Literally just took a shovel to my son's stuff.

[cheermom1]

I can see why you would think that.... how many kids trash a sunporch! When his mess infringes on the rest of us.... it's time!

WOW the sunporch yep I would say it is beyond time..good luck...

 

[clovergirl5]

Good for you! In our house, if it's on the floor for more than a day, it must be trash.

Last year, I got sick of the way DD was treating her clothes. She'd get them off the floor to avoid having them thrown away, but they'd be in piles on the bathroom counter, or shoved onto closet shelves. The final straw was an expensive party dress got ruined from being left on a wet bathroom counter for days after she had changed her mind about wearing it.

While she was at school, I took away every single item of clothing she owned. What she wore to school that day is what she wore for the next two weeks. I made her stand in the laundry room wrapped in a towel every other night while she washed and dried her one outfit. After two weeks of taking care of that one outfit, she got one more outfit back. At the end of three weeks, she wrote me a detailed plan for how she was going to take care of her clothes from then on, and she got the rest back.

It's been almost 18 months and she's kept everything perfectly ever since. I just put the laundry basket of clean clothes in her room, and boy are they put away neatly and quickly! And nothing left crumpled or piled anymore

GREAT IDEA!! This might work for my 10 and 6 year olds!

 

[SeaShelley]

Good for you doll! I have to echo the rest when I say be careful! Don't want that new hip to get injured!

Keep it up!

 

[Mermaid02]

All Done!

 

[pweyl36]

I am going to be the voice of dissent here. I don't think you should throw his stuff away. The room may be clean, but he will remember this for a long and it may not be the way you want him remembering his childhood. Doing something like this can have a lasting impact on your relationship with your son.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a neat freak myself. But I have made the decision with my kids that it is "their" room and if they want it to be a disaster, then they can. Their rooms will be neat when they are gone. The rest of the house they do have to keep neat though. And I do make them "clean" their rooms on the weekend. Depending on the week, sometimes the rooms are better than others.

Really?! What kind of impact,because I did this to my ds who is 21yr and we have a very good relationship. And by the way I own every thing inclueding my house. My kids know if its laying around for to long it goes in the trash.

 

[kristilew]

I would have loved to see the look on her face when she realized she had no clothes...sometimes you have to drastic b4 they will get it in their little heads ...

The most priceless look was when she realized all her friends would see her in the same outfit more than one day in a row!

This does not seem to have done any lasting damage by the way. She came home from a friend's house a few weeks ago and told me that the friend's mama needs to "do some tough love on her closet!"

 

[LJC1861]

When I was in the 5th grade my mother asked me to clean my room....repeatedly. I kept ignoring her. She kept saying that we should clean our room...or she would.

One day we arrived home to find all our things that were on the floor in our room now deposited on the front lawn. It was drastic, but our room got cleaned that afternoon...of course not before all our friends ( who walked home from school on the same route) noticed what had been done.

It was very humiliating at the time, but also very effective as from that point on when Mom asked us to clean our room...it got done...as we KNEW she meant it when she said that she would clean it.

Linda

 

[themilesfamily]

OP, good for you!!

I grew up with a mother who was a hoarder and it was HORRIBLE to live in such a mess.

I don't think it's too much to ask a child or spouse to have some respect for communal living areas. And I support any and all drastic measures taken to make that happen!!

Sorry you had to do that post-op, though. That must have been awful.

 

[Silent1CB]

Action always speaks louder than words.

My Mom started doing this to my room once. I was right in there cleaning it up so she wouldn't throw out anything I wanted. I never let it get that bad again.

 

[vettechick99]

excellent idea liamsaunt!!

 

[Magic Mom]

I call it cleaning with a trash bag, and it only takes once for them to take you seriously from then on when you ask them to clean their room. DS warned DD years ago, and she hasn't tested me yet.

 

[Mermaid02]

BTW- he's home. Looked out at the sunporch and hasn't said a word..........

 

[RitaZ.]

BTW- he's home. Looked out at the sunporch and hasn't said a word..........

Well, there you go. The stuff must not have been important to him.

 

[Imzadi]

It's so wonderful to read a non-fragile "Snowflake" thread.

