Out of the mouths of babes...

Some friends hate to throw things away, others have bought larger houses to accommodate all their stuff. Sometimes we chat about what I do and occasionally their children overhear. I loved this story from a particularly cluttered home…

My friend’s youngest daughter spent all day refusing to come out of her room. Her sisters were allowed in provided they said nothing about what was going on to their parents who were bemused but left the girls to it, after all, it was shaping up to be an unusually restful Sunday and a snooze on the sofa was welcome.

At the end of the afternoon, my friends were invited to a ‘ceremonial opening’. Their youngest daughter revealed a room even Marie Kondo would be impressed by. 

The toy box was neat, wardrobe exemplary, clothes folded and dresses and colour coordinated for ease of choice, there were considerably fewer books and soft toys and storage was uncharacteristically tidy. 

The floor, (normally a minefield of lego pieces, plastic animals and beads) was completely clear. 

Even the high cupboards had been accessed, somewhat perilously, by the tallest sister who had balanced on a chest of drawers and emptied the outgrown toys and books.

My friend said she and her husband were flabbergasted. They asked the little girl why she had done this. 

She replied in a very grown up voice “All that stuff hurt my thinking head” She tapped her forehead and continued, “and Suzanne says when one person starts clearing clutter, families join in, so we got it started for you.”

I’m told her parents only stopped laughing when they found the missing clutter stacked neatly on their own bed…