Clean your room

I try to have my kids pick up their rooms regularly - when they whine and moan about it I tell them that the reason they have to do it every day is that I don't want them to have to do what I did when I was little- wait until my room was so messy you literally had to wade through the piles, and then have to spend an entire day sitting around trying to figure out HOW I was going to tackle that insurmountable job and procrastinating even more in discouragement until I finally got in big trouble. My friend Bobbie down the block had a playroom that was even worse and every time her mom would say you can't play until your room is clean so she would rope me into "cleaning" with her and we'd basically do the same thing - procrastinate and end up playing with her Barbie mansion working around the waist deep piles of toys until we got in trouble or I had to go home.

So anyhow, I try to have them do "room checks" most days. Even so, in the fall when they go back to school I spend the first week doing "fall cleaning" to purge out their rooms and declutter/reorganize. Also go through clothes to switch out for fall and find out what gaps need to be filled. It's taken me s few weeks this time as its been so busy and Sam has that 11:00 pickup every morning. But here is our progress and also the method I teach the kids for how to clean their rooms- broken down in steps and posted in their room to refer to. The one in the photo is pretty old- it has Barbies and dress ups as an example for Barbara- I think nowadays it would be craft supplies, drawing and art stuff, and sewing stuff!

Robbie and I received some awesome gifts from our family for our birthdays- check out the beautiful planters for the front porch, and the placemats for our dining room table from my parents! I am a smitten with the Shop-Vac from my aunt & uncle and brother and sister-in-law! I guess I am weirdly obsessed with vacuums, but I have always wanted a shop Vac and it works so great! I am planning to vacuum out my car- yay no more 75 cents at the car wash place- and today I used it for along the walls of the kids room, and t worked so well in the bathroom! Is that a weird place to use a shopvac? I thought it was a great idea!

Well these photos are all out of order and it's too hard to mess with them. That's what I get for posting them from my phone.