the spelling and the 15 minutes of FiRE!) (Number two:)

Keep your room clean...or I just might have to come visit! : )