Organized Chaos

As I get older, I find myself craving order. I used to be able to live out of laundry baskets and have piles of clutter scattered about in such a way that I insisted I still knew where everything was. I still have my little stashes, but now they're in Rubbermaid bins. So that's completely different.

If the house gets messy, I can feel my stress levels elevating. Having three little tornadoes running around doesn't help. They can absolutely destroy a room in less than five minutes. What is it about kids wanting to dump things out? It doesn't help that when I get really stressed about their messes, I insist on doing the cleaning myself. I really, really try to get them involved, and usually I do, but when I come across a hopeless mess or I want to do a very thorough cleaning, I distract them with a movie or coloring at the table or eating (they're always good for eating), while I go at it.

One of their favorite things to do is take an empty backpack or basket and just fill it up with crap. Naked Barbie dolls, dead cell phones, random puzzle pieces, chapstick, books, etc. They fill them up and then walk around with them. Sometimes they pretend they're shopping, or going on a trip, or going to school (because really, who goes to school without their naked Barbie doll?). In fact, my girls have absolutely no interest in Barbie dolls other than the fact that they make great filler for their piles of junk.

It's gotten to the point that all bags, backpacks, baskets, etc. are off limits and stored where the girls can't reach. Which doesn't really work because then they just empty baskets that really are supposed to hold stuff (like legos, puppets, hats, etc.) and fill them with their crap and later on I find a lonely pile of Mr. Potato Head parts and the basket which they belong in filled with silly bands, a dress-up shoe, a ZuZu Pet, and one dirty sock.

I'm tempted to just start putting the piles of junk in Rubbermaid bins and wait until they notice that they have no toys left. Think it will work?