As I tucked Lex in last night, I feared I might trip and break my leg. I didn't end up breaking any bones, but I think I might require a Tetanus shot in my near future.
This is after we'd been cleaning for twenty minutes. Yes, I know it looks like Toys R Us threw up in here.
So, that's what the floor looks like!
The thing is, it was cleaned like this less than one week ago! ONE WEEK! Why do kids feel the need to be surrounded by every toy they own? I should have taken a picture of Lexi's bed before we cleaned! That girl had everything but the kitchen sink in there. Seriously, I don't think there was more than an inch of mattress left for her.
My husband still insists that we should take out all the toys, furniture and carpeting in the house and replace them with cement floors complete with drainage grates, small piles of straw on which they can sleep, and a little trough for their food. And whenever it gets messy, we can just take the pressure washer to it.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a house with these kinds of messes on a regular basis.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I just got an email that I'd like to add here. The following message was on Julian's carepages and I like the idea of hugging our own children tomorrow, not only to honor Julian, but to take a moment out of our busy lives to show our own children that they are loved and cherished.
"I think Saturday, January 5th at 11:00 am should be National Hug JuJu Day - if we could all hug JuJu all at once and let him know how much we appreciate his message to us and to our own children. We should then in turn - hug our own children in honor of JuJu. Last night I was looking at my 2 year old son who is also fighting a life threatening disease and watching his face, his eyes, his nose, his mouth....and I thought of Julian and you, Mimi. You have touched us all in a way that we will never forget. We will miss you JuJu and we will miss your updates Mimi....but we will always love you and remember how much one little boy touched so many lives out here and so far away.
Always in our thoughts, prayers, and in our souls forever. LOVE to the Avery's. Lisa, Nicole and the little man, Collin."
135 comments:
You are not the only one. Problem is, my office looks like that, too.
That is like the mess in my room and I am 25!!!! More importantly I have made the comments without one being up (yet) god bless insomnia.
And for your sunday questions
Do you ever suffer from insomnia and if so any good cures??
LOL! My husband and I said the same thing about the floors when we were building our house: Cement floors with a drain in the middle and we hose it down/out once a week! I thought we had an "original" idea! Glad to know someone else thinks the same way.
I found an interesting way to get the rooms cleaned using "technology"....I give each kid my cell phone and they have to go to their siblings room and photograph the room. Amazingly enough, no one keeps coming to tell me they are "done cleaning"....I've got the pictures to prove they are not! LOL
MM - Texas
bedtime just took 20 minutes longer than usual - because I COULD NOT get in the room~!
I'll admit it.....
I'm 23 years old and my bedroom is just as messy as your daughter's!
However I blame mine on the fact that I have about 2 apartments' worth of stuff crammed in with all of my stuff from growing up! (I just graduated from college with a 2nd degree, so it'll be a while trying to get enough money together to be able to move out for good.)
Want to come clean my room too? I'll provide the liquor!=)
You are not alone. My husband and I built a room upstairs as a "play room" so that we could keep the toy clutter at bay (and we only have 2 boys). We got all this cool shelving from IKEA and everything had a special place. That was a nice theory.
After over a year of no one really wanting to spend much time in that room (including myself, which is unfortunate since that's where I'm supposed to be scrap-booking & otherwise...loving life), I have made some major changes which are not unlike what your husband suggests.
Okay, not so extreme-the floor couldn't handle a hippo-but...I boxed up a majority of the toys and have an extensive toy rotation system in place. In order to get a toy from the attic, the kids must select one from the room with which to trade.
I think that my kids just got overwhelmed and couldn't enjoy their toys because they just had too many out at a time.
Try it. Tell me what you think. ;)
P.S. This is the second post I've read. Must've struck a nerve because I usually lurk extensively! :)
Nope. You're not alone. My girls can do the same in less than an hour but it takes us FOREVER to clean it up!
Not to fear, Dawn, my daughter and son regularly have rooms that look like this! And the playroom. Ugh. My favorite is when we have guests over and, after hours of getting their rooms in some semblance of order, they feel COMPELLED to pull out everything they just put away to play a quick game of "show and tell". The games are the WORST. They pull out a game, set it up to play and then DON'T play it. Next, they pull out another game and don't play that one, either. Sigh.
Lord no. With 3 boys in my house (not including my husband) I can forget ever seeing a clean house until the youngest is maybe a preteen?!? I swear they think the floor is a trash can. I get so tired of picking up after them and having to stand there and watch them clean to make them do it because their attention span is so short. Most of the time I just give up and my house stays a wreck until I get tired of it.
No, you are not the only one. And I find that the girls are worse than the boys. I mean, the boys are gross, but the kind of mess that looks like a maliciously orchestrated orgy of destruction seems to require two X chromosomes.
If it makes you feel better, I also find it gets better as they get older -- not because they're any less slobs, but because if a peek inspection reveals a mess, I get to go in, by myself, and clean it my way. That includes drawers, under beds, and any other conceivable hiding place that strikes my fancy. Teenagers hate that idea more than they love the orgy of destruction.
Still, your husband's idea has merit.
You are definitely not alone. My girls' room looks like this on a regular basis. When I go to tuck them in at night, I *Blow* kisses to them because I'm afraid I'll step on a little lego piece or something. Those little buggers hurt! I've given up trying to keep it neat....
No Dawn, you are not the only one with messes like that... And thing is, we are receiving a foreign exchange student in about 6 weeks! Being the only adult in a home with 4 young children... Well... you do the math! lol ;)
Your post made me smile - so true about kids' rooms!
You're not alone...and now I know I'm not either! I see pictures of houses with kids and no messes, and I always wonder how they do it. Now I feel a little better. When I just had one or even two kids it was so much easier to keep a clean, (or nearly clean) home. Now i just hope there is nothing growing, or breathing under the beds. I may have lowered my standards, but at least I can reach these!
That is so my house. Sad thing is I live in a mobile home with one artistic husband, two artistic daughters (who sleep with many things in their bed and do not like to part with anything either), five cats, all my Tupperware (I'm a consultant and you think I would use every little bit I could to organize my life), and myself and my two totes of fabric. I've only seen the floor maybe twice and that is because my mom came to visit and I literally moved everything to the bedrooms. Thanks Dawn for always making us laugh and realizing that it is okay to be messy and to enjoy the kids.
