Discover | Decluttering and delegating

Welcome to crazy town...otherwise known as our children's playroom. Like most kids, Seth and Eme absolutely love making a mess, but loathe cleaning it up. Left to their own devices, they would happily live in chaotic filth.  Andrew and I can't stand it, and this is most definitely NOT what the rest of the house looks like.  This week, I'd had enough of shutting the door and hoping that the cleaning fairies would do their best.  Tears and cries of "we can't do it!" screamed out, and threats were made of "we're cancelling your birthday party if you don't get in there and make a difference". Did that motivate them? Not in the slightest.

Yesterday, Andrew was working in the backyard, and I thought I'd attempt the playroom. Both kids volunteered to help Andrew. Typical. After 1/2 hour they were both back inside. I think they must have gotten underneath Andrew's feet and he sent them in. lol. Didn't bother me...I now had two captive helpers! Yippee!!!  Here's the end result.  You couldn't tell in the above photo, but there is actually a big rug on the floor! lol.

We threw out three bags of toys...old colouring in books, puzzles with missing pieces, those dreadful toys that come with happy meals, toys that were broken, and ones that they'd simply grown out of but weren't in any condition to donate or giveaway.  It feels SOOOOO good looking in that door now.  In one corner is a small tv with all of the kids dvds, and a small book case.  On the opposite wall is another small book case, Disney Princess kitchen (Eme's not Seth's, lol), and my favourite, an IKEA Trofast storage system. Those little white tubs hold a multitude!! The kids have three drawers each. Seth's are broken down into things that move, action figures and lego/marbles/mighty beans.  Eme has the more girlie sorting of Barbie stuff, kitchen play stuff and little characters like zhu zhu pets.

On the return wall are Eme's dollhouses...yes, plural.  The little one is her Fisher Price "My First Dollhouse", which she was given for her second birthday. She still plays with it, so I'm not ready to give that one away just yet.  The larger one was a hand-me-down from a neighbour and contains all of her barbies.  The barbies live in multilevel luxury decorated in doilies that Eme has stolen from my scrapbook stash, and other random bits of fabric she's encountered. I plan on refurbishing the dollhouse with pretty scrapbook papers or wallpaper off cuts.  I love how she's decorated it. Definitely fun and her random style.  Look at her sitting there with her legs crossed in the next pic. Is she five or fifteen??

After much persuasion, I managed to help the kids clean the room, not the other way around.  I gave each of them a task and we made loads of smaller piles before we put things away.  I involved them in the discarding of toys so that it was their decision to get rid of them.  They were very proud of the end result and couldn't wait to show Andrew.  After helping me all afternoon, the kids deserved a reward.  They threw themselves down on the beanbags (an essential in a kids play space) and watched Shrek 3D...which they could actually watch in 3D because we found the special glasses in that big pile of crap! lol.

Please tell me I'm not alone and your kids play spaces end up looking like the local tip occasionally...

Hopefully it will stay this way until Seth's birthday party this weekend. I may just have to put a lock on the door and ban them.

Cheers, Lis.