The Great Dig Out of 2011

It's finally done.
And I am wiped out.

I began the process of digging out #2 son's bedroom a week ago.  After slowly making progress during the week, this past weekend we did the "big push" to get it finished.

Yah  see, #2 son took over #1 son's bedroom when #1 went away to college in the fall of 2009.
#2 had the smallest bedroom(being the youngest)so he got the upgrade when #1 left home 2 years ago.

I had told #2 to take all of #1's stuff and put it into #2's old bedroom before moving his stuff in.
And I didn't check that he did before he put his stuff in there.
My first mistake.

Then I didn't inspect his room for 2 years.
That was my second mistake. 

Ok, I'd pop my head in and tell him to clean his room now and then(I have a duty as a mother to tell him that, right?),  but if things were off the floor and stuck under his bed or in his closet, I didn't see them.
I have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to kids' bedrooms.
As long as their mess doesn't extend out into the hallway and doesn't smell like a sink full of month old food and dirty dishes, it doesn't concern me.
I give the kids some leeway on how they want to live in their bedrooms.
They want to live in a pigsty?  Fine.  Just don't expect me to clean it up.


But I really should have kept a closer eye on #2 son's filth.  He is after all, the kid who had a used ball of masking tape.....

I found this when I attempted to clean his room while he was away at camp 4 years ago.

I spent the week, off and on, going through what I had mucked out of the corner of his bedroom.....

And the bulk of the weekend was spent going through all this.....

The last 2 photos are what was under his bed.  Sorry, but I didn't get a shot of what was crammed into his closet.

I also removed a white shelving unit from the room.  Our family is "horizontal surface challenged".  Any flat surface gets crap piled on it.  #2 son would pile stuff on it until it eventually fell off onto the floor.
Then he would leave that where it fell and pile something new on the shelf, repeating the cycle.
No shelf and he has to deal with the stuff(throw it away or put it away).

And here is what under the bed now looks like....

And here is what we are throwing away.....

This doesn't include the dishes, silverware, glasses and soda cans or the items going to Salvation Army that he has outgrown.
8 Bags and 3 Boxes full of unmitigated CRAP.....plus another garbage bag full on the front porch.


And hidden among the normal garbage output that a 15 year old boy is capable of I found this.....

52 plastic spoons.
I dumped the bag I had collected them into on the kitchen table and just looked at him with that motherly "WTF is this??!" look on my face.
He didn't even crack a smile and said like it was the most matter of fact thing, "I was bored in the cafeteria at school so I took spoons."
Yes folks, your school tax dollars at work.....buying overpriced plastic spoons so some angst filled teen can squirrel them away like acorns for winter.

It was all I could do not to whack him upside his head.

I am keeping these spoons and making him use each and every one.
And then I'm washing them and making him use them some more until he gets the message.
You can call me Mommy Dearest if you want.
At least I'll have one clean bedroom in the house when they cart me away to Parent Prison.

Sluggy