I have 2 girls, ages 3 and 2, and I am amazed at the destruction they can cause, all in the name of fun. Yesterday I cleaned their basement play area, put everything away, all in neat little cubbies. Today while I was cleaning the upstairs, I heard them playing downstairs, so sweet, laughing and giggling, when I came down to check on them I was SHOCKED, the entire floor was covered.. completely covered.. with every imaginable toy, book and dress up accessory available. I asked "what happened here?" the answer "we're playing". I didn't know they knew how to play "tornado"!
I just want you to know that my kids rooms look like that. I am with your husband.... I think it would work better..LOL...
you are right, it does look like a Toys R Us store.
things could be worse, the rooms could look like the rhino cage!
happy new year,
- W
http://www.gabbr.com
I promise you are NOT the only one. "WINTER" cleaning happened here at my house this past weekend, yet I still can no longer see the family room floor, there is not one book on the bookshelf, and the 25 loads of laundry I did are no longer folded and in the drawers but ARE on the floor in the laundry room.
SOMEONE take me away :-)
HEHE! Looks like the tornado that ripped through my daughters room down here in Texas, carried itself all the way to your house. I can empathize, I help my daughter clean her room and in less than a week it looks like that again. Shes 9, so hopefully it will get a bit better.
Marcy aka Mabunny
Wow! I thought you had secretly entered my house while I was away and took a picture of my daughter's room. There are days I'm tempted to call FEMA for disaster relief - or the closest dumpster company. You are not alone in your battle, and I feel your frustration.
No Dawn, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!
My kids rooms are like that all the also! I think they just have a need to be able to take a visual inventory of everything they own without opening a closet or drawer.
Our 12 yo son cleaned his room a while ago. It was spotless! The bed was made, his desk was organized, WE COULD EVEN SEE THE FLOOR!! I went to look in his closet, and it was (I'm not making this up) piled clear to the ceiling with stuff.
His room stayed this way for a few days until he couldn't find his church pants, then in the process of looking for them he had to drag everything back out of the closet again. I think the mess is multiplying on it's own. I won't allow our 2 yo to go in there for fear that we will get lost in the mess and we won't ever see him again.
What puzzles me the most is why they can dump toys and clothes all over the floor, and leave it like that for days, (or weeks) and the mess stays unchanged, however, if things are put away, they cant seem to leave it neat and tidy.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???
Earlier today, my husband and I decided that on his next day off work, while the kids are at school, we will get a bunch of garbage bags and clean the kids rooms ourselves.
Won't they be surprised??
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Jill
God bless the little ones who are so strong.
And the ones who keep their floors to their bedrooms so messy.
Each and every one of those little blessings in our lives.
Amen.
Well I feel better knowing my kids aren't the only messy ones in the world. I'm not as brave as you though, I won't be posting my kids messes. lol people might be thinking my kids are spoiled with all the cra- I mean treasures they have.
I like you husbands idea.. we may just try that here.
And why is it that they can make the mess all on their own but when it comes time to clean it up, "It's too big Mommy, I can't do it all by myself," what's up with that?
Oh my goodness I could have sworn that was my 7 year old daughter's room - I have 3 kids, 3,4 and 7, and what you described is EXACTLY how it is in our house. Except you are lucky that you have a one week turnaround period. Ours is more like 2 days max. I am immensely relieved to see your pics and know that we are not alone. I will be showing this to my hubby and saying, "Seeeeee???!! it's NOT just our kids!" Many thanks to you for that moment of glory I will have LOL!!
Disaster zone syndrome must be going around today in the Chicago suburbs! I just finished writing my post about my boys playroom. They made me nuts with that room today. You definitely are not the only one to have children who love to create chaos in a room! Thanks for reprinting that message. There will be hugs going around tomorrow at 11.
You're not the only one. My 10-year-old son's room looks like that, except not so pink. And it smells a little funny. I'm scared to go in there sometimes. And he's the same way - can clean it up spotless and the next day it's a wreck again. I like to assume it's because he's a creative genius.
My 3 1/2 year old daughter's room looks like that on a weekly basis. I clean, she destroys.
Here is a written visual:
She has a 3 tiered shelf with those plastic bins to help keep things "organized", but instead she dumps all contents into a heaping pile that eventually ooze onto each square inch of the floor. The bins are then lined up and made into a "Bridge to Nowhere."
The other night I told her we needed to clean before she went to bed & she asked (whined) why? I said "well, because we can't even walk on the floor to get to your bed." She replied with, "just make a path with your foot", complete with the side to side motion of her foot.
Too bad its not spring yet I would love to REALLY clean it. Ah well.
Oh yeah, our family room (which is where the toys mostly are) frequently looks similar - and we only have one kid! Any tips for getting a 2 year old to help pick up?
Kelley2
P.S. Could you post the name of Julian's carepage again? Tx!
You should have seen my daughter's room a few weeks ago..it looked very similar to your's. (she's almost two) I can't imagine anymore toys!
I only have two kids, and my house looks like that already! They spent the night with their grandparents last night, so I spent the whole day today making the place sparkle. I guarantee you that by this time tomorrow night, my house will look just like yours.
Hey Dawn I know your really busy with all your kids, book deal and daily blogs, but could you please check out mine. I could really need some prayers sometimes. you'll see why, but if you could that would be great, and if you can't I totally understand. just thought I'd ask.
http://mygoldenroad.blogspot.com/
thanks for reading the comment. I LOVE your blog!
http://mygoldenroad.blogspot.com/
Oh my! At first I thought you had taken a picture of my daughter's room! No, you are not alone! In less than 15 minutes, the rooms can go from clean to disaster!
OMG, looks like my kids have gone to live with your kids LOL!
I love the wooden thing with the bins that slide in an out...did the hubster make this or something you purchased? And if purchased, from where? If hubster made, he should go into business, I'd buy one for each of my three kids.... WAY better than those flimsy racks with tubs that just "sit" just so and otherwise fall right on through if not "just so"..
hmmm I hear incessant crying from the 5 yo...hope a bin of toys hasn't fallen on her.. off to investigate!
