we HAD to

This is what Aliyah's room looked like for over a week. And she had actually picked up a few things earlier in the day, so it was worse.


(Don't you love Kinsley peeking around the corner on the bottom right?)

She had been told over and over and over again to clean her room. She is 5 now and I'm tired of picking up her toys and cleaning her room for her. When one of us tells her to pick her room up, she instantly starts whining and crying and she suddenly becomes too ill or too tired. Funny how that works. We kept telling her that if she didn't pick her toys up that we would put them all in a tote and she would have to earn each one back by showing us that she can keep her room clean. I don't think she believed us. So Tuesday when she was at tumbling, Brandon and I got to work and put everything that you see on her floor in a tote and took it to the basement. We couldn't wait for her to get home and see her reaction when she saw this.


We expected a melt down. Sadly, we were wrong. When she walked in her room, she smiled at me and said "who cleaned my room? did you clean my room Mommy? Oh, I love you!" Ha!! She was HAPPY that I had cleaned her room! She did not even notice that all the toys on the floor were missing!!!!! So I broke the news to her that everything that was on the floor was now in a tote and she would have to earn them back. Her response was "ok" Then when I told her that some of her new toys that she had just got for her bday were in the tote, the melt down occured. It wasn't near as bad as I had thought it was going to be. I think the kid has WAY too many toys and we're going to be doing something about that in the next month.

She has some toys left in her room but she has been warned that if there are any toys left on her floor when she goes to bed, that they will be added to the tote. She picked them up last night and tonight.

I hated to do this but we had to do something. If we don't do something now, it will only get worse, right?