Spring + (Break * Cleaning) = Tradition
My family isn't the most normal family in the world. Then again what family out there is the mom dad brother sister white picket fence sort of normal anyways? (Shut up Gidget!)
My parents both grew up in dysfunctional familes and in an attempt to break that "world-you-get-is-what-you-give" cycle, they broke away and shattered most of the traditions that went along with that. As a family we don't really have any traditions, just habits that I hope to carry on when I have a family of my own.
Things like eating dinner together as a family, decorating the christmas tree as a family among others, and of course the tradition of Spring Cleaning during Spring Break.
When I was in grade school my mom made it a rule that before my sister and I could enjoy our Spring Break we had to clean our rooms. And it wasn't anything simple like straightening up and making it look nice. We essentially had to tear our rooms apart and rebuild them from the ground up. We had to reorganize our stuff, clean up and throw away what we no longer used, and just all around make the room the cleanest it has been. I carried this tradition on into High School and even now, while I have been on Spring Break from college I have cleaned up and reorganized my room. I'm not totally done, but for the most part my room is a lot nicer. My desk and shelves need to be straightened up but my closet and under my bed is the best it has ever been.
I always thought it was fun. The Thursday before the first day off is usually when I'd start tearing everything up, making a bigger mess before cleaning it all up. I was usually done by that friday and ready to enjoy the weekend. Then again it wasn't that hard for me since I'm not a messy person, I just have a lot of clutter that needs to be put away and stored. My sister on the other hand was and is messy and it would take her a long time. Often times mom would have to help her so she had some Spring Break to enjoy. I don't know if she will carry it on, but I know I will.
The other part of this was the end of summer before we go back to school cleanup which was similar. Not as much incentive in that one, since we were going to go back to school, so mom had to lay a threat down for us to do that one. It was basically, if it was messy while we were at school she would clean it and throw everything away. It worked. Those were are two big cleanups for the year. Through the year we just had to keep our room straightened up, sweeping and mopping or vaccuming as was needed through the year.
Now that my room is nicer, I hope to keep it that way... the same hope I usually traditionally try to keep as well. I need to try and find a way to better arrange my books, and I need something to better store my movies and games. I need to find one of those monster cases that hold like 500 dvds or something, but doesn't take up a super amount of space or is a spinner type thing. I prefer shelves over those spinner things since they seem to require more space than what they take up since you have to give allowances for the spinning. I know they have those neat ones that have doors and stuff, but I don't know how big they are or how much they cost.
The worst part is that my room doesn't have a lot of room.
~syko
My parents both grew up in dysfunctional familes and in an attempt to break that "world-you-get-is-what-you-give" cycle, they broke away and shattered most of the traditions that went along with that. As a family we don't really have any traditions, just habits that I hope to carry on when I have a family of my own.
Things like eating dinner together as a family, decorating the christmas tree as a family among others, and of course the tradition of Spring Cleaning during Spring Break.
When I was in grade school my mom made it a rule that before my sister and I could enjoy our Spring Break we had to clean our rooms. And it wasn't anything simple like straightening up and making it look nice. We essentially had to tear our rooms apart and rebuild them from the ground up. We had to reorganize our stuff, clean up and throw away what we no longer used, and just all around make the room the cleanest it has been. I carried this tradition on into High School and even now, while I have been on Spring Break from college I have cleaned up and reorganized my room. I'm not totally done, but for the most part my room is a lot nicer. My desk and shelves need to be straightened up but my closet and under my bed is the best it has ever been.
I always thought it was fun. The Thursday before the first day off is usually when I'd start tearing everything up, making a bigger mess before cleaning it all up. I was usually done by that friday and ready to enjoy the weekend. Then again it wasn't that hard for me since I'm not a messy person, I just have a lot of clutter that needs to be put away and stored. My sister on the other hand was and is messy and it would take her a long time. Often times mom would have to help her so she had some Spring Break to enjoy. I don't know if she will carry it on, but I know I will.
The other part of this was the end of summer before we go back to school cleanup which was similar. Not as much incentive in that one, since we were going to go back to school, so mom had to lay a threat down for us to do that one. It was basically, if it was messy while we were at school she would clean it and throw everything away. It worked. Those were are two big cleanups for the year. Through the year we just had to keep our room straightened up, sweeping and mopping or vaccuming as was needed through the year.
Now that my room is nicer, I hope to keep it that way... the same hope I usually traditionally try to keep as well. I need to try and find a way to better arrange my books, and I need something to better store my movies and games. I need to find one of those monster cases that hold like 500 dvds or something, but doesn't take up a super amount of space or is a spinner type thing. I prefer shelves over those spinner things since they seem to require more space than what they take up since you have to give allowances for the spinning. I know they have those neat ones that have doors and stuff, but I don't know how big they are or how much they cost.
The worst part is that my room doesn't have a lot of room.
~syko