When I was young, my mom's rule was that I had to have a path to the bed for her to tuck me in. Tough love.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
It is so validating to see that other moms struggle to survive while tucking in the babes!
I tripped over a power tour guitar trying to escape my son's room after prayers and kisses tonight!
Before I had kids, my friend told me that she periodically went around her house with a garbage bag while her kids were in school.
I thought she was the meanest mom in the world!
Now, three kids later, I think she deserves the Nobel Peace Prize!
Dawn,
Maybe you could have used the messy room as an excuse that the tooth fairy couldn't find her lost tooth and leave any money because the room was too messy. That might work on the next lost tooth. Clean-up the room for the tooth fairy!
Sandy, HE, Illinois
No fear, my house looks like that on a regular basis. If I cleaned as fast as the kids made messes, my name would be wonderwoman.
hey dawn, im the skinny chick that hates to eat and loves to exercise, and ive been reading all the comments on your blog...alotta pple (yourself incl) are on WW, and i think thats great...but i dont really hear too much abt exercise...just my 2 cents that might be inflammatory but i say this with the best of intentions: WE NEED TO EXERCISE. HOUSEWORK AND CLEANING DOES NOT COUNT. eating healthy: alotta veggies, and good grains and lean meats etc,but w/o exercise and combined with bad habits (sneaking a cookie or 10 after everyone is in bed) ur efforts will mostly be futile...
by exercise i dont mean walking to the kitchen, then over to the couch, and thumb wrestling the tv control, or going for a leisurely walk, or even just playing with the kids. thats not enough, even though ur kid may be the most hyperactive kid ever. u need to run/eliptical/stairmaster for at least 20 mins to get your heart rate going. the initial few mins burns off ur 'easy carbs', and once u get ur heart rate going, u start burning ur 'hard carbs', the ones that are harder to get rid of. notice its burning carbs, not fat. carbs turn into fat. so its still good. to get rid of fat, u need to do some strength training. lifting weights, doing situps, lunges, etc. when u build muscles, u burn fat. the more muscle mass u have, the faster u burn fat. check this: ur muscles burn fat in situ.
oh and all this stuff is from personal research, im not quoting anyone, so if im wrong on any account please correct me.
i was only 22 when i had my kid, so i thought id bounce back to my prepreggo weight cos i had a naturally high metabolism and id lose it all with breast feeding. the only weight i lost was my boobs (i breast fed till zozo was 18 months.) so i started to exercise, motivated by husband (who had gained alotta sympathy weight) and the TV. when i was trying to lose my baby fat i found that watching MTV while i ran on the treadmill really motivated me. id look at rhianna and go "im working for that kinda body" sorta thing. i tried to compete with hubby, but couldnt keep up. never ever try to compete with a boy in burning calories and running fast. theyre just faster. my hubby now has the body of a greek god and i still have stretch marks and slight cellulite when i pull my skin taut. but, im back to 110 lbs(my prepregnancy weight and im 5'4). rite after i gave birth i was 140 lbs. also, the longer your fat stays on your body, the harder it is to get off, cos your body is used to it and doesnt want u to lose it (ur body will think its starving).
make your goals attainable, counting calories really helps, and reward urself but dont overdo it. get lots of slp, at least 8 hrs if u can manage it. the less u slp, the more likely u are to gain weight.
so... hopefully ive helped some and offended none. oh and whenever i use the term "u" i mean "we". once again love ur blog and Julian and his family are in our prayers. sad news: i might not be able to ever have a kid again...my daughter is so precious to me right now. treasure what u have when u have it.
peas. whirrled peas indeed.
My daughter, who is almost 13, has a room that looks exactly like that!!! Except the throw up is less like Toys r Us and more like Supre. Her brother and sisters rooms are not much better.
Where did we go wrong Dawn, have we spoilt them or is a genetic thing (if so it must have come from their father!!).
I love your blog. I love its honesty, I love the way you write, I love that you make me feel human, even if I only have half as many kids as you.
You are a legend, I hope you book sells zillions!!
Regards
Jen (from Australia)
LOL @ the kids rooms!!
I have so many "before & After" pics from the same mess at our house!!!! It's a kid thing, I guess. So, you are NOT the only one.
Oh, and as for the cement floors... I think its a GREAT idea!!! I work in a restaurant and it has these really cool slip resistant floors. Every now and again, there are covered drains, so you can just hose the mess down and squee-gee the water down the drain.
I have personally remarked to several of my coworkers how much I would love the same flooring in all of my house!!
Spilled Kool-Aid?? Wash it down!! Voila!! Clean and ready for visitors!!
Thanks for such a great place to come and comiserate all the things a Mom thinks and feels!!!
~Trevor
No you are not the only one. My daughter's room requires cleaning like that at least twice a week,
Oh yes! I remember those cluttered rooms. With six kids, I had two in each bedroom and it seemed the toys multiplied on their own. Each weekend, one of the rooms got cleaned with mommy and the kids. At vacations and summer we did what we called SUPER-KLEEN each room and tossed, donated, sorted, moved clothing to the next kid etc.
And amazingly, my super neat (somewhat anal) daughter is raising two kids who clutter and gather and save just like she did...and I love it!!
I distinctly remember this one time when I was either 4 or 5 years old - my family had a designated playroom for myself and my younger brother. My brother was only 2 at this time, so the mess was completely mine. My dad literally had to take a snow shovel and make a path to get to me to say goodbye before going to work. THAT is how messy I had the play room. There was not a clear spot for him to walk. :)
Oh Dawn--I am with ya on the messy thing. I help my boys clean their rooms every week only to have the trashed look again in a couple of days. No, you are NOT the only one with those kinds of messes. Do you feel better now? LOL I pray for the Averys everyday. I plan on hugging Ju and my kids tomorrow.
Shari
No, you are not the only one with these kinds of messes. Our family room (aka the tv room) looks like a pipe bomb (or two) full of Legos exploded. The other day, as I supervised my daughter cleaning up her mess, I leaned against her closet door which sprung open and things fell out. It took her 15 minutes to get it closed again. Make note, next stop - closet. :)
Thank you for mentioning Hug JuJu day. I just posted it on my blog (even though I only have a few readers) before jumping over here to see if you had updated tonight. A little girl at my son's preschool www.caringbridge.org/katemadigan has just relapsed with her cancer. My heart breaks for these families but it motivates me to pray and their updates give us the specifics to pray for.
