How we’re tackling our daugher’s (constantly) messy room
When I picked up a pair of tights with a gummy lollipop stick attached to one leg, I was annoyed at her messy room. Then I found the candy wrappers — she’s not allowed to eat in her bedroom! — and the chewed-up wad of gum — in her jewelry box! — and I could feel my face heating up.
I just spent an unpleasant Sunday cleaning our five-year-old daughter’s messy room. This is not something I do very often, and maybe that’s the problem. Actually, no, the problem is her — and her “casual” approach to order.
Our daughter is like my husband, you see. This means she is delightfully friendly and outgoing, she loves staying up late, sugar is her love language, and . . . she is a bit of a slob.
I thought she’d outgrow trashing her room after we passed the toddler years, but somehow it kept happening. I tried to accept that it was how she liked to play, and that she didn’t need to be super-organized like me (and her brother). But every time I walked by her super-messy room, I felt like screaming.
“I just don’t know what to do! It’s driving me crazy!,” I wailed to my husband. “You’re like her — what would make YOU keep your room clean?”
He looked apologetic. He didn’t have any ideas, but he, too, was annoyed by the mess. (When a messy person is annoyed by a mess, you know it is a REALLY BIG MESS).
After a long discussion, we came up with a solution that will MAYBE (possibly?) make it easier for her to keep it clean …
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