Clutter Removed

Monday I spent the day clearing out our closets and other areas where things like to collect. It was an All.Day.Event!

My mom came over to cart the stuff away. She's got connections and knows people who need stuff--like she knows a grandma with a lot of grandchildren who could use kid stuff and we've got plenty of that! She knows where the best places to take things to Goodwill with the most need and who to take the other stuff if we want to sell it.

I began with the girls' clothes. Then moved on to my clothes. After my clothes I moved on to the other stuff in my closet. I did not even know most of the things that were in there were in there! I had a giant bag of purses--brand new purses. I had no idea they were in there. They had to have been years old because I haven't bought a random purse in over four years. I'm a Coach girl and treat myself to one Coach a year. I thought I got rid of all my extra purses years ago!

I also had, stashed way, way in the back of my closet was baby stuff. I saved some of the oddest things like our--Moses Basket, infant positioner--I'm done having babies and have no need for any baby item but for some strange reason I had those items crammed into the back of my closet. I had old infant toys, a huge bag of Beanie Babies..it's like anything I could not find a place for I stuck in my closet. Thankfully it is a walk-in so there was room but geesh!

I also cleaned out my linen closet! I had the crib sets from C (he's 7!) and A (she's 3!) stuffed up on the top shelf. Seriously? What was I going to do with those?

After I was finished dragging stuff out I had enough to stuff her van full! Yet, it doesn't feel like I reduced our clutter. I've likely got more than enough junk to stuff her van a few more times! One day I'll get it all out of here! One day!

Next on my list....the kids' old craft bucket and play doh stuff and other clutter that's overtaking our laundry room!

Clutter Removed

Cleaning Up and Clearing it Out!

You know, we have a lot of junk.

J.U.N.K.

There are six of us and each of us has our own junk. So we are trying to reduce our junk! And as much as I hate to admit this, most of the junk belongs to me. I have tons of craft stuff that I never use because I have no time. I have all kinds of half-completed projects that will probably never be completed. I've got papers--things I feel like I can never, never, never discard. It's silly. I do believe there is a pack-rat gene and I do believe it runs in my family. And I do believe I have that gene.

So I have made a deal with myself. The first step was to recycle all of the kids' school papers that I had kept in Rubbermaid tubs in my bedroom. Let's see, S is in 6th grade, M is in 3rd grade and C is in 1st grade. I kept every art project and every significant project or paper from their classes. You can try to imagine how much that is exactly--it's too embarrassing for me to say. So the deal was that I could recycle these papers if I took a picture of the papers so we'd still have the memory of them but not the actual clutter. So almost 400 pictures later (multiple projects in each picture) I drove all of the projects to the recycling center. It was a HUGE deal and I was sure the sky would fall as I placed my beautiful children's art work in bins to ultimately be destroyed. But, the sky didn't fall and after a brief mouring period I felt okay about freeing up all of that space--quite accomplished even!

So the next step, and this is the step I am working on today is all of these craft projects and supplies for all of these projects. They have taken over my bedroom. I began last night with a silly puzzle Christmas ornament project I was doing years ago--I still had all of the spare puzzle pieces and junk to make them with. They aren't that cute so I don't know why I kept the supplies. And boxes of fabric I had found for quilt making--I don't know how to make a quilt and I was positive I could teach myself. The quilt is almost made (it's not bad actually), folded and placed in a Rubbermaid tub in our laundry room. I haven't even looked at it in years. Who knows if I'll ever finish it. I do plan to work on that this summer after the semester ends so I can give it to Madison so I am keeping that. But I've got all of these boxes of fabric scraps from this quilt (oh and the 3 others I started--1 for each kid) that I will not use. So those are going. I have at least 10 more various projects and all of the supplies for each project and all of those are going. The deal I made with myself is if they can't fit into a small green tote I have then I can't keep them. They will, depending on their condition, be trashed or go to Goodwill.

Next will be my clothes--I'm up a few sizes but feel like I can get back down. I'm sure you all know how that's going to go!

Cleaning Up and Clearing it Out!