So even though I desperately wanted to get into the garden on my day off yesterday, I got to a task that has been haunting me for a few weeks: cleaning out my four year old daughter’s room. Any parents of young children know that cleaning a child’s room involves more than a quick tidy, dust and sweep. Emelia is at the stage where everything has importance at certain moments – “homework” (cut outs from grocery flyers), trumpets (toliet paper rolls), and “jewels” (sequins that have fallen off art projects). And all these treasures are jammed into any empty space available. I have tried to clean her room while she was home with and without her help, but the task ends in tears – both hers and mine. And so now this task is done when she is at daycare and I have my day off. Yesterday my cleaning efforts only took just over an hour. (That is really good.) My speediness is due to a streamlined cleaning strategy that looks something like this.
1. Go through the bookcase (and toy bins on said bookcase). Empty one bin or section at a time.
2. Review everything and pile unwanteds into piles: garbage, paper recycling, art to consider* (see later note), donate, sell, hold for swapping *(see later note).
3. Put all appropriate goods back.
4. Sweep floors (especially under the bed – eeeck)
*The Art to Consider Bin – My girl loves to draw. She loves even more to write. She writes names of people, places and things on endless pieces of paper. Add to this she comes home with 4-6 pieces of paper and various projects from daycare a day. I set up a desk with its own under-the-seat storage for her last year hoping she would use the storage to collect her artworks. I tried editing projects as soon as she came in the door. I hung up a magnetic bar in her room. Nothing seemed to work. They all took too much effort (opening of folders, organizing magnets, time for sifting). And as mentioned above, letting go of items is not something she does easily or happily. So we placed a box in our coat closet where upon entering the house, she can dump her projects in. And when cleaning up at the end of the night, Emelia or we can collect all her drawings and pop them in this box “for later”. And then every month or so we go through the box, pick out the few treasured items and put them in her momento box. Everything else gets put into the paper recycling.
*Swapping – A trick I learned early on in E’s life is that swapping is a good thing. As presents and goodies enter the house, I edit goods and put some away for later. I do the same when I clean. Books, colouring books, and stuffed animals which are still age appropriate can often find themselves in the swap box. And then when playtime needs a little umph, I pull out a “new” item. Sometimes I get a “Oh I was wondering where that went” but often she is just excited and doesn’t comment on it having gone missing.
My main rule is to do this clean out often and be ruthless. It may sound harsh but it works. And it helps me find lost scissors, kitchen items, and balls.
