Clean

So I spent a few hours last week weeding through ALL our toys and getting rid of things that were broken, missing pieces, etc. Basically all the crap that had accumulated in our playroom. I reorganized all the toys and it was BEAUTIFUL. I knew it wouldn't stay that way for long, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. I wish I'd taken a picture, honestly I do.

Fast forward to yesterday. It was "cleaning day". I told the girls I wanted everything picked up downstairs and that I was going to work on cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms. I spent 2 hours going up and down stairs, cleaning, feeding Leah, changing Graham, cleaning some more, changing Leah, feeding Leah again, and cleaning some more. Each time I went up or down the stairs I got onto the girls for playing instead of cleaning. Finally I got to the end of my rope and told them to just walk away and leave it alone and I'd take care of it. Then I proceeded to box up every single one of their toys and move them all to the guest room. It was kind of funny because while Erica was completely devastated, Natalie didn't really care. Erica is a big "toy" kid. She LOVES her toys. She is always playing with her My Little Ponies, or her Barbies, or her dolls, or her dinosaurs, or toy cars. You can often find her throwing a birthday party for one of her "friends" or having a picnic. Natalie on the other hand, has never been a "toy" kid. She'd much rather be reading, or playing games, or coloring, or doing workbooks, or playing wii, etc. She *does* play with toys, but only when Erica does. In fact, even though Natalie owned Barbies, she never really played with them until Erica started to. And now she only does it to play with Erica. When I say it's time to clean up, it's almost always Natalie that ends up cleaning up the mess, because Erica is in her own little lala land. I think Natalie was actually *glad* to have all the toys put away. I'm sure she was thinking "now I don't have to play ponies with Erica," or "now I don't have put away all of Erica's barbies anymore." I left the "big" toys and the basket of baby toys and stuffed animals. I told the girls that if they could keep that clean, then they'd slowly start getting their toys back. I am even thinking about doing their toys on a rotation. Like one week leave out the ponies, next week the barbies, next week dress up etc. I don't know yet. All I know is I am tired of the entire downstairs being covered with toys.

This is how our playroom looks right now.

And I'm totally digging it.