Good for you OP. Now, relax & celebrate.

 

[MaumeeMom]

Good for you! In our house, if it's on the floor for more than a day, it must be trash.

Last year, I got sick of the way DD was treating her clothes. She'd get them off the floor to avoid having them thrown away, but they'd be in piles on the bathroom counter, or shoved onto closet shelves. The final straw was an expensive party dress got ruined from being left on a wet bathroom counter for days after she had changed her mind about wearing it.

While she was at school, I took away every single item of clothing she owned. What she wore to school that day is what she wore for the next two weeks. I made her stand in the laundry room wrapped in a towel every other night while she washed and dried her one outfit. After two weeks of taking care of that one outfit, she got one more outfit back. At the end of three weeks, she wrote me a detailed plan for how she was going to take care of her clothes from then on, and she got the rest back.

It's been almost 18 months and she's kept everything perfectly ever since. I just put the laundry basket of clean clothes in her room, and boy are they put away neatly and quickly! And nothing left crumpled or piled anymore

Wow, that's harsh. I agree with OP shoveling up a mess of toys, especially if the kid had been warned but I really don't think that I would take all my DD's clothes away (if I had a DD that is). She must have been made fun of at school and it had to be humiliating to stand in the laundry room in a towel.

I am a strict parent but that is way further than I would go.

 

[C.Ann]

I did something similar when my kids were younger than your son.. Their bedrooms were always a mess - they could never find what they were looking for - so while they were in school one day I just boxed up all but the most necessary items.. (However, I didn't throw the things away.. I stored them in the garage until they earned them back..)

Years later - when my youngest DD was the only child left at home - I wasn't so fussy about her room - as long as there wasn't food or dirty dishes in there.. But the one thing that REALLY got my goat was that I would do her laundry, fold it, place it in a laundry basket for her, and then find 5 or 6 CLEAN outfits on the floor every single morning.. (She was going through that phase where she had to "try on" a half dozen things before she decided what she was actually going to wear on any given day..) That's when I stopped doing her laundry.. From that point on, if she wanted clean clothes (or clothes that hadn't been lying in a heap on the floor), it was up to her to get the job done.. After that, there were far fewer clothes tossed on the floor - but I never did go back to doing her laundry..

Now it's time to scold you though! You should NOT be doing this sort of thing while still recovering from your surgery.. Do we need to duct tape you to a chair????

Please don't mess up your healing process..

 

[disney1990]

Good for you! In our house, if it's on the floor for more than a day, it must be trash.

Last year, I got sick of the way DD was treating her clothes. She'd get them off the floor to avoid having them thrown away, but they'd be in piles on the bathroom counter, or shoved onto closet shelves. The final straw was an expensive party dress got ruined from being left on a wet bathroom counter for days after she had changed her mind about wearing it.

While she was at school, I took away every single item of clothing she owned. What she wore to school that day is what she wore for the next two weeks. I made her stand in the laundry room wrapped in a towel every other night while she washed and dried her one outfit. After two weeks of taking care of that one outfit, she got one more outfit back. At the end of three weeks, she wrote me a detailed plan for how she was going to take care of her clothes from then on, and she got the rest back.

It's been almost 18 months and she's kept everything perfectly ever since. I just put the laundry basket of clean clothes in her room, and boy are they put away neatly and quickly! And nothing left crumpled or piled anymore

I can't imagine ever doing this to my child. How old was your daughter at the time? If I had done this to my teenage daughter, she would have refused to go to school at all.

My daughters are both grown now, but I would have never gone through and thrown their stuff in the trash. That is just too hard core for me.

 

[Mermaid02]

My husband is home- he LOVES it!

 

[MM27]

I have a friend who had this done to her when she was in high school by her father. He went in her room one day when she was at school and threw everything that was on the floor out her bedroom window. She kept her room clean after she came home and found her underwear hanging in the neighbor's bushes.

 

[Mermaid02]

I have a friend who had this done to her when she was in high school by her father. He went in her room one day when she was at school and threw everything that was on the floor out her bedroom window. She kept her room clean after she came home and found her underwear hanging in the neighbor's bushes.

I hope they were clean