Cleaning Day, Try Two

Our house stays relatively clean, but it does become out of whack after a while with what feels like four children home for the summer given all the mess that seems to accumulate.   They aren't that messy, but forts, slime making extravaganzas on the porch and spending time with friends in the garage when it's raining and inside not being an option, and things just get out of hand after a while. 

My daughter isn't that messy and does try to clean things up, but some things are a little out of her league and would be highly frustrating to her to clean on her own.  The garage slowly became a mess after weeks of hangouts in there with the garage door open.   They had done beadwork, making bracelets and necklaces and beads had rolled places in the large space that is the garage. 

There were food wrappers—which should have been put in the trash can beside the area there, but somehow, children being children, they didn't make it.   Water bottles had been left at our house as had shoes and socks around the trampoline, something I still don't understand.   We have had upwards of ten pairs of shoes at times in varying sizes and the children must keep coming over with other pairs.   

So today, while my daughter and her friends were taking ropes and hanging them in the tree in the front yard to create makeshift seats, I swept all the debris up into a pile, put the trash in the trash, the recycling in the recycling, and made five times the available space just from getting things out of the way.  

That was only one area.   The children did some of the work and tomorrow they will have more work to do.   They are grumbly about this and I tend to get frustrated and lose my temper when I tell them that they expect me to clean up after them?  Is that what their expectation is?  Because if that's what they think, they have another think coming. 

The day ended with a massive pile of things covering the breakfast nook table.  Tomorrow that will all go away with their help and then they have to clean their rooms.  They're going to love that. 

The Big Boy Update:  I caught my son's friends standing in the basement today with the door wide open—in close to ninety-degree, high humid weather.   They ran out when they saw me.   They were back in just a few short minutes later.   They have been banned from using that door now. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was outside in her pajamas all day today, despite being told to put on clothes multiple times by both her father and me.  Then, tonight she tried to go to sleep in those same, now dirty pajamas.   She was told if she went outside with pajamas on again, she would be taking them off and would be left outside with no clothes on.  So I sure hope she remembered to put on clothes tomorrow. I think she will from the gasp of horror she emitted when she heard the not idle threat.