No, we’re never gonna survive
Unless we get a little crazy.
-Seal, “Crazy”
This is the song that was in my head today when I woke up. Why? Because last night, I went a little crazy. Well, technically, it was this morning, but who’s counting?
Anyway, I had to do it, or I wasn’t going to survive.
What did I do?
I decided to sort through and organize Claire’s treasures. I know to the normal, sane people in the crowd, this sounds silly. Why would I be doing this at 1am? Why not do this in the daylight? Because I wasn’t going to be able to sleep knowing that I have a huge Getting Ready For Our Trip To Do List to continue attacking with disorganization mocking me from the sidelines. Because Claire would have had a nervous breakdown if she saw how many of her treasures I was throwing away. And, the only time to do this was under the protective cover of darkness.
Her treasures.
Her priceless artifacts.
What kind of treasures would a monster such as myself destroy? You know, treasures like the cardboard punch outs from a certain company’s Kids’ Meals. Happy? Yes, I was, thanks. I was nice and only threw away the ones she hadn’t seen in a while and the ones that were ripped.
And, broken toys are a favorite item. It’s broken. It needs to go away. If it can’t be fixed, it’s time to say goodbye.
Or, better yet, all the catalogs Claire commandeers the minute they arrive. I didn’t throw them all away, but the ones that were literally worn to shreds? The tattered ones that are barely recognizable? Gone.
It took about 15 minutes to sort my office, and the energy that flowed into the rest of the house was amazing. I went to bed, and as soon as I got under the covers, I realized that I hadn’t actually looked in her castle in a while. You see, Claire has this castle that one of her aunts gave to her last year. It’s a tent-like contraption out in our living room and Claire uses it as a hideout.
It is also, for lack of a better word, a disaster. How can she even fit in here?
I grabbed my flashlight and went to work, hoping the neighbors wouldn’t call the cops because they saw suspicious activity and flashlight shadows as I rummaged through our living room.
Twenty minutes later, all the Barbie Shoes were in a safe place. All her precious jewels, the clip-on earrings, bracelets and necklaces were back in her jewelry box. All the bits of ripped paper was put in a pile with the other things that have seen better days. I stuffed the trash into my trashcan, hoping that I’d be able to permanently destroy the evidence without her being the wiser.
I paused for a moment outside her room. It took every ounce of energy in my being to not tiptoe in and continue my mad task. Had she awoken, my cover would have been blown. So, I went to bed.
This morning, I told Claire that we were going to sort her room. She actually likes helping me “clean” and “sort,” but she has yet to allow any type of “throwing away” without a full-blown fit. It’s a battle I’ll fight one day, but not now. So, I had to be sneaky in my attack.
I sat on the floor in my robe, and I started in on each section, one at a time. To an outsider, the room looked clean. There was floor-space! Everything was in a bin! But, I knew that those bins were far from organized. It was that unseen mess that had threatened to eat me alive.
Often times a command of “Clean your room!” is so overwhelming that people, little kids in particular, have no idea where to start. They freeze up and that’s just a recipe for failure. Luckily, I’ve always been good at seeing past the rubble to the different categories. Again, in less than 20-minutes, we were done. All of the block-sorting-toys were reunited with their parts. All the books were in the book bin. All the stuffed animals were safe and sorted. All the kitchen toys were sorted and put with the kitchen set in my office. I was sneaky with the things I threw away, and I was able to cart the whole lot out to the curb this morning for Trash Day. Perfect timing!
You might be wondering if Claire has missed any of her treasures yet. No, she has not. After the culling, she’s able to focus on the ones she really likes. And, it’s not like we have a shortage of toys around here.
Here she is setting up a picnic on her bed.
(Yes, she’s 41-months today! Again, not that I’m counting.) 
So, I got a little less sleep last night, but it was worth it. Now, I can attack my own To Do List with a new-found energy.
I went a little crazy, but now I’ll survive.
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