Sunday, August 07, 2011

Random Thoughts and Musings About Cleaning My Son's Room

It's an annual event. My children go away to sleep away camp and I get to clean their rooms. They looked forward to their event. I dread it. If my children learned to put things away when they are done with them, it wouldn't be a dreaded chore. I did my 13 year old's room first. It was pretty easy. He's neater than his 17 year old brother. Today I started that room. I'm not giving myself a lot of time to complete it because he'll be home in about 13 days. He even told me not to clean it up but how could I let my son come home to a condemned area?

I started by picking up the garbage. This kid, who's a pretty decent shooter in basketball, missed his garbage can. His floor was littered with wrappers, tags from clothing, pieces of paper and money! I found $2.56 so far! I found water bottles, seltzer bottles, clothes all over the place. I also found things that cracked me up and I will not list them so I don't embarrass my son.

Shadow, the wonder poodle, had the best time in that room. I watched him come in, worried that he would pick something up, eat it and then die in front of me. He ran over to the bed and started to go under it. He was definitely after something. He slid back out with his red rubber bone! Oh the joy on my pup's face. But wait! There's more! I went under the bed and found his squeaky dumbbell. Some canine was having a great day! He grabbed that toy and squeaked his way to our bedroom. He was so happy. So was I.

After spending another 30 minutes in the room, I decided I had enough. I made a small dent. I could see carpeting where there once was garbage and clothes. The clothes were thrown on the bed. There were broken headphones and plastic hangars. Garbage! I've got a ways to go but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, was it?

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