Faking a Cleaned Room

I'm not sure where my kids picked up this skill or why they desperately seem to cling to it, but they appear to be masters of faking a cleaned room.  It's one of those things that drive me batty.

I asked my girls no less than four times today to clean their bedrooms which were both in a state that I would classify as atrocious.  Four times they disappeared for a while and then came down and assured me their rooms were clean.  The first three times I'm not sure what they did, but the rooms looked exactly the same as it did when they were sent upstairs.  Same goes for their bathroom and the basement play room.  The fourth time they "cleaned" their bedrooms, the rooms looked like they were straightened, but in reality they had just stuffed everything where they thought I wouldn't look.

Our basement was equally dismal.  They stuffed toys that they swore they put back in their proper places in all sorts of areas where they don't belong and had left all sorts of Katie choking hazards on the floor and within her reach.

Bryan's working from home today since he severely overslept this morning and failed to make it anywhere close to work this morning due to traffic.  Since he's home I at least have him backing me up on insisting that the girls clean up all their messes or risk losing the things that aren't put away.

Sometimes I wonder if they would even care if I bagged up most of their toys and hauled them away to Good Will.  They have so much and most of it doesn't get played with unless you count scattering things and making huge messes as playing.

I feel like getting rid of most of their clothes, too.  They can't put those away either, and to be perfectly honest, they wear the same five or six outfits to death anyway while the rest of the clothes sit in the closet unworn.  I guess this uniform thing should work out nicely this school year.