The Things You Find (Part Two)

I spent hours upstairs with Elly yesterday, cleaning out her disaster zone of a room. I’ve cleaned a lot of kids rooms in my day but never have I seen one quite like this… it’s not so much that it was the worst (that honor still goes to Michelle Belle, I think) but I was constantly surprised by the things I found. I was also just surprised by Elly and the cleaning of her room. That’s even more unusual — me being surprised by a kid. Huh.

She is the kid who is most uncomfortable with throwing things away or giving them away or selling them. She needs to hold onto her things. She was terrified (and not just pretending to be) that I was going to throw away something important or special (and it was all important or special) while she wasn’t looking. Or while she was looking.

I’m not really that kind of parent, so we made it through the job with only a few hysterical moments (none of which dissolved into tears — see, nobody ever cries around here. It’s so weird, lol.)

I didn’t throw away the bug carcasses in her Disney princess jewelry box/cd player.

I did not throw away any of the plastic shopping bags.

I did not throw away any of her stuffed animals (they’re just to look at!!!!)

I did not throw away anything that would have caused her anxiety, though it was touch and go for awhile when I wanted to throw out an almost completely unused French workbook from 6th grade. (She does not TAKE French any longer and has no plans to do so again, lol.)

I did throw away her hat boxes and several hats, but she couldn’t argue with that since they were horribly mildewed and more disgusting than pretty much anything I’ve ever seen in a kids’ bedroom.

I also didn’t REALLY mess up any of her special “displays” though I very much wanted to.

I did, accidentally, mess up the erasure pigs’ home. I had no idea the empty Mr. Potato Head box was housing pigs — and by that time, we’d been up there for hours and I was very, very tired of being up there. Oops. I’m sure the pigs are just as happy (almost?) living in a decoupage baby food jar.