7 Year Old Child Needs to Create Huge Messes -- Anyone else?

[liqzierda]

My DD is 7 and pretty much her entire life from the time she could walk, she seems to have a huge need to create as much disorder as possible by taking clothes out of drawers, off hangers, taking books off shelves and throwing toys around. I know a certain amount of this is normal, but I have a younger son and he has never behaved this way.

It's particularly worrisome because my mother is a hoarder and beyond that, has the same need to create visual chaos and disorder in any environment she is in. My DD has had some issues with hoarding, but we started her on inositol and she is doing better with it. She's not holding on to things as much as the problem is that she has a compulsion to make a mess out of what she has, very similar to what my mother is like.

I'm wondering how much of this is some kind of sensory issue and a sensory-seeking behavior. In general, DD has only minor sensory stuff going on. She has an incredibly active mind and is very generally precocious except that putting things away and cleaning up after herself is extremely difficult for her, even with direct instruction and supervision.

[annettemarie]

Moving to The Childhood Years since you're asking about a specific age/stage.

[4evermom]

Maybe she is a visual spatial learner?
http://www.visualspatial.org/what_is_a_vsl.htm

Maybe she needs things organized in a different way so she can see everything while they are organized. So instead of clothes on hangers, you could have a row of pegs across the back of the closet so each thing could be hung up and still clearly visible. Instead of a bookcase with books arranged spines out, something more like a magazine rack where the covers can be seen might work better. Toys stored on open shelves... Maybe clothes in baskets? Not sure if that would be much different for her than clothes in drawers...

Anyway, just a thought, something to try.

[KMK_Mama]

My DD is the same way. It's so maddening!! I never get caught up with housework because of it.

[Zoesmama]

My nearly 7 year old has this trouble the last couple years. When she was younger 3-5 she mostly had a whole play room and toys were organized much better.

She does "hoard" to an extent by trying to keep every paper she draws/colors etc. And has a hard time deciding on toys to weed out of her collections.

I think a lot of her issues with keeping an organized room is she just has too much stuff.

[DaughterOfKali]

My son is the same way. As soon as I clean my house, it's trashed within a few hours.

[Ellien C]

Originally Posted by Zoesmama

My nearly 7 year old has this trouble the last couple years. When she was younger 3-5 she mostly had a whole play room and toys were organized much better.

She does "hoard" to an extent by trying to keep every paper she draws/colors etc. And has a hard time deciding on toys to weed out of her collections.

I think a lot of her issues with keeping an organized room is she just has too much stuff.

I've got the same issue with my 7 yo. Whatever container I have something in, she dumps it out and then puts something ELSE in the container. It's maddening to me. All of her luggage and suitcases and bags are out and there are random things stuffed into them. Example: Her desk had three tiny jars labeled tacks, rubber bands and paperclips, and a little caddy for notepads and few pens. She takes the tack the jar and dumps all of the tacks into the notepad caddy and then tries to stuff clay or something into the tack jar. I was so mad and it was unfathomable to me WHY she would just dump the tacks someplace else - and not a good place. She has other empty jars. I know it sounds petty, but it's like this all day long. I buy some organization container so all the markers finally have a place. Several weeks later, the markers are all in the bottom of a bag that she insists on taking to camp and the fake hair is in the marker box. It doesn't matter if she chooses the organization or me. She can hardly lug her bag to camp because it's full of every writing implement in the house. She's dragging so much stuff to camp, she can't remember her lunch. DH is dropping her off and apparently he can't remember it either.

And the paper hoarding is COMPLETELY out of control. She won't throw away a gum wrapper and at the end of camp or aftercare she takes every piece of paper, scenery or whatever that's left that someone else colored on. She insisted on taking 2 huge card board scenery pieces home from drama camp, I've got part of a stuffed animial zoo exhibit (and she would have taken the whole thing and everyone elese's if we let her. We compromised on the cardboard tube tree).

[liqzierda]

Well, at least I can see that I'm not alone. My DD loves drawing on paper, cutting up paper and making her own projects with it and scattering it all over. It's so extreme that I just end up throwing things out. She doesn't seem to notice.