Monday, April 25, 2011

(Spring) Cleaning

There is no spring in Ecuador. Here on the equator there are no "real" seasons. But, it must be in my blood, April rolls around and I feel like cleaning!

A couple of weeks back now, I decided that we needed to do something about Nicolas's room. We got the loft put in (still waiting for the carpenter to come and fix the upper railing) and we moved most of the toys in there, but it was always looking like a mess, and there were a lot of toys that really just needed to go. In terms of toys, I've noticed (with my boys, at least) that less is more. YET, they will not throw or give away one single thing, which means we even have teething rings lying around, in anticipation of being played with.


(In all fairness, every time I think I will throw some toy away, the very next day, or even hour, I will spot one of the kids playing with it. So, I am always a little hesitant as well. I've also had those "Mommy, where is that ______ toy?" moments. *Gulp.* I can't say "in the trash" without causing a flood of tears.)


So, a couple of weeks ago, a night the kids went to bed early, I decided to go through their things and get rid of some of these excess toys. It took me hours of separating and throwing, and I couldn't walk for a couple of days afterwards (great exercise for the back and legs!), but the next day the kids actually took out some of their toys and got real excited to play with them.

It just goes to show that a little organization can actually spark a lot of creativity.


1 comment:

Amy Elizabeth said...

This reminds me of Hannah's comment the other day when she came out (all proud) of her room
"Mom, I cleaned my room."
"Hannah, you should go get your slippers."
"Get my slippers? Ok."
gets them and then comes back out
"It's easy to find things when my room is so clean!"