You are definately not alone. My youngest son (and middle child) has a thing about dumping all of the toys out and building his version of the great wall of China through the playroom and out into the family room. Generally right after we've gotten everything cleaned up and have just started enjoying the family room again. There are weeks my husband refuses to hang out downstairs because he just can't take looking at the clutter. Eventually we break down, clean it all up and start the cycle all over again. This seems to be about a two week cycle in our house.
I read the juliansworld carepage every time Mimi updates. I am totally addicted to Julian, and I think it is great that you talk about him a bit here. (you are the reason I even know about him.) I definitely plan to hug my kids at 11am tomorrow! I have 6 wonderfully healthy kids in my home...and then I read about Julian and my heart breaks.
I cry over her posts, ache over the videos and pictures, and am in awe over her grace and dignity. I am telling my friends about Julian and his amazing Mom. She is a testament to true faith and I admire her so much. Could we all praise God the way she does if our child were dying in front of our eyes? Wow.
Thanks again for telling us about Julian, and giving me the chance to have a living example of true faith, as well as a daily reminder to count the blessings in my life.
Yep - most of my house looks like that right now, lol.
I'm so so glad that I'm not the only one with crazy kids! I finally made my two share a room and made the other into a toy room. I try not to go in there very often but whenever I get a glimpse I feel like the worst mother... that is until I saw Lexi's room! Now I just feel normal! Thanks
My Motto:
If you came to see me, come any time. If you came to the house make an appointment. (3 years in advance.
No worries Dawn, you are not the only one. I have 5 kids 4 of them boys and everyday (no matter how many scented candles I buy.) the house smells more and more like a locker room.
Nope, not just you. And once it's clean (three hours later, seriously) Boycheese is simply amazed at all these awesome toys he had forgotten he had!! Sweet! New rule: put it away before you play with a new one. Room clean for approximately one week now. Our longest record is three months. I highly approve of the pressure washing idea.
Wow, I wish I had time to read all the comments...
I am totally feeling your pain, 2 kisa, 2 bedrooms, until recently our renters moved out and we gladly moved all the toys to the living room downstairs! It helped for a while, but I think they were a bit afraid to play down there alone, so the toys ended up in their bedroom or the upstairs living room anyway. Now that it has been a few months, they will play down there alone. There is an Ikea storage thing in their room for the boys toys he wants upstairs and one of those plastic upright things with 3 big and 4 small drawers in it for the small stuff like Barbies and POlly Pockets, and some miscellaneous stuff. It will never end. I think my problem is that I am too lazy too just help them clean it up instead of always nagging and threatening to vacuum up what is left on the floor! Good luck to you and all your readers in the neverending 'toy story'!
"I think that my kids just got overwhelmed and couldn't enjoy their toys because they just had too many out at a time."
I TOTALLY agree with this theory and toy rotation. I've just never been able to implement it! But I think it's so true that the more they have (or have out), the less they enjoy.
Also, to marielee, ie "skinny chick," Weight Watchers DOES promote exercise. (And I'm not so sure about your "easy carbs/hard carbs" theory, but it's great that you love to exercise!)
I'm with your hubby on the whole drain grate in the floor, and the ability to powerwash everything...but then, the drain would be perpetually clogged with legos.
I think older kids like to put all their toys ankle deep on the floor so they can revel in them like Scrooge McDuck's money, or autumn leaves. Younger kids just like to make messes. Like a toddler with a fresh roll of TP in the bathroom, they just can't resist emptying the whole thing.
I think you gave birth to a Tasmanian devil. Which side of the family does that come from?
http://organizeddoodles.blogspot.com/
My 6 yr old's room is in a constant state of messiness! Just like that, so don't feel bad.
I love your husband's idea! :D
I've just caught up with your latest posts... fear not, my 10 year old daughters bedroom often resembles Toys-r-us (well, actually, lately it's been more like a clothes store changing room)! I was rofl at the 'alli' pill post! Soooo funny! I'm hugely overweight but couldn't bring myself to go through that. Eugh!
Happy New Year to you and yours Dawn! I hope it brings you health, wealth and happiness.
OMG! Tell me your secret for getting the room so clean in the after pictures! You are not alone. My little girl's room looks like that ALL THE TIME! I'll go in there and clean and 10 minutes later, its right back where it was before. And, to your commenters who are in their 20s and still have messy rooms -- You have dashed all my hopes that she will outgrow this phase. :(
My husband had the same thought as yours, only he suggested rubber floor. Gotta give the kids some cushioning, after all!
Have no fear, apparently it is in the children's handbook that they must sleep with every toy they own and it must be with in reach, even if it compromises the space available on the bed. My 3 year old is the worst. Her room could be spotless and then she will dump everything onto the floor, books included and begin to play. She will then systematically move everything onto her bed, except the strategically placed items we step on to get her there.
You are definitely NOT alone in this!
I always read your blog but don't comment often. This time I had to let you know how much that room resembles my 6 year old daughter's. When you figure out a what to prevent that, please let me know. I'm starting to think your husband has the right idea!
So it ISN'T just my kids who destroy their rooms on a regular basis! That's a relief, I thought I was just raising boy-pigs! Of course it doesn't help our mess issues that we live in a 1,700 sq foot house with no playroom or basement so all toys must be kept in the bedrooms. It also doesn't help that my hubs and I are both only kids, making our 2 the only grandkids on either side and the grandmas regularly try to out do each other with gifts.
The house rule is supposed to be toys are put away before bedtime, but all too often bedtime sort of sneaks up on us and it doesn't happen. The reality is, if your room is a complete mess on Saturday you have the choice of cleaning it yourself or having Mom clean it. If Mom cleans it I go in with trash bags and anything that is out of place gets bagged up and moved to our storage shed. The only way to get bags of toys back is by keeping your room clean(ish) until the next Saturday. And, just because I'm mean that way, if you decide to "clean" it yourself but accomplish that task by shoving things willy-nilly into the closet, under the bed, and other hiding places and then come tell me you are done I still go in with trash bags and remove anything that is out of place. My almost 6 yr old currently has about 5 bags of toys in the shed waiting to be reclaimed, my almost 4 yr old has 2. The almost 4 yr old is just starting to be expected to clean up his own messes, under the theory that if he can clean up after himself at daycare then by golly he can do it here too!!
