In my somewhat continuing effort to purge and declutter, organize and clean, I'm trying to enlist others to help. Some are more of a help than others. Today, for instance, Brian is working in the garage, throwing some things out and organizing so that we can park at least the bikes and strollers and stuff in there as well as make room for more of my junk that I'm not ready to part with yet. He's so great not to grumble (very much) about my pack-ratting.
For the last two or three hours I've been in the big girls' room trying to help them get things cleaned up and stuff. We've got a pretty good amount of trash heading out and half a garbage bag of give-away stuff. Harriet is generally better at parting with things than Fred is, but I've been pleasantly surprised at what Fred's been willing to give up. However, we've hit the wall. At least I have. I don't want to do the cleaning for them, because I want them to know where to put things when they clean their own room. I'm trying to direct and help, but not do. But they've gotten to the point where they are tired of trying to get stuff done and so they are just laughing and playing with each other. That's when I had to leave.
Don't get me wrong. I'm delighted that they are playing together and not fighting. But I can't stand to sit there and gather a bunch of their craft stuff in a pile and ask, "Okay, where does it make sense to put this?" or get a bunch of Barbie clothes and ask where they keep Barbie stuff and have them point and continue giggling. So here I am blogging instead. I was hoping that they'd get their floor clean enough to vacuum today, because seriously I don't know the last time that happened. (I know that will totally gross some of you out. Sorry.) Don't think it's going to work out. But I guess that's okay, because we don't have school on Monday and we can start again.
Lucky them!
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This just gives me so much sympathy for my own mom! It was pretty rare that our bedroom floors were clear enough to vacuum - so no, that doesn't gross me out :) I think she struggled with the same dilemma of wanting us to live in a neat, organized space, but not wanting us to depend on someone to do the cleaning for us.
ReplyDeleteI think I heard her say once that she'd had to learn to just shut the door on the kids' rooms and not think about the mess behind the door. Not that I'm advocating that particular course of action for you. You know your own limits and your daughters' limits and I'm sure you strike a compromise that works for everyone.
And for what it's worth, I think some of my happiest childhood memories are of those times when my parents were the most frustrated :)