Josiah & David's Room {Bringing Order from Chaos}

One night, I had had enough.  E-N-O-U-G-H, I tell you!  

The constant state of messiness in Josiah and David's room was driving me NUTS, and I knew it was bothering them, too.  After all, who wants to live in a room that has so much clutter on the floor that you can't even find a clear spot to set up a game or create a battle scene with LEGOs?  And who wants to have such a mess in the bottom of your closet that you literally can't find two shoes that match because there's a huge heap of STUFF that doesn't belong there and when you dive in to find some shoes, all you come up with is one flip-flop and one croc, and you have to leave in two minutes to go somewhere and WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?  And who wants to grab a pair of pants to pull on in the chilly fall morning, but then discover that they're an inch too short...and then pull out another pair, only to discover, when you put them on, that they're two inches too short?  And who wants to have to pay a fine at the library because you've lost one of their books, which you find months later stuck between the bedroom wall and the back of the dresser?  (True stories, all!)

The mess had gotten so bad that I knew it was truly beyond the ability of Josiah and David to clean up.  There was simply too much stuff, so the old adage, "A place for everything, and everything in its place," couldn't possibly work.  The boys needed my help to get rid of lots of items and then figure out where the remaining ones could go.  The hope then was that the work of maintaining a clean, organized bedroom could be done by them (and, I'm happy to report, even though I'm skipping ahead in the story to do so, they have for about a week so far!).  :)

Late one night, I couldn't stand it any longer, so I threw my to-do list with its numerous jobs into the fireplace and focused on only one task: cleaning up their room.  Here was the state of their room at that time:

Even though I knew it was a MAJOR project we were undertaking, I decided to go ahead and make it even bigger by moving the beds while we were at it.  Josiah, David, and I managed to unbunk (debunk?) their beds while Jeff was gone at work; and the boys were so eager that evening to show him what we had accomplished.  :)  Even though moving the furniture meant more work, it actually gave me MUCH more enthusiasm for the project.  Why?  Well, just because it's fun to change the furniture around!  :)

The boys and I did a little of the work that night, but then devoted most of the following day to our project...and when I say "most of the day," I mean we even skipped doing our regular school work so that every minute Moriah was in bed, I could be working in Josiah and David's room.  You can imagine that when I asked Josiah and David if it was OK with them if we didn't have school that day so that I could help them with their room, they were quite enthusiastic in their shouts of joy!  :)

One thing I want to remember from that clean-up day is that as lunchtime approached, I was making good progress in their room and didn't want to stop my work; but I knew the boys would be hungry soon and would need some lunch.  I decided to ask Josiah to take charge of lunch, assisted by David.  The boys have helped me with various food preparation tasks before, of course; but this was the first time Josiah was in charge, and do you know what?  He loved it!!  :)  Both he and David did a super job of getting out food--peanut butter and jelly sandwiches was the main dish--and meeting the needs of their younger brothers, and they did it with such a great attitude.  It warmed my heart to hear them work cheerfully in the kitchen while I was upstairs working just as cheerfully in their bedroom.  It also made me laugh a little when they sat down to eat and realized they needed to pray.  They started to say the Lord's Prayer together, but couldn't quite remember the words; I wish I would have written down what they came up with because it was really cute.  But then after they fumbled through that, one of them--Josiah, I believe--prayed a regular prayer, and then they happily gobbled up their brother-prepared lunches.  I'm thinking I need to put Josiah and David in charge of lunches more often!  :)

Most of the work was accomplished in the first twenty-four hours after my original video, but there were a few tasks that I ended up finishing a day or two after that.  In the end, however, the room--the entire room--every nook and cranny of it (except a little storage closet that opens from their room and leads up to the attic and holds luggage and other random items)--was clean, neat, and organized.

I'm not sure who was more delighted with it: Josiah, David, or me!  :)

Today--a week after our project--I snapped some pictures of their room which is, happily, still neat and organized.  :)

One thing I did to help keep it neat was to eliminate everything under their beds except one storage box under each one.  The one under David's bed holds LEGOs, and the one under Josiah's has weapons.  (Yes, in a household that includes four boys, you need a weapons box.)  :)  One homemaking tip I've learned is that even if you HAVE space, you don't have to FILL it; and under their beds is a perfect example of this.  With just one storage box each, it's super simple to figure out what goes where--and get it there!

You would not believe the amount of stress that has been taken off my shoulders, knowing that the clothes in the dresser and in the closet actually fit Josiah and David!  I used to dread them calling down to me in the morning, "Mom, I can't find my choir t-shirt.  Do you know where it is?" or "All I have to wear is shorts, but it's too cold.  Where are my pants?" or "I can't find any clean underwear!"  Now I get far fewer calls like that.  (Well, maybe I still hear the underwear one, but that's usually because they haven't emptied their laundry bins yet.)  ;-)

The night we began the project, David was feeling a little troubled by the thought of me getting rid of a lot of his stuff!  He is a packrat, just like I was when I was his age, and he was nervous that I would throw out something (or a lot of somethings!) that were really important to him.  We had a big talk about it that night, and I tried to find the balance of reassuring him that I wasn't going to throw away all his precious stuff while also challenging him that he needed to throw away some of his precious stuff!  :)  The next day as we were working together, I was so proud of him because he really did a great job of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, and he narrowed down his possessions even more than I thought he would.

The main reason we arranged the room in such an odd way with the beds positioned this way is all because of this:

Those square feet of empty floor space, blocked by the beds so that Moriah can't get into them, are prize real estate!  Great battles have been fought there already.  Creative building projects have been started.  LEGOs have flown through various galaxies.  It's absolutely amazing what happens when you have clear space!

Let me repeat that last line:  it's absolutely amazing what happens when you have clear space.

I am as happy as can be that, at the current time, Josiah and David's room is an example of that; and I am going to try my hardest to keep it that way!!  :)