Yep, my kids do that. I watch them sometimes, when they are done with a thing they just drop it where they stand and it's completely out of their mind from then on. Makes me nuts. When they are grown and have jobs I'm going to bill them for all the hours I've spent picking up their stuff over and over and over again.
You are NOT alone my dear! I just told my kids last night that they WILL be cleaning their rooms today (of course I have to clean mine as well) Mine tends to become the dumping ground for everything that doesn't have a home.
That was a really touching re-post about Julian.
Happy new year!
Dawn, did I miss something. Did Julian pass?? I read all your posts but I haven't seen an update lately about Julian since the one where he was able to celebrate christmas.
I hope he is okay and still fighting strong.
Oh and yes you are not the only one. My apartment looks like that after my 2 year old son gets out for five minutes.
Charna
Happy New Year!!!
my younger brothers' rooms are just as bad...my parents have seem to given up on cleaning and just shut the doors when we have company over...
Have a great day!!!
Hi Dawn, My son wanted to have his own toy garage sale. He sold a bunch of toys. The toys that were left over we donated to a place that works with foster familys. They were surprised when we called and asked to donate to them. He also took a ton of books to his school for the library to keep. I had a huge box of small perm rods that mainly old people use, so I brought them to a nursing home salon. It feels good to give the stuff we no longer need/use to people who can use it! Kristine in Michigan.
My little one is 6 months and our whole house looks like that! So, I can only imagine when he gets older and has siblings!
And...thanks for putting the chILD Foundation on your blog. I appreciate it.
Wow--great job with the cleaning!!
What a sweet idea--I will definitely hug my baby boy and think of Julian.
Love the idea of a cement floor with a drain in the middle. Your husband may be onto something here. My kids rooms implode every few weeks, they're forced to clean them, then they implode again. Same story, different day :)
My my my! Here I thought I was the only one who needs the snow plow to make a visit to my kids room. I will get their room all nice and clean and it seems that within 5 mins of getting home from school, the floor sinks into the oblivion that is their toys. It must be more important than getting homework done or sneaking into the kitchen for an unasked snack. I have black bagged their room a few times. (That is where I go through all their toys with them watching me and put all the ones that are broken in the black bag and out the door).
Take care and don't get sucked into the tornado.
Dawn, you are so not alone. My girls' room looks terrible. I spend hours cleaning and organizing- taking away at least half their toys to send to the goodwill- yet within an hour it looks like... well, like you said, toys r us throwing up and all. It is bad. Really bad. The only thing organized is my oldest daughters vanity with her makeup and stuff. Somehow that is precious enough to keep nice, all the rest is just tossed around.
ugh. I just take photos so someday I can show them how their rooms looked when they call me complaining about their own kids.
I am so relieved from your post and all the comments that my children are NOT the only ones that have rooms that look like a hurricane and tornado hit all at once! I thought my children inherited some sort of "slob" gene from their father (it could NEVER have come from me! Oh no!).
I do like the idea of the drains in the floor! It would certainly make cleaning easier! I wonder how to get started on that...
Thanks so much for sharing this and for everyone else chiming in that we're not alone in this battle!
My kids rooms are clean only because we have a play room and I rather clean one room than three others. My kids for some reason don't make big messes with their rooms just themselves. My twins yesterday got into green and yellow food coloring. Not fun to clean than mess!!!
Sigh.
My kids' rooms like that. Steven has a bed--somewhere....under all the Transformers.
And they got art supplies and games for Christmas. Heaven help me.
But reading Julian's Care Page each day puts all the mess in perspective, doesn't it? My kids are messy and loud and obnoxious at times, but they are healthy, thank God.
My parents used to say, about my room, Don't go in that room without a gun! LOL
Hey, Dawn!
I love your blog!
Some of us bloggers are playing "Tag" - and I tagged you! You can see the rules and post here: http://lifeatthezoowithshay.blogspot.com/
-----Shay :o)
A week? Seriously? It took that LONG? My kids can do that in under 2 minutes!
How did you go back in time and take a picture of my room as a child? That's just amazing! I will say their is hope (of which my Mom had none). You still can't eat off my floors or anything crazy like that and occasionally the house is a little messy (I have a 15mo old!) However I do clean up on my own now, and rarely have you had to move a pile of stuff to come into my house. So have hope, and please never make the same mistake as my Grandmother and actually say "Wow, this looks nice, I never thought you would keep a nice house" OR from my Mom "I always thought we should just throw a mattress on the floor and call it your room" (referring to moving my stuff into my college apartment) It may seem hopeless now, but eventually she will get it that stuff everywhere is not that fun as an adult.
http://lybarger111.blogspot.com/
If you think that room is bad now , wait until she's 18 or 20! My two DD's rooms are perminantly like that now. I go in on occation with a black bin bag and clear it all away, but it's back the same with in a week. Even though they say how great it looks and they'll keep it tidy from now on !! Yeah right !!
I love your blog and read it with interest all the time, but you get so many replies, i've never left one before lol
That child is a rank amateur. Let her learn from the big kahuna of filth:
http://outtamymindwithworry.blogspot.com/2006/03/as-promised.html
If you go forward a few posts, you'll see the cleaned up version, and her brother's filthy sty and the cleaned up version.
Unfortunately, the clean lasted about 3 days, tops!
Oh, Dawn. That picture of Lexi's room really is mild compared to the room my husband and I just finished working on. I wish I had taken a picture before I started. My two girls share a room so the mess is double because neither one puts anything away. All four of us have just spent two hours cleaning their room. The beds still need to be made and the closet cleaned out but you can see the floor. BTW I was so afraid to touch anything in there I wore a rubber glove while I worked. Now I know what I put my parents through when I was a kid.
Dawn, I raised two girls, and their rooms usually looked like that. One was even worse as a teenager. Once they moved out on thier own to college dorms, then their own apartments, and now their own homes, they miraculously became neat, clean, organized people. The one who was the messiest is now a neat freak. So now I am the slob and they are the neat ones! Go figure. :-)
Well my children have grown and left home , the 2 boys aren't too bad now (one has an Italian wife to keep him in line, rofl)but I go to my daughter's house and her bedroom can still look like that!
