Boys will be boys

Quite recently, I was trying to get my children on the organizing bandwagon.  More specifically, I was just hoping to get them to clean up their rooms so that I could walk through without stepping on something.  For the most part, I believe their bedrooms should be their private space where they are free to express themselves - within reason of health and safety, of course.  However, when the door is open and the clutter is impacting my ability to think straight, it's time to guide them to a more clutter-free existence.

My older son, especially, has some difficult in removing anything from his room.  It isn't that he's particularly lazy.  He just tends to hold on to things until to the end of time, unless he has help letting go.  Especially important to him are souvenirs or items that evoke special memories.  To further complicate the problem, his bedroom isn't all that large and adding shelving on the walls is difficult due to plaster walls and an old chimney.  

First things first - garbage and laundry!  We (and I do mean we - I'm not doing this myself) went in to the room armed with a large garbage bag and a laundry basket.  He does have a laundry hamper, but apparently lifting the lid is one step too many in getting the dirty laundry put away.  We started with the middle of the room, just to clear a space to work in.  This area was mostly laundry - so easy enough to throw in the basket.  After that, we were able to methodically work around the floor of the room, making piles for things that belong in the room, things to donate, and things that go to other rooms (these went in a pile outside the door).

Before we started organizing, any item that didn't belong was taken out and put in its proper location.  Then, we had to take everything that was left in the room and determine the most logical place for it in the room.  Even then, we still had a few too many things.  It's a matter of math - so much shelf space can only hold a certain number of items.  We had to make some tough choices (more on that in a future post!).  But eventually, everything had a place.  He even thanked me for helping him and said he loved seeing it look so neat. 

Now, about 4 months later, laundry still doesn't quite make it in the hamper, but just about everything else has stayed, or been put back in it's proper place. Whew!  The best thing about it was that I could see how happy this small thing made him.  I loved that feeling!  I would love to help you do the same.  For a limited time (until 8/31/15), I'm offering some free services.  Please contact me for more information.

Until next time...