Joe had sent me the link for this book awhile ago and I had added it to our Amazon cart the next time I was going to make a purchase.  As I read the title (How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps) I thought it would be PERFECT for our oldest daughter Abby.  She is not the cleanest of the bunch, and partly that is because she my true pack rat.  I have really been praying about being understanding about how her need to keep raggedy old stuffed animals dolls is not sin, but just different from the way I operate.  And how I need to be understanding that in many ways her way of holding onto things is a way to keep some semblance of control due to our changing lifestyle.  That is a heart issue to deal with, but the actual keeping of a lot of things isn’t necessarily wrong.

So anyway, I made an Amazon order and was very excited to receive this book.  I opened it up, thinking it would be a great way to get her to clean her room without me bugging her about it.  Low and behold I found it was a spoof from a child’s perspective about how to clean your room.  And it was hilarious!  I read it through to the kids the first time and we just laughed and laughed.  Abby and I would look at one another at certain points that sounded so much like her and just giggle.

And it was actually better than getting a step-by-step book on how to clean your room.  The power of humor helped me to step back and realize a messy room isn’t the end of the world.  And helped her as well to see how ridiculous she may sound at times (for example, the mom asks the little girl about getting rid of a ratty old stuffed animal at which point the girl cries proclaiming it as her most favorite thing in the whole wide world and then tosses it on her heap of other stuffed animals when her mom leaves the room).  So if you live with a child who is a little on the messier side, this book is a fun way to view the “problem” at hand.

How to Clean Your Room in 10 Easy Steps by Jennifer Larue Huget