If You Give a Mom a Chance...

...she might just clean out everything you own!

I have been feeling overwhelmed with our "stuff" lately.  As I've been telling my husband, I feel like our stuff is owning us instead of us owning our stuff.

And it is driving. me. batty.

I suddenly realized that I am hosting book club at our house next week, and today, when I looked around our house, all I saw was stuff, stuff, and more stuff.

And I lost it.

So I went on a tear to clean the house.  And clean out.

In the middle of telling E to "clean your room!  That does not mean HAVE A PICNIC with your doll!  Go clean your room!", I decided to escort her to her room (and possibly lock her in there) to show her what cleaning means...and that's when I really snapped.

And six hours later, she had half her clothes, half her books, half her toys, half her dolls, and half her stuffed animals left.

Not because she got in trouble, just because that's how much I decided needed to go.

I am proud of her.  There were only minimal tears - all about the clothes BTW, not the toys or stuffed animals.  I made her get rid of any dress that was above her knees, which happened to be all her favorite dresses.

I don't think it helped that I gave the clothes to her best friend who she has a little bit of sibling rivalry with (even though they aren't siblings).  She tried desperately to convince R's mom to leave the dresses behind, as I was offering to carry the bags out to the car for them.

Her room looks clean and lovely and uncluttered.  Is there any way to make it stay that way for a week?

Next up...the rest of the house...

Wish me luck.

And I still need to clean the house.