locked out...

my youngest son, who will be four in a few weeks is a very laid back little boy! he is full of life and just loves having fun. jesiah is very careless and so messy! he is the type of kid that makes the biggest mess with his toys. he likes to get out all of his toys and play. there are toys strewn every where, his room, his sisters' room, down the hallway, into the bathroom, living room and kitchen. i am not exaggerating. i can not walk into a room and not see a trace of him.

as for me, i can not stand mess and disorganization. so jesiah's "style" and mine haven't been lining up. a few days ago, i was exhausted and stressed out from the mess, so we decided to lock his closet door. we keep all of the boys' toys in their closet. on monday, i spent the day cleaning their room - it was nasty! i moved furniture and found all kinds of small pieces of toys and trash. it was a mess. i organized the toys into the correct bins and put them all into the closet. there are no toys in the room. now when jesiah wants to play with his toys, he has to ask to have the closet unlocked and get out his toys. this means that before he can get out something new, he has to put away whatever he was playing with.

i know this sounds a little, ok a lot controlling. but it has helped keep my sanity! and jesiah is learning to clean up and put away much better. before he would complain about cleaning up because the mess was HUGE. now it is manageable.

the bonus is that by the time jaelyn is crawling around and putting things in her mouth, i can ensure that the house is safe for her. there are so many small pieces to the big kids' toys and they have to learn not to have those pieces near her.

this has saved my sanity this week!