Clean Up

Trinks had no school on Friday, so I took the day off so we could shovel the crap out of the room tidy up her room. I have not tucked her into bed in at least a month because I couldn't get into the room. Every time I mentioned cleaning, she panicked and started to cry. I had to think of some fun way to accomplish this with her. In the past, I've worked in there alone.

So, I took a page from Pam Young from the Brat Factor. If it is not fun, it won't get done. Trinks and I set the timer for 15 minutes. When it went off, we moved to a different place in the room. Then we had challenges. She could challenge me to clean a part of my room while she cleaned hers. I needed to tidy my room too, so we both won. And of course, we took breaks. She had time to make butterflies and paint them, watch Kit Kittridge, and play Wii. While we still have more sorting to do, there is not much on the floor. The room looks great and she's not mad about having to clean her room.

The rest of the month will be spent sorting through some of the bins we created while sorting stuff. The Barbies have been warned that if even a shoe is left on the floor, they will all be melted on the front lawn. Yup - I completely hate Barbies. If Trinks gets one more purse or piece of jewelry, it must be accompanied by a 500 page essay on why the person hates me, or by an overnight visit to arrange said items. I have thrown out everything that ever came from a dollar store - I told Trinks it was made in China and is full of lead. We will continue to make cleaning fun - who knows? The rest of the house might get decluttered.