"That's IT! I'm throwing away all your toys!"

That was what I was saying to my 3 yr old and 2 year old today....story begins with me on the phone and I hear the toilet lid opening and shutting multiple times. What are they doing?! I'm thinking to myself. I walk into the bathroom to see them putting small amounts of toilet paper in the toilet---but they looked wet. My daughter (the 3 yr. old) says, "We almost got it all cleaned up." OH NO. I follow them into their bedroom and they have dumped the entire bottle of shampoo onto the floor and all over her kitchen! And by kitchen I mean the overpriced toys r us version of a kids little kitchen with a million little nooks and crannies for dirt to collect in that makes it impossible to clean...you know--that one. And the shampoo wasn't just some cheap-o Johnson and Johnson--I buy the most expensive shampoo at Sprouts--it's organic with non of the bad preservatives and I bought the economy size this time so I could save 10 cents. ;) And then of course today was the "other day"--I clean the kids room every other day (I'd like to have it cleaned every day but it just doesn't happen--let's be honest here--and when I do clean it, it only takes 3.5 min for them to mess it up again....), so since it was the other (messy) day the toys were on the floor and got covered in the shampoo. I'm standing here with a million other chores to do looking at the mess thinking, I have to clean every one of these dumb little toys individually--not to mention the entire kitchen!!! And that's when I had my break down (or it could have been my break through--not sure). "That's it! I'm throwing away all your toys because mommy is sick of the mess and you got shampoo all over them so I'm throwing them away!" They look at me kind of dumbfounded. So I grab some garbage bags and start grabbing toys. Now--their toys really did need a good weeding through--I tried doing it at Christmas but started getting all sentimental ("Oh, this was their first bear....I'd hate to never see this one again....Oh, this book is all colored on and missing five pages....but the rest of the pages are really cute....etc)--you'd think the toys were mine! So I ended up only getting rid of a small box full. But now, I had "fed up" on my side and that out weighed sentimental value. I am fed up with the mess and fed up with cleaning the mess! My sweet daughter has a fixation to bring REAL food into her kitchen! First it was flour...everywhere....then last month it was peanut oil ("I'm making popcorn, mommy!"), then the worst was when they got into my spices and sprinkled--no poured--spices ALL over the house and all over their room and their toys and in the process took off all the lids and of course didn't put the lids back on so I'm trying to smell the spices to determine which ones are which....imagine cleaning spices out of all the nooks and crannies in the kids toys! My goodness! And just a few days ago she took her banana in there and got banana on all the little pots and pans--and the floor too.
Half way through I realized I was being a little too zealous and left them a few stuffed animals, 2 babies, the baby stroller, the blocks, and the wooden trains, a few books, and anything musical. But that was IT. Everything else got thrown into the trash. And it was 3 garbage bags full. yeah yeah I know--I could have taken it to goodwill--but then it would have had to sit around my house for another week--plus they have so many toys anyway--and really I'm doing the moms a favor who might end up buying these toys because they will become a cleaning burden for them too, they just don't know it yet and will unknowingly buy them only to hate them later...so really the trash is the best place.
But the funny thing about this whole episode was--it didn't even seem to phase them. As I stood there holding the bags I said, "See this--this is 3 bags of toys, this is your punishment for taking the shampoo in here and pouring it all over everything! That was very naughty!" My daughter said sweetly, "OK, mommy." I was puzzled--I was expecting some tears at this point. So I went and threw them away. And then when I came back it dawned on me--the kitchen! That kitchen is the source of the problem anyway, and it's such a pain to clean! So my plan was to throw it outside and make it an outside toy and when my husband builds her a playhouse for her birthday it can just go in there--but while I was dragging it out I fully expected her to think I was throwing it away too. She looked surprised--but that was all. When I came back inside she went into her room and said, "Wow mommy! It looks so much cleaner!" I had to smile, "Yes, honey, you are right it does." So, there you have it moms, just throw the toys away---they really don't care anyway :)
But just as I was about to leave the room she says, "Mom, where's my bear?" Ah HA! At last! She is realizing her punishment now! So I say to her very matter of fact, "Mommy threw your bear away because you made a mess and got shampoo all over everything." Really I have no idea what bear she was talking about--but the likelihood is that I did throw it away because I threw a lot of bears away--although I must say I was kind of surprised she even cared about a bear because I haven't seen her show any affection towards one lately--but it didn't matter---my punishment was working! And then she said, "Oh, here it is!" and picks up a Pooh bear that I didn't throw away. Of course! She would want the one that I happened to not throw away!

So the moral of the story:
Don't buy the economy size shampoo--it really isn't saving you any money in the long run because it's just going to end up on the floor anyway...