so bubbie is our little trash collector. every piece of paper. every little container has a purpose to him. he needs to save little thing because he might could use it for a project. he is a builder. he has an incredible imagination. but his room is always a mess. i mean there is stuff everywhere. i go into a panic attack every time i walk in there. he tries to straighten up, but i really don't think he sees the mess. to him it makes sense. to me it makes me a little crazy.
these pictures are of his room in it's current state. this was after he cleaned up. yes really. i. can't. take. it. anymore. we had a come to Jesus moment this morning. when he gets home from camp i am going to attempt to help him actually clean the place up. i don't want to hound him. i hate being a nag, but really? it's a death trap. do you know what those tiny little legos feel like on your bear feet. it's enough to make a grown man cry.
does anyone else live with a junk collector? is he doomed to be on an episode of hoarders later on in life? we need help! what can i do to encourage him to take pride in his things and keep his room tidy? i don't need it to be white glove clean, i just want to be able to walk in there and not risk breaking a limb while trying to get him out of bed in the morning. be on the look out. i will post some after pics if i get a chance.
2 comments:
maybe try limiting what he is able to save. He might want to save every scrap of paper but he doesn't NEED to - give him one bin for all his papers and whatever doesn't fit has to be thrown out. If he doesn't have room for something new he finds then he needs to get rid of an old thing. We put all our Legos in a tupperware bin. In fact, we have tupperware bins for just about everything. I like those little green "dressers" in the closet - we have something similar for toys. Each boy (there are two) has his own drawer to keep whatever he wants as long as the drawer closes. The other drawers are categorized - toy animals, balls and stacking toys, cars. He might actually work well with organization - he'll be able to find what he needs when he needs it.
One more thing. We recently started a new system. If it's left on the floor at the end of the week it gets put in the closet for a week. We've hardly had anything left on the floor since the first time something got taken.
I'm a lifelong collector who is trying to purge extra clutter in a long ongoing effort. My room was a mess growing up, and I liked it that way. It felt more comfortable to me than my mother's neurotically-maintained house and it also served as a parent-repellant. It also irritated the heck out of my mom.
So, I caution you, don't push him too hard. Rebellious messiness can be a dangerous thing. Let him enjoy his newly-found organized stuff, make a rule that he puts back a toy/game/project before getting another one up, etc. Do a quick-clean time every day so it doesn't get out of control.
And if you step on something and it hurts your foot, confiscate it. He obviously doesn't care about it. Or maybe your husband doesn't crunch things like my dad did and husband does. Anything on the floor is at risk of being destroyed. (Unless it's in a corner messy enough that no one would dare walk there.)
Like Maggie said, give him a little area to have just as he wants. it is a good thing :)
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