Trares
The first couple months of the new year bring an annual tradition like none other in our household.
And by that, I mean it fills me with dread.
If the weeks leading up to the holiday season are the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, then the month or so following the festivities are just the opposite: lots of sorting and organizing and cleaning out closets, playrooms and the rest of the house.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s kind of nice to get everything in order as the calendar changes over. Sweaters, shirts and pants that have sat neglected get new life at Goodwill. Cupboards filled with plastic cups and coffee mugs become more tidy. My wife gets some breathing room as we clean out her home office — which stands on the verge of being overrun by Anthony’s toys.
Still, the whole ordeal can be exhausting. Particularly when trying to explain to a 6 year old why we’re getting rid of his stuff.
I wouldn’t necessarily say my son is a hoarder, but we have enough old Happy Meal toys, cheap arcade prizes and other bric-a-brac to fill an entire room. Literally.
So we started the process of clearing things out. We explained to Anthony what we had to do, to make room for the new gifts he had received. There were tears, but after seeing that we weren’t losing any of his favorite items, and in fact were pulling out things that he had forgotten existed, he understood.
And explaining that the larger toys he no longer played with would go to others who didn’t have as much, he seemed happy.
Of course, this year, we decided to add a new degree of difficulty to our lives. Anthony’s room had remained the same style and décor since before he was born — a blue-hued nautical theme, complete with multiple iterations of Mickey Mouse in a sailor’s suit.
Yet after six years, and hearing about the new rooms his kindergarten friends were getting, he wanted something of an update.
“It’s too baby,” he said.
“Minecraft” is the current obsession. Anthony has constructed an entire virtual world in the game, and the blocky characters are on his t-shirts, pajamas, backpack and lunch box.
The room transformation started. My wife found “Minecraft” blankets, rug, stool, sheets and comforter, even a decal that made the characters look as if they were bursting out of the wall. Each item took the place of the more “babyish” decorations.
But Anthony wasn’t quite ready to abandon all of his childhood favorites. When my wife was taking down certain decorations — a ceramic dinosaur bank, a growth chart emblazoned with the words “Dream Big Little One” — he got upset.
“Not these! These aren’t for babies,” he said, demanding we put them back up.
Eventually, we struck a balance. Anthony got the new décor for his big kid room, and held on to a few sentimental favorites. At the same time, we were able to clear out years worth of accumulation that we could donate to others.
All parties were happy. Our yearly reorganization was a success.
A few days later, Anthony followed me into my closet as I was putting away a sweatshirt. Looking around at the overstuffed shelves, hangers full of clothes and piles of stuff on the floor, he asked, “Daddy, are we going to clean your closet now?”
Eh, maybe next year.
