We have been tackling a few more areas in our home
lately. A couple weekends ago I made
another pass through my bedroom closet.
I found a few small items I no longer wished to hang onto, but the
biggest thing I purged was my Miche bag and all of its covers. I'd been on the fence for quite some time as
to whether or not to let it go. I
decided in January to really use it for the month and see how it went. Turns out I don't really care for the bag and
I kept catching the edges of the covers and knocking them off the bag. I gathered it all up and added it to the new
donation pile we have started.
The next category we've started tackling is childhood
toys. I've gone through all of my own
leftovers from childhood and kept only those items that mean the most to me,
however it has been a very long time since we went through the girls
things. This weekend we pulled from
storage the bins of dolls they had and went through everything. It made a huge mess in the living room and
took two days to get through the bulk of it.
We are still working on it. The
girls were amazing and they opted to get rid of all the Barbie stuff and most
of the other dolls. Some things went
right into the donation pile while others have been photographed and are now
offered up on eBay. We washed dolly
clothes, cleaned dolls and groomed them so everything is nice, clean and ready
for its next home. The girls hope to
make some extra cash to offset some of the expenses we had last year. Fingers crossed that these items sell.
Selling items rather than donating does tend to slow down
the process quite a bit, however we are pretty much at the end of the major
purging projects so we have the time.
Plus it is only February and with the wet and chilly weather not much
else is going on around here as far as projects go. Along with the girl's toys I'm still working
on the old inventory from my shop that has been stored out in our garage. I'm working on getting it all listed to sell
and so far have sold most of what has already been listed so I am optimistic
about selling off the rest. I decided to
only list a few things to test the waters and now I am ready to get the rest of
this stuff sold and out of here. I will
also be donating quite a bit of this stuff too as selling it all would take an
enormous amount of time and effort.
Before |
After - the pile on the left is shredding |
Last month I went through all of our "important"
papers and old tax returns. I was able
to purge quite a bit and reduce a lot of what I had been keeping. I've said it before and I will say it
again. Paper clutter is the bane of my
existence. It drives me nuts!! But when I can shred, burn or recycle a huge
pile of it I feel so good. Like I've
accomplished something really spectacular.
Paper clutter really weighs me down.
On the right is the Miche bag and covers |
Cleaned, dusted and re-organized. Ahhhh. |
Purging and decluttering is a never ending process. I have to keep at it all the time so things
do not take over and become overwhelming.
Even a quick five minutes to go through the junk drawer, a stack of
papers on my desk or a quick pass through a cupboard or drawer can make a huge
difference. I refuse to let stuff take
over.
I always think of myself as a purger but you definitely inspire me to do more! And please tell your girls that my 15 year old earned enough $ selling his old things on ebay to buy himself AirPods! Such a good thing to do all around
ReplyDeleteOh good. Glad I could help! LOL
DeleteI will tell the girls. ;)
I am giving decluttering my best go this year. It is not easy but I will get there - eventually anyway. At some point I will need to go through my quilt supplies too but I have many other areas I want to tackle first. Like you have said many times - paper is the worst! I try to tackle something in that department daily.
ReplyDeleteThe other day the mail didn't even make it in the house. I stood at the trash can and took care of it there and then. Ha!
DeleteI hate to see the Barbie stuff go. I have never heard of a Miche bag.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sad about it. None of it has any real value.
DeleteI agree, decluttering is never done. I also agree on the paper issue. I've gone to electronic bills for most utilities and the amount of paper I receive has declined significantly. I also file taxes electronically, so keep only copies of tax slips. Usually I go through the box I store important papers in on January 1st. It's a great way to start the year fresh. :)
ReplyDeleteI pretty much do all that too. It has made a significant difference. Once my youngest is done with school it will get even better. :0)
Delete