Toddler Tidy-up

Keeping my house clean / picked up while taking care of a young child is difficult to say the least. I have never been a very tidy person to begin with. I am not dirty; just very cluttered.

When Adrianna was a baby, keeping the house neat fell to the backburner. Basically, my days were spent nursing the baby, feeding the baby, changing the baby’s diapers, and napping while she napped to make up for lost hours of sleep during the night. Any “free” time was spent doing baby’s laundry and, if I was lucky, getting a shower for myself! There just wasn’t any time for cleaning.

Now that Adrianna is older and more active, cleaning up my house has different hindrances. Keeping the baby in sight, out of trouble, and entertained. So, in order to clean up my kitchen or cook dinner, my cupboard of tupperware is explored and emptied by busy little hands. In order to clean up Adrianna’s room or put her laundry away, her dresser drawers are compromised and emptied. If I want to brush my teeth or my hair or freshen up in my bathroom, I am prepared for a few child-safe drawers in the vanity to be promptly emptied of their contents. For every one or two steps I take forward in tidying up, Adrianna “helps” me take one step back.

Empyting seems to be Adrianna’s favorite pastime. Although lately she has also added “putting things away” to her repertoire. It is just too bad that it is never the correct things. As I was putting her laundry back into her dresser drawers, (the same drawers she had just emptied), I noticed that there were additional objects in the drawers in place of the clothing. A bottle of water, a pacifier, and two rubber duckies. Her trash can, previously empty, contained a pacifier and her swimsuit’s bikini top.

I resolved to give her the bottom of her dresser drawers for her little toys and whatever else she decides belongs there. Hopefully she will leave me the top two, but I am not holding my breath.