Cleaning out
Today was supposed to be a gardening day. Unfortunately the weather was uncooperative. I was forced to find an indoor project upon which to spend my energies. I tackled the closet in my sons’ room. Link and Patches have a very limited comprehension of organization. They tend to clean up their room by throwing everything cluttering the floor onto the shelves in the closet. This quickly results in lost toys and a closet that is rendered unusable. Today I shovelled everything out of the closet and onto the floor where I could sort it. I ended up with a hamper full of dirty clothes, a garbage bag full of laundry, some tidy containers full of toys, and lots of empty shelf space.
Link is eight. Eight is the age of collections. All of his collections were jumbled together on the shelves. I helped him sort them and put them into containers. I also instructed him that small things are not to be thrown onto the shelf. Small things have to go into containers and then containers can go on the shelf. If he keeps the rule we will undoubtedly end up with containers full of jumbled collections, toys, and garbage, but that is worlds more managable than an entire closet full. I actually think that Link will keep this rule, he does like to keep things organized as long as he can clearly see how to do it. He is my one child who comes home from church and carefully folds and puts away his church clothes. All the other kids throw their church clothes on the floor with the same abandon as any other type of clothing.
One of the items I found in the closet was a fish tank lamp that was given to Link by his grandparents. Link loved that lamp. He loved watching the little plastic fish float around in the bubbles. Unfortunately after a year of near constant use, the bubble holes clogged and the motor broke, so it has been sitting unused in the closet. Today Link consented to my getting rid of it. I mentioned to him that he is old enough now that if he wanted to get a real fish tank for his room, he could do that. It has been years since we’ve had a fish tank. In fact I don’t think any of the kids remember us having fish. For awhile we had three fish tanks, but when we moved we decided to give them away rather than move them. Link’s eyes lit up athe that possibility. So for the rest of the day my thoughts have been musing on ways to acquire a fish tank for him. I need to not rush. His interest may wane and the next month is going to be very busy around here. Perhaps for his birthday in the fall.
Patches approved of his newly clean room and closet. He informed me “I wike cwean!” I like clean too, I just wish it didn’t always require so much work from me.