In this month’s issue of Impart Magazine (which, by the way, is being offered for free at the moment) I wrote about The Dirty, Messy Truth About Lesson Planning. Planning makes me happy, but you know what? Our lesson reality never matches my lesson plans. I am learning to be okay with the discord, and that starts with allowing a bit of mess into my life.

Like so many others, I have a love/hate relationship with messes.  I love making them, and I hate cleaning them up.   So, how do we balance messy with organized?

Location

Knowing how to contain messes is the key.  In our home, there are specific zones that must stay tidy.  My particular pet peeves are the dining room table, entryway and couches.  If these are clear, I am okay with messes in other places.

In the same way, there are specific zones that we have designed for messes.  Each child has a table in their room for ongoing projects.  Anything and everything is allowed to live here with only one rule.  It cannot sipll over onto the floor.  Mom doesn’t choose what gets removed, but I do provide a daily routine in which they are expected to tidy their space.  This serves two purposes:

First, it quickly and easily provides a visual definition to the space, and prevents accidental vacuuming to tiny legos.

Second, it requires that they remove an old project to begin a new one, lest they run out of room.  They learn how to organize and clean their own things, – a valuable skill

Other messy zones include the backyard (not the front), the basement,  and they playroom.  When guests visit, we simply close the door to these spaces, and I can feel comfortable entertaining.

But why?

Why should we allow messes?  As I have discussed before, imagination is important.  Our minds were created for exploration.  If every toy, activity and space is perfectly neat, we loose the opportunity for discovery.  Messes:

• teach creativity
• create calm by providing sensory input
• allow for new experiences
• instill good clean-up habits
• are fun
• (and maybe my favorite reason to allow messes) provide quiet time for mom

Most importantly, we retain what we discover on our own.  Have you ever heard the poem “Block City” by Robert Lewis Stevenson?

… Now I have done with it, down, let it go!
All in a moment the town is laid low.
Block upon block lying scattered and free,
What is there left of my town by the sea?

Yet as I saw it, I see it again,
The kirk and the palace, the ships and the men,
And as long as I live and where’er I may be,
I’ll always remember my town by the sea.

Teach boundaries, enforce clean-up, but make room for the messes.  They have a lot to offer.  Let it go and enjoy the rewards.

I hope you will stop by Impart Magazine and check out my other thoughts on messiness and lesson planning!