My daughter has been pretty sick for the past year, so I thought I would do something to lift her spirits, or perhaps it was mine that needed lifting.
Since I was raised to do spring cleaning yearly, I decided to start with her room, and a facelift to her space may brighten her days.
Everything in her room needed to be moved and washed down, and we decided to paint her walls a bright cheery colour. My way of thinking was that this project would take a couple of days to complete. A day for painting and another day or two to organize.
I had no idea that one person could house so many things in her bedroom. She feels all of her belongings need to be in there.
We were going to tackle her closet first, regardless of how bad it could be, until I started to remove the clothing store from the shelves.
This closet took me two days to complete. She has enough clothes for a month and wouldn't have to wear the same thing twice. I am not sure why I see her wearing the same shirts week after week and this created a lot of conversation.
Another thing she loves is tools, and has a large tool box which has wheels. I thought this tool box held crafts, but no, it was filled with screwdrivers, drills, hammers, socket sets and fasteners. This would explain where some of the tools from the shop went.
It took some convincing to bring the tools to the back room and return the others to the shop, leaving her with a few for her room. This too brought up an enjoyable conversation.
Painting the walls was easy. Collecting her cherished bear ornaments was not. They were running wild in her room, and they were in every little corner.
She has 102 of them, with only one set being a double. I had no idea those little bears could take so much space.
A shelf was put up around the top of her room to house all these little bears, and they now had a home that contained them until fall when fall cleaning is done. This, we thought, was an excellent plan.
The dressers are another story. They held all her crafts, and she had containers of beads in the drawers. I am sure she has enough beads to go around the world. She does make genuinely nice bracelets, but I am fairly sure she could make a bracelet for all the people of Saskatchewan.
A popular fad right now is diamond art. Well, she has so many of these that a wall could be filled with sparkly pictures. I could have saved some time on painting.
As we progressed to the other dresser, it was filled with colouring books, markers, pencil crayons and books. Needless to say, the drawers were cleaned, and everything was returned in an organized fashion as she loves it all.
Who am I to tell her she cannot have these things? She does not drink, smoke, or do drugs. She does not stay out late or hang out downtown.
During this time, we talked about everything and how life has changed, what we could do to make things better and what she wanted to see this year.
This task took me over a week to finish. I did not care as this was making memories and it gave us a chance to do something different.
I do not usually clean her room, but I do know she struggles at times keeping it neat, so why not help?
She loves her lavender room, and tells everyone about it and how we made it a neat room. These are the memories that we can all make.
As a parent, do not let your child get overwhelmed with cleaning their room. Step up and help them. You might be surprised with what kind of conversations you have, and it just might be the talk your kid needed.
