Are We Organized Yet?

Me: "Dylan, please go tidy your room."

Dylan: "Okay Mom." Footsteps hopping up the stairs.

A few minutes pass...

Dylan: "Okay, room's clean." A smile of great accomplishment is spread across his face.

I go upstairs. Hmmm...he was in here for long enough to get something done and he seems to be excited about his good job but it doesn't look like he's done anything. It's a disaster! (I can't believe I never thought to take pictures.)

Instead of bringing him back to fix it, I sat on his bed for awhile, thinking. It seems as if my 6-year-old boy and I have different ideas on what 'clean' or 'tidy' means. Go figure. Dylan is a packrat and likes to display his junk treasures. These treasures include price tags from new clothing, tissues from a bloody nose, feathers that come out of his pillow. Really.

I decided to make a compromise. He could keep his treasures (all the hygenic ones), but they had to be put out of sight. We have a storage unit with bins. Everything could be put into those. We also talked about me taking pictures of his room the way I thought it looked clean. I will print them and he can keep them in his room. When I ask him to tidy his room, he can look at his pictures for examples of what is acceptable to be on the floor, on the headboard, in the closet and on the storage unit. Everything else needs to be out of sight.

Finally, we decided that when he was asked to tidy his room, things that were left laying out would be put into a bin for a 'timeout'. He said that he liked the look of his room when it was all clean. This is a good start!