In the Jungle

Well as I've already mentioned, the kids' room looks like a hurricane hit. Followed by another hurricane. Then a raid by Vikings. Then another hurricane. In any case, my mom was visiting on Saturday, so I wisely shut the door to their room before she arrived. Of course, during the course of the visit, the little one insisted on changing her outfit AGAIN and left the door open, and when Mom walked by later she gasped and made a million remarks about "How do you live like this?" and "No wonder they still sleep in YOUR room" and so on. I didn't discuss it and told her to back off... but GRRR...

The thing is, I really did want to get to the room, and after she left, we got down to it. NOT BECAUSE OF HER COMMENTS, you understand. On the contrary, her comments made me want to leave it a mess, because I'm nuts like that (just ask Mom). But I had been looking for a block of time to do this for a while, and an open Saturday night seemed like a good place to start. So here's a few BEFORE shots.
Remember kids, you can't organize clutter!
No wonder she doesn't sleep in her bed
Get something out of the closet? You must be trippin'
A closer look at what's blocking the closet and lower shelves. By the way, that toy box is full to the top with stuffed animals that the kids probably don't even know exist

With a promise of a trip to Baskin Robbins as an incentive, we started by getting everything off the floor. Stray clothes went out into the hallway (dirty, clean, I didn't care - I put them all in the hamper when we were through). Stuffed animals and dolls went on the Girl's bed. If it was obviously broken, or obviously trash, it went in the trash bag (though to my son, nothing is broken OR trash, it's all "part of something else" or "really needed"). Pretty much everything else went into a big laundry basket. After the floor was clear we took the big basket and started sorting again, making piles that made the most sense - characters, animals, legos, "stuff that we can't identify and/or need to find the rest of", and so on. It was hard keeping the kids on track, but we actually made it through that whole basket and another smaller bin that was full of assorted stuff. Then we had to find places for the piles, which we did, with more bins and baskets. It's not perfect, but at least there is a clear path.

I did manage to snag a few toys for the donation bin (including a few that had BEEN in the donation bin but somehow made it back to the kids' room). I have to get them out of the house soon or they will end up right back in their room again. I also managed to snag the pieces of a broken Sky Dancers toy that the Girl never plays with anyway, and hide them in a trash bag. She caught me going to the trash and cried her eyes out, even after I explained that the toy doesn't work and it's broken and not fixable. I told her that we can buy her a new one if she really wants, but I hope she doesn't hold me to that because to me, that toy screams "you'll put your eye out." (Hmmm, I'm not even kidding. I googled it to find a picture and found this instead...)

We went for our ice cream and had a really fun time playing follow the leader as we walked home. Then Miss Girl asked when we were going to get everything off her bed because she was "really gonna sleep there tonight." Yeah, right.. So we managed to stick all the dolls and plush into two of those pop up hampers. Where did all this plush come from and what am I supposed to do with it, anyway? Two pop up hampers AND a toy box full, and I'm pretty sure one of those milk crates in the living room is hiding more...