Wednesday, July 22, 2015

I am so excited to report on the little summer experiment that has been underway at our house, and report what a blessing it has been to our whole family!

I decided in June that we had way too much stuff around the house that I was expecting the children to keep clean and organized.  More clothing than we needed, too many dishes and cups, and too many toys!

So, first I boxed up toys and put them away in the attic, being especially careful not to have too many toy items down at a time that have many small pieces, like Legos. I also got rid of a lot of battery powered toys that don't hold the kids attention for very long anyway, and end up annoying me anyway! Toys like wooden blocks, a wooden train set, and matchbox cars are being rotated, so they don't lose interest in them, and then they don't have the raw materials all out at once that are needed to make a huge, jumbled mess! When I bring a "new: box of toys down from the attic that they haven't seen in a month or two, they feel like it's Christmas!

Then, I put away extra cups, plates and bowls, leaving only one for each child. This makes it so there is literally only one dishwasher load of dishes available to dirty in the kitchen!

Finally, I allowed two pairs of short, three shirts, one set of pajamas, and one swim short and shirt for each child.

What has occurred over the last few weeks, has been nothing short of amazing! Now, I am sure some of you are light-years ahead of me, and have never allowed excess child paraphernalia to accumulate in your home! I salute you! For myself, however, I had allowed stuff to start stealing my joy! Stuff was causing my frustration over messes that were overwhelming for even me to clean up, much less my children!