Do you clean your child's room? Why?

The news this week was just so awful.... I have no words for it.

 But, I do have plenty to say about the state of my children's rooms and their toys... so let's talk about that, shall we?

Because there's this:

that's all his bedclothes on the floor, along with his collection of super hero accessories.

This month my kids received a new dollhouse, hot wheels tracks, musical instruments, remote control cars... what are they playing with this morning? An old piece of rope.

Which makes me think of the question I ponder weekly: Why do we have all. these. toys?

And, why do I clean my children's rooms? Because I do, about twice a month, or when I just can't stand it anymore. Because the sight of the legos mixed up with the hot wheels makes my eye twitch. Because I'm OCD Swedish like that.

I mean, this is how I store Lily's hair accessories:

oh yes, sorted by color and in a rainbow arrangement.

So when her Barbie accessories get mixed up with the kitchen set and the dinosaur toys, I have to step in.

There's pretty much no use at this point of telling my 6 year old son to "go clean his room".  He'll just go in, wander around, and take out more toys. If I say, "pick up everything on the floor", he'll do it. And put everything (dirty socks, pajamas, hats, shoes, books, action figures) in a heap on a shelf. He can't help it; he's not Swedish.

After I've spent a hour putting all his things back in the right places, I'll call him back into his room and say, "See?! See?!"  I will get a big 6 year old eye roll and be asked to leave his room so he can play.

I've made peace with this.  I'm training him to put dirty clothes in the hamper, bed clothes on the bed, and shoes in the shoe bin. If he wants to put his superheroes in the playdough bin, that's fine. When I need an hour of free Swedish therapy, I'll go in there and sort it all out to my heart's content.