As they got older they hated me going into their rooms so I didn't, that worked until they had no clean clothes lol so then the rule was devised as by then I was primary carer of my mother who lived with us, that unless clothes were put in the laundry they didn't get washed , then they'd wait til they were down to the last pair of everything and it would all come out lol....ah them were the days!
When my mother flies in from Colorado for my college graduation in May, She will remark how messy her grand kids room is. You know what I am going to do? I am going to pull up this page and ALL of these comments and tell her in my most adult voice "It's a child trait. DEAL!" I am not a messy housekeeper, I am a normal parent and that is a huge relief to my guilty thoughts every time my mother comes to visit.
I was at work at 11a.m. for Julians hug but I am going to do it at 8 p.m. tonight and think about the family. It's really sad to have to deal with planning a funeral this year instead a birthday party for that sweet little boy. Much love to all, health, wealth, and happiness.
XOXO
AKB
My daughter, we'll call her Mouse, has to have her den/room cleaned out once a week as well. It is always a dangerous experience and We take our lives into our own hands sorting through the piles of papers, toys, dead fruit pieces, after school snack wrappers and broken crayons. I am always amazed at how much stuff she can accumulate in one week. This is even after trying to "stay on top of it". It never works! I feel your pain. :)
Ahhh, how inspiring. I'm looking at a few rooms like that - not all lived in by children - and the fourth child on the way this June. Whew - I'd better walk away from this computer before I get too dizzy with the possibility of a clutter free zone. Well done!
Our whole house looks like that. We built it new in 1999 and that was about the last time it was clean. But like my Pastor says enjoy the mess because before you know it our little ones will be gone and the husband and wife will be left in there neat house looking at each other and saying now what.
Southern Boy
So, do all six of your kids have their own room? Wow, you must have a big house...
Speaking of...is Brooklyn expected to become an older sibling sometime soon...?
I'm sure she'd love a younger brother(have to keep the pattern going...boy, girl, boy, girl, etc...)
Speaking of the pattern, how did you manage to have six kids with an equal number of girls and boys AND going in alternating order? Quite a coincidence, I would say!
With everybody talking and thinking about weight loss lately, I wanted to share a story I came across yesterday that I thought was really inspiring! Since I haven't figured out how to post links since they get cut off sometimes, try this: Do a google search for "Dolly Dimples" and click on the 5th result down, the one that's titled "The Human Marvels". She lost 443 lbs in 14 months! That's an average of about a pound a day!
For a child with five siblings, Lexi sure does have a lot of stuff!
I am still in your parallel universe out here, and I am SO with your husband on this except not the straw part-they will get food in it and things will get yucky. Just get that vinyl patio furniture stuff and hose the whole thing down! This is one of my dreams: to design a home people could raise real children in with low maintenance. I gave up on it happening for me, but maybe my grandchildren? In the meantime, I did what your other commenter does and rotated the toys. Only problem, they got into my stash all the time, so I had to keep reclaiming it. My husband finally just loaded up a ton of stored away and all over the floor toys and towed them away. Just like my old couches that I still loved and wanted to reupholster, (So, they had a popsicle stick sculpture in the armrest held in place by the holes DS gouged into it with a knife. The thing had style and I found fabric to fix it with.) he hauled those relics off and won't tell us where, and we will never see them again! I imagined Toy Story 3 after he took off with the toys, and it was a horror flick. But as for us, we are feeling a whole lot better without so much junk to manage. The kids believe the idle threats to give away all their toys so they try to clean on occasion when you get a garbage bag and start filling it with toys. :)
Tetanus shots cover a multitude of symptoms.
My in-laws have concrete floors that they had stained and they are beautiful. They are easy to clean & you don't freak out when someone spills on them! They have rugs to make it 'warm' and quieter, but if we ever build a house, we're going to do that.
Also, a suggestion, if it's not been posted yet. We use to box up some of the kids' toys & put them in the garage. Then about every 3 months we'd rotate with the ones in their room. They thought it was Christmas-come-early and we had less to clean up. They also didn't get bored with their toys. Just an idea.
And sadly, I have 3 daughters that are 22, 18 and 15 and their room is not near as clean as you might think. But there is always hope right?
Well right now my son's room is pretty clean of course he's only eleven weeks old so that might be the reason. Of course there is no room in his crib for him and thankfully he's still in his bassinet. My hubby keeps asking when he'll be ready to sleep in his crib and I keep putting him off because I don't know where to put any of the stuff that I've got stacked neatly in there! I do remember my younger brother (he's 12 years younger than me) used to sleep in a bed so filled with toys and stuffed animals he only had a little corner. I also remember he used to use his diaper as a pocket. Is this something I will get to look forward to or was Donny the odd one out?
That mess isn't that bad at all. Seriously, you should see my girls' playroom and bedrooms. It looks like a tornado went through.
It takes me hours to clean it and it takes them minutes to mess up.
I gave up already.
And I was thinking about blogging about my kids messy rooms last week, but decided not too because I was so embarrassed.
Love you blog as always....Question...Can I get an update on Julian? Did the Lord take him home? I tried to get to his car page and I can't. I made sure to sign up for the site but I still can not get to it. I have been praying for him!I hug my kids alot!
Thanks for being you!
You are definitely NOT alone! Just this week I hauled 3 boxes of stuff out of my 9-year old son's bedroom. I tell him and tell him and tell him and tell him to clean it up and I repeatedly spend hours helping him. He has shelves and drawers and containers for all his stuff, but heaven forbid he actually put the appropriate stuff in the appropriate places! No! Everything is just thrown everywhere!!! ACK! So the other morning I was once again saying to him that some day I'm going to take out everything that isn't where it's supposed to be ... when I realized that part of the problem is that he doesn't believe me. So - I commenced to helping his unbelief. :-) Trust me, he still has plenty of stuff left, but maybe that's part of the problem because he shows no signs of missing his stuff!! Well, except that he did want his colored pencils back this morning and I had to give them to him because his room is still neat and besides that, who doesn't want their child to do something wonderful like sit and color?? LOL! He can earn the rest of his stuff back by continuing to keep his room neat. We'll see. My wonderful ideas don't always work so well in reality. I holding out hope though because Mom used to tell me that my own room was wall-to-wall mess with not even a path to walk and now I'm not like that. So maybe someday.... :-)
I think your husband is on to something there.
