You guys are killin' it in here! Seriously!
Welcome, and better late than never
thedreadedknock! I feel like every year
I do a bunch of purging at the beginning, and then a ton at the end. Yup. That's me.
I have been getting better at tossing things in the first place,
so that I don't have to do a formal purge later.
For all I know I've reached my 2014 already for this year.
I had to search way back to find out where I left off this spring:
I've been donating and handing down like crazy to try to make space for the boys to have their own bedroom. Last month I gave away a lot of the big ticket items to a friend who is having a baby, she took a bunch of clothes too. I'm going to call that
Two Dozen. I also brought a few things to Goodwill. I'll call that another
Dozen.
During the first week of Bedroom Migration (that's what I've called my post in the photo's section) I threw out and recycled another
Two Dozen things, and started piling up donations to post on Freecycle and/or take to Goodwill. I got a bite for some baby items--a woman who volunteers with Women Helping Battered Women was looking for things for a new 'case', a woman with a ten week old baby who fled with an overnight bag, and the bare essentials for baby. I was excited that she was coming to take almost my whole donation pile, but then I started 'shopping' around the house for household items she might need.
You guys, I tripled the pile, at least.
I let the volunteer know to come with an empty car, and we still had to un-box some things to squeeze them into the gaps in order to get it all in. I'm going to type it all out here to celebrate:
Pack-n-Play
Play Mat
Car-Seat
Hiking Backpack (one of the two, waiting for someone else to get back to me about the other one)
Baby Gate
Shopping Cart Cover
Baby Floater
Boppy Pillow
Baby Bjorn Carrier
(6) Board Books
(6) Baby Winterwear
(24) Box full of bibs, burp rags, baby hooded towels etc...
(2) Plushies with built in rattles etc...
(6) Baby Feeding items
(48) Medium Box of Baby Clothes/blankets etc...
Diaper Genie with 2 refills
Infant Sled
Babyproofing Outlet Covers
That's
104 baby items.
(3) Blankets
(3) Mismatched Flat Sheets
(2) Pillow Protectors
Set of Twin sized sheets (new in package)
Set of Full sized sheets (freshly washed I was folding them when the volunteer showed up)
(8) Bath Towel, Bathmat, Hand Towel, Body Scrub Gloves, Shower Gel and Body Spray, Toothpaste, Lavender Wipes.
Household Goods:
18Dish Drainer with tray
(3) Brand new pots and pans still in boxes
Casserole Dish with lid
(6) Utensils
(8) Plastic storage containers with lids
(3) Dish-soap and some scrubbing sponges
(6) 4-Cloth Napkins with matching handmade hot pad and dish-cloth
(3) Plastic Wrap, Aluminum Foil, Ziploc Bags
Kitchenware:
31(36) Big Box of Women's Clothing
I might be forgetting some things! The best part is that the volunteer said she'd take it all, bring it for the woman she's working with to pick through, and anything she doesn't need/can't use she'll bring to the WHBW office for the next person!
I'm sending Husband to the recycling dumpster while I type this, so there goes another
5 things.
That's 254 Items OUT! 184 of them in one go! I even counted some multi-piece items as one thing!
That leaves one thousand, four hundred, twenty-three things to purge by the end of the year. I didn't count the papers I went through when I cleared off the bar. I didn't count the things that I've been throwing away as I run across them.
This is HUGE progress compared to the last times I tried this challenge!
1423--That's doable! In fact I'm already started:
There is a Goodwill box waiting to be counted and taken away.
I have a bag of coats, hats, and mittens waiting to go to the dry cleaners nearby that cleans them for free and donates them!
I'm still purging toys and feeding items to go to the Safe Haven Clinic in Cambodia! The nurse comes to pick them up this weekend!