Minimize existing clutter and excess possessions

I finally made an appointment with the consignment shop and took in all the old toys. Whatever they didn’t buy went to Salvation Army – I hope they all find many happy hours of play from other children.

I donated 4 more boxes of outgrown childrens clothes, 2 boxes of household items donated, and two big trash cans filled with junk. I donated winter coats/boots to the United Way outerwear drive and took in all the old skates and got store credit for new ones for my childs growing feet.

The toy closet seriously has some space now WHoooHOOOOO!

Took a van full to the incinerator last weekend. Made a pile for ‘give away or sell’, now just need to DO that! It’s better but wow – there’s still a lot of stuff.

5 more of girl clothes out of the house. It seems my kids are growing up faster than I can keep up with removing the backlog. At least all the infant stuff was gone a while ago but now toddler stuff is going too.

I really need to refocus on this goal – I can’t stand the thought of new winter clothes and Christmas gifts coming into the house without making room.

I [ut an add in for give away stuff. Gone within a week – wow that was easy. Chiminea, lawn mower, car seats, and sold a A/C that I hadn’t used in 4 yrs. Need to decide what to put in next months paper and be free of more. Nice to know it’s not going into the trash which is basically where it is bound from my point of view, and garage sales are just too much work for me right now.

I think baby clothes might be like those wire hangers – they multiply when you leave them alone in the closet. I’d thought after ridding myself of at least 6 large boxes of baby clothes I’d be almost done. Nope – I emptied 12 more this weekend. Wow – the shelf space I now have is amazing!

Royally ticked off that I didn’t make the phone call I knew I should have made to save myself some trouble – nooooooo – I had to take the chance I had to actually load up the car with three boxes of toys and a baby swing to take it to the resell place. Drive up and there’s a big sign in the window – by appointment only. Turned around and went home.

Now I have to make a phone call

I donated a big box of books this weekend. Good timing too since they have a BIG sale during the winterfest this month. I spent some time working through part of a closet too. Tossed some, set others aside for resell or donate.

It’s going to take me all year to complete this goal. Sometimes that is discouraging. Other days I get pretty excited about completing this. But then am I ever really done?

Last night I was able to pack two boxes of toys to try to sell at the second hand store. The ones my kids never really played with so they still look good or are ‘classic’ namebrand toys. They are very picky with the clothes but I’ve never tried taking toys so we’ll just have to see how much they’ll take.

My daughter spotted the box and demanded to play with the ‘new’ old toys that were poking out of the top. Ooops- these things have been stored for a while so that they wouldn’t even notice they were gone. Not sure when I’ll get a chance to take them in since it’s pretty obvious I will not be able to do it with the kids along!

of how I’m trying to accomplish this. I did just advertise several large items in our local swap list. hope someone wants them. Last night I was working through a desk drawer. My original intention was to toss most of it. It has dozens of folders of travel brochers/info from places we’ve been. I couldn’t do it. I tossed a bunch of stuff, but really I had more left over than I intended. Seriously – the internet is a much better resource than those flyers/adds/magazines in the folders so why do I keep them??? This felt like a giant waste of time. It’s in the drawer – who cares if there’s junk in there?

I just found clarity in the difference between my goal of organize my house and this new one for de-clutter. Getting rid of the stuff I don’t need and don’t want (de-clutter) VS. making a logical home for those things I do want. I’d love to be able to know where something is when I want it – that’s organized. The sinking feeling in my stomach when I look in my closets – that’s clutter induced. Two problems, two goals.