How Much Stuff Do You Have To Get Rid Of Before You're Done!

March 29, 2011

I have been sorting through things in cupboards, on shelves, and in drawers for several weeks now...and I am trying to decide how much stuff I have to get rid of before I am done getting rid of stuff.  We have taken 4 vanloads of stuff to Goodwill, and I am still collecting stuff.  Obviously I should have been cleaning stuff out of here long before now, but with running a dance studio, and sewing costumes, and everything else I like to do, I just never got around to it. 

So when Dad decided to get new carpet in the entire downstairs, I have just taken the chance to clean out everything that we are not using.  Some of this stuff has been hanging around since the three big kids lived here....not a good sign for my Spring Cleaning abilities over the years you could say.  However, this year, the rooms are getting a good clean from top to bottom and everything in between.

The people at Goodwill now come out when I pull up to see how full I am, and then they decide whether to have me pull around to the back door.

Gone are the clothes we have outgrown, the dance stuff that is too little, some craft things that I will never use again.  Stuff has been mailed to the kids that we thought they could use with their babies.  Dad's tigers in his office are finally tolerating me again after I made them all get tumbled in the dryer to get the dust off them.  Every baseboard in the rooms that are done have been washed, the walls dusted, all the books dusted (although I have gotten rid of a lot of the books).  The old Ensigns, New Eras, and Children's Friend have found a new home in the recycle bins at the school, and the scrapbooking stuff that was cluttering my closet is now living upstairs in the scrapbook room.  Makes sense to me!  I even cleaned out the desk drawers here in the office.  I got all those run away paperclips confined back in their little box, threw away all the overstretched rubber bands, and did away with all the broken crayons in the drawer.  I now have a big collection of keys which I am afraid to get rid off since I don't know what half of them go to.  Neither does Dad....so I guess when we die, the kids will have to decide what to do with them, or maybe we will know what they go to someday.

Windows have been washed, and blinds have been dusted.  The only thing left in the office is to clean out the file cabinet, and get the piano tuned. I am going to work on the files when I am skyping the grandbabies because I can throw away papers and talk at the same time.

I have filled up and taken the paper recycling 4 times this week.....can you guess what I have been getting rid of?  Old school papers, books we don't use anymore, all the coding books I've had all these years, and the english size paper that we never seem to use for scrap paper.

The 72 hour kit is sitting in my kitchen as I need to rotate the food, and the medicine again....and the girls clothes probably don't fit them anymore.  If I leave it in the kitchen I will do it faster than if I have Dad put it away again.

I am scared to start sorting thru the sewing room, but it will be the next room to do.  Our bedroom is just about done....worked on some of the last little things last night...just have to do the blinds, and wash some glass doors, and get rid of pub papers and magazines, and hang up some pictures.  Then I need to clean up the shelves in Dad's closet with all my FHE lesson making books.   I am going to get rid of some of them too as I don't make to many lessons anymore.

I've decided when I put the sewing patterns back in the drawer, I am getting rid of anything that I wouldn't make for the grandbabies in the smaller sizes, and keeping only stuff that I would use for costumes for the girls....that will still be a lot of patterns because in the girls sizes, I will probably save most of what I have....I use a sleeve from one and a skirt from another, and a bodice from still another.

Visiting teachers are here....I write more later.