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By Mom Unplugged, March 12, 2007 11:03 am

I have two ideas to present in today’s post:

1) DON’T FORGET FRIENDS

A TV-free Mom friend wants me to write a post about how friends can help the anti-TV effort.

This friend is working on a Master’s degree and had an important deadline to meet on Friday. Unfortunately Friday was a half day at school. I picked her daughter up, gave her lunch and then she and my kids played happily until her Mom was through with her assignment. My friend was grateful since her only other desperate option would probably have been to sit her daughter down in front of the TV with a series of videos.

This was a win-win for all! My friend completed her work on time, her daughter and my kids had a great afternoon, and I was able to do some things around the house because my kids were so busy playing with a buddy.

My friend would like to remind people to consider friends as a resource for turning off the TV. When you absolutely, positively need to get some alone-time for an important task (or even just to regain a little sanity), call a friend and everyone benefits!

2) CLUTTER BUSTER - ORGANIZE THE ART

Idea number two is an organizing tip that works well for us. What do you do with all the art work that your TV-free kids create? The refrigerator is the traditional display area, but we recently remodeled the kitchen and have a stainless steel fridge (non-magnetic).

I picked a bare wall in the playroom and hung two lengths of string by tying the ends around thumbtacks in the wall. For a more modern-look, you could also use wire. We hang the most recent masterpieces on the string using clothespins.

The kids enjoy hanging the pictures and seeing their efforts nicely displayed on the wall. It makes a cool focal point for the room and is easy to change when the mood strikes!

UPDATE: Here is another great art-organizing idea from a reader-comment:

“My favorite idea for getting rid of art or schoolwork clutter is mailing “care” packages to grandparents. (A favorite aunt & uncle would work too!) The grandparents love seeing what the grandkids are doing and the kids enjoy showing off their work with others and it eliminates the guilt and/or hurt feelings from throwing the item away.”

I like that idea because I hate throwing it away, but you just can’t keep it all (even a packrat like me). Thanks for the input!

Comments (6)

By Mom Unplugged, March 8, 2007 10:53 am

As I sit here watching my 14 month-old doing an “Ozzie” by trying to bite the head off a plastic bat that has somehow found its way to the kitchen floor, my thoughts turn to “mess.” My life never used to be like this. My house never used to be like this. I was truly, AN ORGANIZED PERSON. Those days are gone.

A brief survey of my living room floor reveals: one clean sock, one dirty sock (Where are the mates? Who knows!), a cardboard box “rocket ship,” one of my shoes (Where is the other? Who knows!), an inflatable bouncy pony, a penguin backpack, one piece of a baby stackable toy, a miniature plastic airplane, and a “Sunset” magazine with most of the pages torn out.

Why can kids live so comfortably with mess? I used to be a slob as a child too. My mother constantly lamented the sorry state of my room. When did I turn into a neat freak? Why can’t I simply be at peace with clutter?

I suppose there is some false feeling of security or of having control of life if we have control of our clutter. If we control our clutter, we control our environment and thus our life. Right?? Probably not, but at least it feels good.

I was intrigued by this post from Wife Mom Maniac’s blog: Appreciating Messes. I guess I am not the only one who struggles with this issue.

This post brings TV watching into the mix. What do kids do when they aren’t watching TV? Often, they are making a mess! The cardboard rocket ship in the living room, the seemingly random collected objects that are somehow absolutely essential for the “show” that they are producing, the “craft” project they have dreamed up, etc. It is much easier and tidier to plop them down in front of the tube for an afternoon. I love the discussion of mess and what to do (or not do) about it on Sandra Dodd’s site. It’s definitely worth a read.

If we are going to choose not to have TV in our lives, then I guess we must accept some degree of clutter. After all, those highly imaginative games that I love to see my children play often involve mess. So I’d better just get over it and be happy that there is a plastic bat on my kitchen floor and a “rocket ship” in my living room!

PS. Sorry to expose you all to that truly terrifying photo of our playroom closet. I think we shall be having a dreaded “Playroom Tidy” this weekend!

Also, a big THANK YOU to Toddler Planet for her endorsement of my blog. It is so exciting to finally have some readers find me!