and they all lived happily ever after

really, i hate to be one of those people who announces when they've cleaned their house.  to me, that would be like you telling me you showered today or brushed your teeth.  i always want to reply, "is this so rare  an occasion it's worthy of an announcement?" 

look at me now, i'm one of those people.  sort of.  only partially because 90% of the time, 90% of my house is clean and i don't announce it to anyone (well, maybe to my mom but only because she always says "what'd you do today?" and i tell her.  the other 10% of my house is not clean 90% of the time. 

this would be our basement family room. these kids are pigs, i tell ya!

not only have they graffitied their "toy room" which is also the tv room, they also somehow manage to get past the "one toy at a time" rule over and over again. see ....

this was what i really tackled this morning.  the first picture i posted earlier did not do this mess justice.  i had to reshoot the scene.

it's as if they take a pile of toys into their hands and then spin around in circles letting things go at random just to see where they will land.  honestly, this is probably not far from the truth and would explain the serious dents and dings in all the walls.

and then ... they're like, "oh, i can't find that one tiny sword so i'm going to dump every box out and spread everything around and then i will become so distracted by the process of looking for that one tiny sword that i will forget what i was looking for in the first place.  oh well, lets go upstairs and destroy another room."

yes, the chairs are graffitied and so is the barbie house.  don't judge.

see the padlock on the closet door? 

that's right, we have a padlock on the closet because they have SO MANY toys and what you see here is only a teeny tiny fraction.  

this is when the one toy at a time rule began.  the day we bought the padlock for the closet.  i'd had enough trying to get them to help me clean huge messes.  usually, it works (the padlock).  i have to say.  i'm probably being a little bit dramatic because our basement doesn't really look like this all the time but this time was so impressive, i felt it necessary to share.  for weeks i've been stepping over it.  closing my eyes as i walk through to get back to the office for a run.  but, ignoring the mess will only work for so long.  we'd reached the point when the kids didn't want to go down there at all and that is just not okay.  i need them to want to go down there.

what does that tell you about me?  

so, today i spent the entire day cleaning that space.

what does your toy closet look like?

this is ours.  both sides are lined with shelves too which are also stacked with bins full of toys, toys and more toys.  it's organized, despite how it looks.

sigh.

it was so nice for a minute.  they couldn't wait to get down there and start all over again.

'tis my life.  oh well.  i'll enjoy it while it lasts.

*****