More Dress Up and organization success!

Oh how this child likes dressing up. Yesterday She was a pirate sailing the seas on her treasure filled chest and looking for more treasure.

We have a nice collection of dress up. Some international traditional clothing, lots of hand me downs, some gifts, some silks, some accessories and lots of clothing home made items.

Recently I have found myself feeling like all I do is clean and still the house is messier and dirtier than ever. I know all you mothers can relate! I have found myself ever conscious of Zoes habit to pick one thing up, play with it a little while and return it to another place, often another room. This has been irking me more and more, some moments it feels like it is all that I see. I don't want to interrupt her creative play, or to make her more conscious of the mess making so that she cannot relax into her play and creating all the scenes she needs. So while we practice cleaning up and I work on toniifying nervous system! (nervine herbs, infusions, more sleep, good nourishment and time to myself) I am thinking about our systems of organization. Ways that I can make it easier for Zoe to successfully participate in the clean up process.

Yesterday was a success for me. The dress up corner has always been a problem. As our apartment is small and packed with stuff ( a whole other story; stuff for the herbal school, stuff for the museum and our stuff) the dress up corner (or stress uo corner!) was behind Zoe's bedroom door hanging pegs attached to the wall and in a basket hanging on the back of the door. It seemed like a good spot at first. But It was hard for Zoe and her friends to put the clothes back and often while trying to get the tangled clothes off the pegs they would pull the pegs right out of the wall. And where to store all the accessories?

So yesterday while Zoe was at school and I was cleaning her room it dawned on me that we have an old toy chest in the attic that is not so heavy....I lugged it down from the attic not knowing where on earth I would put it. I managed to move some things around in her room and voila, the perfect dress up set up. Next I will replace the pegs behind the door with a big mirror.

Zoe was thrilled when she returned home from school and the fun began!