I woke up fed up. Usually not an auspicious sign for the day. The girls room was so disorganized that there was no room to walk, and I tripped and fell when I went to get Georgie from her crib. Now, the mess was the girls' fault, but the disorganized was ours. Their beds and dressers were in the middle of the room, and their toy chests were wedged in between because we were trying to keep the walls free and clear so that it would be easy to mud. I reached the conclusion during the deep hours of the night that if I waited around for the mudding to get done, well...you know the rest.

Since I was prone on the floor at this point, I decided to take a good look around and under the beds, and discovered toys and books and papers and hair clips and all sorts of things. I shooed the girls out of their room. This was no time to take a "teaching moment". I began the demolition. I sorted things into piles. I threw trash away. I vacuumed corners. I moved beds. I moved dressers. I moved toy boxes and desks. At the end of two hours, the room had shaped itself into a nice little play room with neatly stacked crates filled with all sorts of good things for the all the little girls on the other side of the wall. I also decided to have Kate and Reagan pick out 5 toys, 5 books and 5 stuffed animals that they would give to the Salvation Army. I figured if they couldn't keep their toys picked up, it meant that they had too many toys. They did a lot of soul searching and came up with the required loot. We'll see how long the clean room lasts, but at least it's organized.