ALL AND ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!! PLEASE PLEASE!
This flashback is a little different and that's because today I am in the midst of the girl's room and I have come to the point after working for an hour that I just want to BLOW IT UP!!! I have struggled for YEARS with this issue! Neither of my girls have ANY desire to keep their room clean, they share a room, and while it isn't ideal, it is what it is! As parents we have tried just about EVERYTHING, reward programs, taking it all away and making them earn it back, taking it away and donating it to charity, moving, throwing it away, bribery, you name it and most likely we have done it! Now some of them have worked better than others but every time it will last at the most for a few weeks and then they revert right back!!
Of course if you ask the girls, Lexi will say "It's all Grace!" and Grace will say "Well, Lexi has to help me clean it!" I have bought every kind of organization bin, bucket, basket, imaginable and spent HOURS organizing it and then giving them a tour of their room showing them where everything goes and NOTHING!! It usually comes down to me or Jimmy telling them they have 20 min to get it picked up or it is all going in the trash to motivate them! I have on my hands two pack rats, who want to save EVERY paper, McDonald's toy, stuffed animal, Barbie, Polly Pocket, tea set, jump rope, puzzle, baby doll, they have EVER HAD!! Alexis is so bad that she can tell you where each and every item came from, who gave it to her, and how old she was when she got it! If I want to OVERHAUL the room I have to wait until neither of them are within 5 miles of the house, or they will prevent me from getting rid of anything! I have used the angle of "We are going to take these to children who don't have anything.", then I have had them come with me to drop it off at the donation center and still here I am pulling my hair out as I sort, bag, trash, donate, put away, fold my way through their room!! PLEASE HELP! PLEASE! I really could use some new ideas, support, wisdom on the subject!
Oh and one other issue, Lexi is perhaps the worst at shoving, hiding, and disguising where she puts things. I will hand her three shirts on hangers and tell her to hang them up and I will find them a week later shoved under her bed, in a drawer, or as of late, the bottom of her dirty clothes hamper!!!!! ARGH!!!!! That girl!!
Now just a low down on space that is available for their crap!
Their room
One Closet
Under their beds
One 5 drawer dresser
One toy chest
Millions of bins, baskets, buckets
One book case
Oh and just for the record, I still love them!! :P
