We are moving soon and so I have been packing. Yesterday ss16 gets home from school and decides to pack his room. Well, so he has his bedroom door wide open and is packing and cleaning and throwing away tons of garbage (literally bags and bags). So later I am making supper ready and smelling this odd odor and sure enough in the garbage can by the counter is a lot of ss16's garbage (why he put just a bit in the kitchen garbage is beyond me) including several cups that I had been asking for for several weeks, but I am shocked to find each cup stuffed with rotten moldy orange peels, thus the strange smell and decided that yes, they need to stay in the garbage. But now my whole house, not just ss16's room, smells terrible. I dread our move into a smaller house next week b/c ss is always stashing garbage in his room and his new room is going to be right off the livingroom :sick:

I knew that he was eating a lot of oranges, and I encourage healthy eating, but for some reason I always trust that this kid, like mine do, will put his garbage in the garbage in a timely fashion instead of letting it rot in his room.

I truly believe that the behaviors and actions of people are habits they have learned in their very early childhood. My ss was never taught how to keep things clean and maintain a neat clean enviroment (I'm trying to teach him but I am also trying to retrain dh!!) I taught my boys how to do all that from very young. My bs15 will always bring his trash down, once a week he does his laundry grabs his garbage bag (yes his trash does make it into the can!) and swipe his desk down with a paper towel and windex. SS16 cleans his room mostly just when we move. I used to do it for him about every 3 months but the past couple of years I am disengaging.