The other day, as Abigail was putting her pile of laundry away, she decided to organize her dresser drawers. I had figured it wasn’t worthwhile to try to get young children to keep shirts and pants in tidy folds and rows. Since the girls, ages 5 and 3, were the ones taking the clothes in and out of their drawers, I thought it was fine for things to be a bit messy. It would take a lot of time and energy to enforce any sort of intense organization. Boxes kept socks and underwear separate but the rest of their wardrobes would float about, tangling together after the girls dumped the clean laundry into the drawer. So long as the dresser didn’t have bits of fabric hanging out, I was happy with the way it was.
On Tuesday though, Abigail began folding her clothes. While I was working on another project, she started her own. A while later, I came into her room, surprised to see what she had done.
“See,” she showed me, pointing out her piles of pants, rows in her drawer.
“Here are the pants with nothing on them (plain colors). And here are the ones with buttons and snaps. And here ” – she indicated a third pile – “are the ones with something on them ” (plaids and patterns). I was impressed that she had taken the time to fold her pants into squares, and in addition, organize them according to color and style! Her wardrobe was now more tidy than mine.
“I taught you something!” Abigail declared, smiling.
Yes you did, Abigail. You’ve taught me something. You’ve taught me many somethings.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Anita Rowland // Mar 20, 2004 at 12:34 pm
Do you think she’s BO (Born Organized)?
2 Julie // Mar 21, 2004 at 3:44 pm
No, I think organization is something she’s learning – and liking! – as she’s growing up and getting older.
3 Bernadette // Mar 27, 2004 at 10:15 pm
Hi Julie,
Can Abigal now come around and sort and organize my drawers??