Cleaning

Do you ever ask your children to clean up? I often do. Especially considering that I do not make the majority of the messes that constantly plague my house. I always feels a very satisfying feeling when I am able to look around the house where my kids have removed all of their belongings that they just drop where ever they are. It really takes a bite out of my happiness however when I find the following:
Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Yes. That is five or six different pairs of shoes (some of which don't even fit any of the girls currently) a Barbie (I'll give you two guesses on whose that is) and a bag with a pair of jeans that need to be exchanged. Isn't that nice? See, I didn't think so either. The thing is, I never do. And my biggest quandary is, how long do you think it takes them to gather all this random crap up and take it to this room to shove it in the unseen area beside the couch? How much of a difference in time would it take them to actually just go the few more feet to where the stuff actually goes? Yeah. I know. It's a lot of energy to waste on meaningless things that will likely not change for years to come. You're right. But if I didn't spend the time annoyed what else would I do and what memories would I have later in life?