Reformed Mess Maker?

Wow - when I did my last blog entry I was at the end of my organizational rope with my lovely nine year old daughter! I am happy to report that today went very well, and Miss B and I actually compromised as we were cleaning out her room. I feel so much better tonight, and I KNOW she does as well. Take a look at our finished product:

I love her bookcase - grandma and grandpa got that for her when she turned three, and she still loves it!

Hopefully a basket on her nightstand will keep the clutter organized - she keeps her current book, booklight, journal, and shuffle in it. Her aunt and uncle sent her a beautiful journal and matching pen for her birthday - she was journaling this afternoon and listening to music.

The American Girls still have a place all over the room, too! (Looks like our dog feels at home as well.)

For your information (and to justify my clean sweep), here are some interesting things that were discovered while cleaning her room:

1. iPod Shuffle (my husband gave this to Miss B after she won an Accelerated Reader book award in the second grade)
2. iPod Nano (we had been searching for this for MONTHS. It was my old Nano and I had loaded it with all of her favorite music)
3. Two sets of headphones - dad had been looking for a pair for the past two weeks.
   
4. Three boxes of stuff she didn't need - we took it all to Good Will
5. One large box of great princess/girly things which Anna is giving to a sweet little five year old friend of my son's
6. $9.27 in change (crazy!! It was found in a basket in her closet)

So, as you can see, cleaning out the room was beneficial in so many ways. Now, how do we keep it organized? Well, the biggest problem is that when I tell her to put something away it really needs to get PUT AWAY IN THE RIGHT PLACE. If it doesn't , it will go in "The Mom Box" and she will need to pay me $1.00 to get it out if she really wants it. (Hey, if you're thinking that price is too steep, don't forget the $9.27 found earlier!) If not, it wasn't too valuable to her in the first place. (I got this idea from my friend Rebecca -- thank you!)

I felt really good about the clean room tonight when a neighborhood friend of Anna's stopped by... Anna immediately pulled her into her room and they got out everything to play school with the American Girl dolls - she knew where everything was and they could play, and then pick it up when they were done. Anna wasn't hunting for what she wanted to show her friend, and I know she was proud to have her in her newly organized space. She looks happy here.

We even did some schoolwork today, too - read alouds for both children, a nature walk, and a little bit of science. The kids and daddy are sacked out in the family room watching "Tooth Fairy"; tired after a day of mom making them clean very hard. AND, I can sleep a little easier tonight, knowing another section of my house is organized. Type A mothers, unite!
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My Professional Mess Maker

Today is supposed to be a regular "school" day for us, but after yesterday's events I am changing plans! For those of you that know me, you know that I suffer from an extreme case of Type A personality syndrome - sometimes this is good (we are never late, I'm very organized, my children are usually prepared for everything, the house is clean), but sometimes it's not so good. My two children have very different personalities - GMan is a lot like me. He loves organization, picks up after himself, lines his books up neatly on the shelves. You get the picture. My lovely Miss B, however, is something OTHER than Type A. Over the past year I have start called her my "professional mess maker" . She can destroy a bedroom in one minute flat. I know it's not intentional, but it drives me crazy!

Look at this sweet little face (this is a photo I love from many years ago!). Does it look like the face that could topple a house with disorganization???

Well, maybe!

One of the reasons I like being organized is that it lets me relax and enjoy life, which is funny because if I was really relaxed and enjoying life, wouldn't I just let everything be messy and not care? Anyway, I have been working with Miss B to help her keep her bedroom more organized. We purchased see through plastic shoe boxes and labeled them so she could keep up with her doll clothes, accessories, shoes. She has a shoe keeper in her closet that is easily accessible. Her drawers are supposedly arranged by pjs, tshirts, shorts -- you get the picture.

Most days when I ask her to put something away she throws it into her room or shoves it under her bed. The other night I asked her dad to look under her bed and we had to laugh because it was FULL of STUFF. Just dumb stuff - a dollhouse bed, a box of fabric scraps, crayons, silly bands, underwear (ewww). I have been trying to let her take responsibility for a clean room, but I don't think it's working. How can this be our child? I do not understand.

Last night, after a pretty rough day, I came up with a plan. You see, yesterday my sweet girl had been pretty mouthy - not responding to me respectfully, picking silly fights with her brother, and just being cranky in general. I got to thinking that maybe she was acting this was because she is so disorganized - I get very crabby when things around me are chaotic, and I think she felt that yesterday. As she was getting ready for bed last night I revealed my plan to her. She wasn't very happy, but I think in the end she will be.

We are going to take EVERYTHING out of her room today - other than clothes and a few books she is currently reading. I mean everything! Dump the drawers, under the bed, in the back corner of the closets, etc... We are then going to sort things and decide on Good-Will, give to a friend, or box up nicely to put in the basement. I had done this six months ago, but I did it without her, and not nearly enough.

Here's a good example -- I love it that she plays with her American Girls so much, but lately most of them have been sitting in a corner naked with scraggly hair. So, we will pack them away today (except for two) and pack away most of their clothes and accessories. We'll rotate the dolls and toys (I'm hoping to store it all in the basement where she can get to it to swap them out).

I told my little darling that if we did a good job of cleaning things out, that then it would be possible to update her room a little with a new paint color. Right now it's a baby blue (the color of the room when we moved in - I did add a pink stripe to make it more hers, but never really repainted just for her) and she said last night she would like a light purple room.

My worst fear is that I'm creating a child that loves stuff more than people, and that scares me. Miss B is such a kind and loving little girl, but sometimes we need to work on heart issues here at home. And, since home is where we do EVERYTHING, this is very important. Perhaps I never realized the importance of this when she was in public school because I saw her so seldom. When she was at school I would clean her room for her and she didn't really have enough time at home to get it out of order. Additionally, her desk at school was a MESS.... and I know the teachers didn't have time to help their students be organized, but I think if they had things would have run much more smoothly.

One of the benefits of homeschooling is that we can STOP with school today (oh, we will do our read alouds and maybe a math game) and address the problem at hand, which we allow all of us to better focus when we pick back up tomorrow. I'm hoping this is a valuable life skill for my children.

So this morning when my children wake up we will go out for a nice walk and bike ride (before it gets to be 100 degrees!) and then get to work on Miss B's room. I'll let you know how it all turns out! If you don't see a blog post from me for a few days, you might want to contact the authorities, because I probably got swallowed by THE STUFF!
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