Cleaning The Boys Room

We try to establish good routines for home care around here. Things like making beds, putting away clothes and generally keeping rooms clean. However for a couple of my younger kids, keeping your room clean can involve stuffing everything in the closet until the day that I come in there, say something like, "What a pigpen, this is disgusting," and start yanking everything out of the closet (I will talk about kind words in a future post.)

This week we had one of those days. The floor had been kept tidy, but the boy's special bins kept getting fuller and fuller until the lid could not be kept on. Add to that the clothes stuffed into the corners of the closet and the shelf which was now containing an assortment of things which needed to be put away.

We decided to get rid of some of the Pla-mobile. The boys helped me sort it so that we didn't have so many peices from broken or lost sets. We also made up a box for the two youngest who had wanted to play with some but were seldom allowed in the boys room. Sorting the Pla mobile allowed for some room in the drawers for the boys special stuff which helped us get rid of the special boxes which were supposed to go under the bed, but usually were halfway out with the lids off, an especial eyesore.
Halfway through the cleaning process, we noticed an awful smell. Boys being boys, I thought one of them had created the smell. Well, one had, jut not in the way I had imagined. My budding scientist had found an intriguing looking birds egg which he had brought in and put in one of the drawers. Of course with everything smashed into the drawer, it had gotten smashed as well. Rotten egg smell added to unwashed sock smell, is a real eye burner, but we got the window open and a candle lit which cleared out the smell quickly.

During the whole process the boys were so excited. "This is awesome" and "You are the best mom" were a couple comments I heard. I made them work on it with me, as well as bringing in the two youngest to help sort toys and be close to me. Even in the midst of stinky chaos, I love being with my kids.

For more ideas on organizing kids rooms, click here