Oh you are so not the only one. My living room looks like that with their toys in it as well as their room. I need to take a shovel to both of them. *sigh* Maybe on Monday.
Hi Dawn!
Rest assured my daughter can give yours a run for her money in the "how many toys can you get on the floor at once?" race...and mine just turned 4. To top it all off, she got a package of 1000, yes, 1000 stickers in her stocking from a loving relative this year, and I let her daddy convince me that Santa just had to bring her Moon Sand as well, which I am now convinced comes straight from the offices of some one that has never, nor will ever, have children. They probably have nice, white furniture and carpet up at Moon Sand Central, too. You know what they don't have there? Yep. Moon Sand. At least I have her convinced that if you don't keep it on the table that is covered with newspaper and wash your hands immediately after playing with it then it will all disappear like the play doh did...lol. Now if I can just figure out a way to hunt down those Littlest Pet Shop twist-tie and rubber band applying folks. Oh well, I guess a girl has to have her dreams.
Thanks for keeping it all in perspective and keeping us all in stitches!
Kim W.
I'm with your husband on this one. I'm so sick of all the clutter. I throw things out constantly and there is always more. Your house is most definitely not the only one that looks like that.
I try to look at the messes my 4 girls make as job security.
It looks like, from the view of the closet, that you have a good system in place with the drawers that look like tubs.
I am taking a mental note of how you have that set up!
Tanya
mom of 4 girls in Misery (AKA: Missouri)
My 11-year-old daughter's room looks very similar, but it's full of horse stuff--books, magazines, model horses, tack, barns, etc., along with clothes and the collection of drinking glasses she leaves on her nightstand (7 at last count). Her clothes stay on the floor, mostly inside out, exactly where (and how) she took them off (until I order her to bring them down to the washer, which she procrastinates about until she literally has to sit in her pajamas waiting for something to be washed so she can get dressed and leave the house). Anyway, if you want help with cleaning, organizing, etc., I suggest you check out Flylady.net. Flylady helps those of us who are "SHEs" (Sidetracked Home Executives)get out of CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome), and she does it with love, and encouragement. Her methods can be applied to children, too, although it helps if the parents (moms) try to make a little headway themselves first.
If you put all that stuff from the floor onto 2 dresser tops, that is what my boys' room looks like.
In an opposite note, my oldest turned 11 on Jan. 1. This is the first year that the kids did all of the toy picking up for the party. And they cleaned their rooms (... well, except for the avalanches on the dressers. Those just got straightened into neater piles.)
I remember the toddler days when party cleaning took until 2 a.m. Now I might be up until 2:00, but I'm reading blogs instead :0)
KR
Nope. it's a kid thing. I've taken up my mom's approach. As long as the door will close, and it doesn't spread out of the bedroom, I don't (or try not to) care. Can't find something? Not my problem. Toy broke? Maybe if it were put away it wouldn't have been stepped on.
After years of me throwing away broken and missing parted toys they are getting the hint.
WHEW... for a moment I thought you somehow got a picture of my 10 y.o. daughter's room. It looks pretty much like that, pretty much all the time. I make her pick it up and it's a mess again in hours. It's just how she rolls...
I know it's been said previously, but you are not alone.
I have half the kids you do, so what's my excuse?
We will never win this battle, I'm afraid.
As others have said, you are not alone! My 10 year old has to at least have a non-threatening path through to the bed BEFORE bedtime! Since she got a Nintendo DS for Christmas, though, she's been in her room going through stuff to sell at a yard sale to make money for more games for it! She's going through all her Barbie stuff! Yay! lol (She has her own, plus all her older sister's stuff!)
LoL. I so know what you mean. Unfortunately for me, it's the DAD creating the mess not the kid.
Dawn,
May I say, to me, tou have filled the void Dave Barry left. ;) Please keep it up!
oh thank god.
i'm not alone!
ours can do that in an hour. scary. after that hour I come back and then tell them to clean it up so that someone doesn't get hurt or toys broken. They look at me with big eyes and explain that they can't it is too much for them to put back. at this point I am choking back my laughter, who managed to pull it out anyway? I then draft them and order them to put the toys up.
Here is proof that there is hope for Lexi, and this won't last forever! Read my 26 year old daughter's blog to see what remarkable changes happen when the kid with the messiest room on the planet grows up. :-) It's a miracle! http://www.lifeafterstaff.blogspot.com/
Uhm, I'm 25, live alone, and right now, my bedroom looks like that. (Although reading the other comments I see that I am not alone!) My closet vomited on the floor after Christmas and I have yet to clean it up!
My kids all live in messy rooms. My oldest swore her sisters were the ones who made all the mess in her room. Even when she had her own room for several months, it was always messy.
Anything small toy on the floor in the main part of the house is mine. My mom refers to barbie shoes, legos, etc, as vacuum cleaner food. I have wood or linoleum floors in every room. I sweep up toys or they feed the shopvac. I occasionally rescue my 13 yr olds' legos that his brothers took out of their room.
I have two boys 21 and 18, and a girl 20, and believe me, they may not have toys and stuff in their rooms, but they have as much junk as any 3 yr old, mostly over the floor. I absolutely refuse to go in the boys' room cos it stinks to high heaven. I might venture into DD's room after tomorrow and do some sorting cos she's going away for a couple of months. Might have to hire a cleaner.
my whole house looks like that LOL
If you could have only had ONE of your kids, and had less(hopefully!) of a mess, which kid would you have had?
What's your opinion on children with siblings vs. only children?.
Do you think your children are better off having siblings or do you wish they were only children so you could pay more attention and focus on only one child? Would your children be more cooperative if they were onlies, does it not matter, or are they actually more cooperative, working as a team?
My SIL from CA is here to visit and she commented on how "neat" our house was - I confessed to her that I cleaned for DAYS to get it looking that way, and pretty much the next day it looked like a train wreck all over again. sigh. My house used to be neat all the time...maybe it will be again someday!!
Within an hour after my son arrives home from college on a break his room looks ...... well, it looks like a bomb just dropped.
