Order! Can we please have some order in this apartment! Pick up the socks! Put away the toys! Mess makes me feel crazy and too much stuff makes me feel irritated at the very least.
I like things to be neat and tidy and prefer very minimal knick knacks or collections to accumulate in our small space. When Ben was wee it was easy to keep things in his bedroom up to my own personal expectations. Everything had its spot and each possession was carefully chosen and selected.
Natural wooden pull toys, soft cuddly bears, colourful bouncing balls. All together they were able to fit into one large bin. Clean and simple!
Then his 2nd and his 3rd birthday came and large toys were gifted to him. Our sweet Ben started to have real opinions on what prized possessions stayed in his room. That old plastic crap from McDonalds became a special toy that must stay!
Puzzles and games and random pieces of play dough all came to live in his bedroom. Soon there were collections of rocks, sticks and pinecones all put on display. The other day I had no energy to argue against the mess and so I temporarily gave in. Up went his Ikea tent and out came the sleeping bag and his various camping accessories and just like that a mess was disguised by a childhood memory.
Ben spent 3 nights sleeping in that tent before I could no longer stand the clutter and put it all away.
