I have long suspected

Saturday, during the mammoth bed moving adventure, I was fully convinced of something I've suspected for a long time. My daughter is a pack rat of the highest degree. She's like one of those people on the BBC's How Clean is Your House? with a house packed to the gills with newspapers & bread ties & cat litter. I've tried cleaning out her room a few times, but she's so insistent that things are "special" that it's hard to toss anything without her melting down about it.



Husband pulled out her big mattress & box springs & started to break down the bed frame while I tackled the mess that was living under her bed. There were Barbie shoes & odd bits from her tea set that have been missing for months. There were old sneakers & empty shoe boxes. There were hair barrettes & seed bead bracelets. And there was no less than 2 cups of dust accumulated in the carpet.



Normally I would have her come in & put things away where she wants them to live, but Saturday I did not have the patience to keep 2 year old Kleenex boxes because Miley Cyrus happens to be printed on the side. I started tossing. An old clock radio that doesn't work any more. A fifty cent wicker basket from last Easter that BabyGirl rescued from the trash when I threw it out 3 weeks ago. A Hannah Montana dish set box with the front plastic torn out. An empty shoe box with a smashed lid. An old decorative box that's been smushed beyond repair. Coloring books that have been half filled out & badly water damaged. Shoes with no mates. Unraveled hair ribbons. This list could go on & on....I filled an entire trash can with "special" stuff from my daughter's room. I had to sneak it out the back door when she was busy playing on the new bunk beds & am hoping she doesn't notice what's missing (I don't see how she could, but #1 Son once asked to play with a Spongebob toy I'd given away 18 months prior that he'd never played with in the first place).



With Bitsy officially sharing a room with her big sister, I'm hoping the clutter will stay to a minimum. BabyGirl cannot keep every piece of odd pea gravel she stumbles upon. She has plastic totes to keep her Barbies, My Little Pony's, Strawberry Shortcakes dolls, and odd little things every kid has. Now I have to convince her that if the "special" item does not fit in one of these boxes, it cannot stay. The threat of Bitsy demolishing things is enough to keep them picked up...at least thus far.



Next time we have to clean out her room, I'm calling Kim & Aggie.