I have never been able to discipline my son on keeping his room neat because I would be such a hypocrite. My room is an "always keep the door closed" part of the house.
The only difference between his slobbery and mine is that I have not had to have my room quarantined by the Board of Health. I swear he is looking trying to grow molds of all sorts on the old slices of pizza and bagel sitting on every surface in his room. Maybe in his sweet mind he thinks he is Madam Curie,trying to find a cure for, errr .... mmmmm .....clean air?
When he returns to school it takes me at least a week to work up the courage to enter his room, fully masked.
I would NEVER enter his room while he is living in it. I learned my lesson the hard way. I walked in his room one night in search of a book I wanted to read.
I damned near killed myself. I tripped over one guitar, just barely missed putting my foot through the second guitar, caught my toe on his mandolin case and promptly broke my pinky toe.
And do you know what the amazing this is ..... he never work up!
Can some one please explain to me how a kid will take a 45 minute shower every morning, can live in a hazardous zoned bedroom?
Ju Ju, your family holds you tightly in there arms;friends who can't be there hold you tightly int their hearts.
I only have three children and my family room always looks like a bomb went off. Only two of the kids are actually old enough to make the mess. (The baby is 6 months) I took all the toys out of the bedrooms long ago so that they would at least have a clean place to sleep. But I am also blessed to have a large home for my little family.
I am the oldest of six and don't remember ever having a clean bedroom though.
Wow, that totally looks like my house! I have 4 children ages 4 and under, plus we live in a multi-family, multi-generational house, including my 2 nieces (7 & 5 yrs old) all under one roof. The bedrooms, living room & "sunroom" all take turns wearing the latest in toy fashions as you've demonstrated. We do have a bit more space. I'm told around 1800 sq feet, but with 13 people & 3 dogs it doesn't seem like much more.
Love reading your blog, reminds me so much of my daily life & what I have to look forward to as my own children age! Blessings to you, you're a real trooper!
ROFL pressure wash it. I love your blog you are funny.
i love the wood thing, i have 4 kids (we would like another, yes we ARE insane) and that looks like a great way to organize...right now we have TONS of plastic everywhere, drawers and tubs for everything...we have 2 boys 2 girls, girl boy girl boy...we just moved the baby (he's 21 months) upstairs to the boys' room...anyway, how much did it cost at ikea? i live in michigan and we don't have ikea here, or at least not on my side of the state (maybe by detroit, but i'm not driving all the way over there)...i love your blog, i read it regularly...and the way your girls' room looks, yeah, that's my entire 2nd floor..upstairs is the girls' room, the boys' room, the playroom, a storage room, and a bathroom...and they ALL look a lot like that...though we finally found the floor in the boys' room because of moving the baby up there...anyway, i love your stuff and reading yours gave me the gumption to actually follow through and do one of my own, so thanks!
I only wish I had taken pictures of MY daughters room when they shared one. I have 3 that are 28 months apart, and the one of your daughter's definitely brings back memories.
I enjoy reading your blog....I only have 4, and they are older now (my son will graduate college this year, and the girls are 10th,11th and 12th grade). Keep writing, because it will only get more interesting - TRUST ME!
On another note.....Someone has starting using your eBay name mom2my6pack......what is your new user ID. Thanks.
I think if you only had one child your house would look that way. I have two. Both love to live in the most mess possible. Trash on the floor, dirty and clean clothes on the bed, clean clothes piled on the closet floor-they apparently couldn't jump to the hangers themselves, etc. I've given my 8 year old daughter the speech that I am not cleaning her room anymore. For Christmas she received a great bookshelf with bins so now everything has its place. She started with a clean room and it's already going downhill. I was once told to not expect to have a clean house until the children move out. I'm running with that excuse!
Not only do my kids' rooms look like that, my whole dang house looks like that. We've got 4 kids in a townhouse about the size of your house, maybe smaller, but most of that space is taken up in the basement, which we use for storage, or in high ceilings and too many windows, great for space to jump on beds but not good for safety or furniture arranging.
I think The House Fairy could really help you. Go to housefairy.org and check it out. My kids are too old for it, but yours would be a great age.
It's a great way to motivate the kids to keep their own rooms looking nice and tidy. It gives them pride and self-confidence and sense of accomplishment and that is worth even more than a clean house. Best part - it only costs $10 plus a little creativity on your part. I hope this helps you.
OMG!! I find it rather humorous that someone else uses the saying about Toys R Us! Every holiday, birthday, Christmas - Whatever people send my kids presents for, I beg them not to! Please, please do not send them anything, I plead. Their bedrooms look like Toy R Us threw up in them, they have everything they need. Does anyone ever listen.. NO!
I know how you feel and although I do not have six children (only two), I get a glimpse of what it would be like to have that many children daily.
I have a 3yo daughter and a 15 month old son. My best friend lives seven houses down from me and has a 4yo daughter and 1 1/2yo son. Throw in another friends two children that visit on a weekly basis, plus the three dogs and two cat and a I get a glimpse of total chaos!
The kids are always together at either my house or hers. My husband and I work opposite shifts, so she gets them late afternoon until I get home. She's a SAHM and watches my 2 midgets while I work and then when I come home, we all have dinner together and hang out until the boys are ready for bed.
It really works well for us though, we treat all the kids as if they are our own and keep the same rules for both households. We shop at Sams together and split the bill and groceries between the households. It saves us both time and money kind of like the supper swaps! Essentially, I feel as if we have a family of eight. It may sound strange to someone on the outside, but we are all we have down here. Her husband and I were both transferred from Ohio to Alabama (no more snow), that's why we are so close knit. But hey, family is who you make it.
Any way, all i really wanted to say is that I have been following your blog since the eBay posting and my hats off to you and all the SAHM!!
My almost-2 year old is sitting on my lap while I'm catching up on your blog. When he saw the pictures of Lexi's room (particularly the one with the toys all over the floor) he started chanting "play toys! play toys!" And ya know what? My living room currently looks a lot like that and I've only got 2 kids! lol
Hi! I just had my baby girl Sophie come home from pre school asking for webkinz! Are any of your kids into them?!?!!? I dont even know what a webkinz is!!!!
Thanx,
Emma
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