A Victory

Perhaps you remember this:

And this:

And (heaven forbid) THIS:

From back in December when I bravely set aside my pride and showed the world my Achilles' heel.

Well, would you like to see what it looks like today?

I know you would.

Or at least, I would like you to see it.

[Okay, so the pantry and craft supplies was MY disorganized mess, but I fixed it.

I promise it's way better than it looks from here.] 

I know what you're thinking.

"Hm, nice. You finally took an entire weekend and cleaned that disaster of a basement.

I bet it was a ridiculously enormous amount of work and will last you less than a week before it's back to what it looked like before."

But WAIT!

What if I told you that is has looked like this every day for the past MONTH?

You heard me.

My girls' bedroom is even cleaner, but I can't take pictures because they are sleeping.

I know it may not be up to your amazing standards of "clean," but I will add that I did ZERO touching up before snapping these pictures. This is exactly how my kids left it when they went to bed tonight. In the past, I would have never DREAMED of doing such a thing.

This is the part where you gratify me by raving, "How do you do it, O wondrous supermom? How did you keep this space in a state where at least the carpet is exposed for an entire month?"

Oh, I just pulled a Mary Poppins and snapped my fingers, and everything magically flew into its place!

Just kidding, but I WISH!

Oh, how I wish.

But seriously, you will be surprised by the simplicity of the answer.

It was these guys:

[These two are cousins.]

The Scary Green Dragon and the Scary Purple Dragon

[By the way, my husband and I are undiscovered artists.

We're thinking of launching our own private collection.]

So I know this is not a new idea for anyone, and we've been floundering with variations since our kids have been alive. We've had some success with a plain garbage sack, and not very much success with an imaginary dragon, who will hypothetically eat anything they leave on the floor at night, but it wasn't until I read my friend Anie's introduction to her own newcomer, Mr. Gunny that suddenly, it clicked. I needed to combine the mythical creature (dragon) with the physical threat to their toys (garbage bag).

And the Scary Green Dragon was born.

Now, the obvious caveat was that I DID have to spend an entire weekend cleaning out that $%^& basement in the first place, and it was killer. But once it was done, I vowed that this would be the last time. It's always such discouraging work, because in the back of my mind is that nagging knowledge that all my work will be undone within a matter of days. I knew that the change had to by my own mindset - that old "Just leave it for now and I'll clean it up all at once when I get the time" kind of poison. THAT is a death sentence to anyone's organizational hopes or plans. I knew we had to do it as we went, every day, and I'd have to be on top of the kids to get them into the habit.

The Scary Green Dragon lives upstairs and is in charge of the girls' room. He gobbles up anything he finds out of place, and then he returns everything on Saturday, when they have to immediately put it all away. Travis and I were so stunned by the results (the kids adored the dragon and would scramble to clean up their room in seconds flat, while Travis and I stood by staring with our mouths open) that we invited his cousin, the Scary Purple Dragon, to live in the basement. I was skeptical about the potential for this small solution for such a large scale problem. But like I said, the results were astonishing. The kids are somehow motivated to clean, and honestly it usually takes around 5 minutes. When it gets REALLY bad (like today) - that point where before, I would have sighed wearily and sent everyone to bed with a mumbled "we'll just clean it tomorrow" - if I buckle down and announce the dragon's impending arrival, they still get it done in record time. Today it was a HUGE mess, but still they cleaned it in under 15 minutes. It's so amazing.

After the first couple of days, I'd watch them clean in a rush, and then they'd ask about the dragon, and I said, "Well, the dragon doesn't need to come tonight! It's so clean in here! Good job!" and they threw a fit! I was so confused! But then I realized that it was the dramatic ravenous storming in of the dragon that they loved. They love watching him tear around the room with a terrifying roar searching for "food," only to be disappointed when the room is clean and he has to go away hungry. Then the kids yell triumphantly after him, "HA! Take THAT, Scary Green Dragon! Not today!!!" And they especially love when the dragon accidentally tries to eat THEM because he thinks they might be yummy toys, and then acts all confused and disappointed to find they are humans.

Who knew? Kids are so funny.

I sure do adore them though.

And their green and purple dragon friends.

Mom - 1, Big Gigantic Mess in my House - 0