Day 68-70: More maternity clothes

So, we were out of town during these days, so how can I purge things while I'm gone, you ask.  Well, I had bagged up many of my maternity clothes (yes, I still have more!) to take down to southern California to pass off to my sister-in-law who is pregnant for the first time.  She was happy to receive them.  I bagged them up a while ago, and didn't have the time or motivation to dig through the bag and count the items, so let's just round down and say there were 30 things in the bag.

Today's Toss:
approx. 30 maternity shirts, pants, underwear, etc.= donated to a great cause!

Day 67: Pantry

So much purging could be done in my pantry.  I usually don't let myself count food as a purge item, but in this case, I have a lot of things that I've been "storing" up in my pantry, and since it has taken up space for awhile, and we haven't eaten it, I am giving myself credit for getting rid of it!

We are getting ready to go out of town and while I was packing the kids' snacks for the car, I ran into a lot of snacks that ended up in the trash instead!

Today's Toss:
10 food/snack items

Day 66: Random

I'm starting to lose track of my days..it's been awhile since I documented what I purged and I've been sick, as well as out of town for 5 days.  I'll do my best to catch up and re-trace my purging steps...

Daily Toss:
2 children's Bible songs CDs
1 BHG magazine
2 plastic princess cups

Total= 5 things (I can't remember what else, so we'll say this day fell a little short)

Day 65: Clothes

Again, I went clothes shopping for myself last weekend, so purging isn't really about decreasing today, more about keeping a status-quo.  I am determined not to hang anything new up in my closet unless I take something else out of my closet.  So...

Today's Toss:
5 shirts
2 sweaters
1 pair of jeans
...and because I didn't get rid of any more clothes
2 containers of dried-out Floam

=10 things!

Day 64: Easter Eggs

So, I had a revelation today that seems so simple, but I was proud of myself.

My son's class requested that we donate a dozen plastic eggs stuffed with treats for a "spring" egg hunt that they'll be having this Friday.  So, of course, I'm excited because I've got a jillion plastic eggs in my closet that I would LOVE to get rid of.  And then, I think, "Oh, when am I going to get to go to the store to buy candy to put in them??"  THEN, (here's the a-ha moment) I realize, why am I going to the store and spend money on junk to give away?  We've got plenty of junk to give away in our house already!  So, again, we went through my son's toys and found some appropriate little action figures, silly bands, erasers, etc that fit just perfectly into a plastic egg.  Voila!!

Today's Toss:
12 plastic eggs
12 treats inside the eggs
=24 things gone from my house!!!

Day 62 & 63: More and More TOYS!

So, my son had his birthday last week.  Which means that we just had an influx of more stuff.  So, purging 10 things a day is not really reducing our total mass of items, right now.  We are just trying to get back to even.

Thankfully my neighbor gave us an opportunity to purge, since her church is looking for items to stock a "prize box" for kids.  I went through my son's room and with his permission (mostly) we came up with 25 toys & items to give away.  I love it!

Today's (& Tomorrow's) Toss:
25 gently used toys, donated to my neighbor's church

Day 61: More Baby Things

I gave away our baby bassinet and sheets this week.  My Bible study leader is expecting her first child next month, and while I had planned to sell this bassinet on Craigslist and make a little $$ off of it, I decided to give it away instead.  Actually I was convicted by the Lord that I need to trust Him for my finances, and that I didn't need to take money from a friend to save up for the things I feel I need more money for.  I just didn't feel right about it.  Especially since the bassinet & sheets were gifted to us.  We have been so blessed with so many things.  I think I will continue to wrestle with giving versus selling.

In addition to that, there were 8 baby rattles and toys that I donated yesterday to MMCenter.  One of them was even brand new in the bag.  Part of me wanted to save it for our baby, since it was brand-spankin' new.  But truthfully we already have stacking rings, and so many more baby toys.  I hope someone else will feel they are special in having a brand new toy for their baby.

Today's Toss:
1 bassinet
2 bassinet sheets
8 baby rattles and toys

=11 baby items on to new homes, to bless more babies!

Day 60: The MMCenter Drop-Off

Finally!  I have been driving around town with a huge box in my trunk, filled with all these things I wanted to give to the Marjaree Mason Center.  I was seriously so ready to have these things out of my house and my car...I almost did a happy dance right there in their driveway.  : )

I did a little more last minute purging of some things I thought they could use...

Today's Toss:
1 cell phone
1 charger (the MMCenter gives these to women in domestic violence situations and they can call 9-1-1 with them if needed)
6 puzzles
3 toys

11 things for the MMCenter--yeay!  A great cause!

Day 59: Cheap Toys

One thing I've also started doing is taking cheap toys, like from fast food kids' meals boxes, and putting them pretty much straight into a donate box.  Unless of course, my kid seems really attached to it.  But, in my experience, they play with the toy while they are supposed to be eating the kid's meal you just bought, and then they either leave it in the car, or pretty much drop it first thing inside the door and forget about it.  I don't toss it right away, but I leave it in the "donate box" in my laundry room, and wait a few days to see if they ask for it at all.  Rarely does this happen.

My neighbor has requested some gently used kids' toys for a prize box they have at their Wednesday night program at church, so I figure these items will be perfect for that.

Today's Toss:
1 board book
1 bottle of Orbees
2 cars
1 necklace charm
2 happy meal toys
dinosaur flash cards
pencil bag
glider plane

Total:
10 toys that will hopefully make some kid (but maybe not some clutter-avoiding parent) happy!

Day 58: Pillows & Clothes

8 more toddler girls clothing items
3 old pillows, donated to MMCenter

Total:  11 things given away!

Day 57: Jumbo Coloring Books

I found some jumbo coloring books while attempting to clear through my kids' art & learning supply corner, which is a MESS!
Today's Toss:
11 scribbled-all-over Handy Manny pages-recycling bin
1 in good condition Cars jumbo book-donated

Total: 12 more things

Day 56: Files

Today I started going through my file folders, in the bottom drawer of my desk.  The big question being: "Which documents really need to be saved?"  I'm having a hard time believing anything does!  It seems like any statement can be accessed online, so what is the point of saving hard copies anymore??

It's also hard to quantify documents...like am I really going to count each piece of paper?  Count each file folder?  I dunno.

All I do know is that I threw several file folders full of papers into the recycling bin today.  And last night we gave back our "modern cradle" to my parents so they can keep it in their house for any of their future grand babies.

Today's (& Yesterday's) Toss:
12 folders, portfolios, and all their contents from file drawer
1 cradle

13 things!

Day 55: Medicine Cabinet

Last night I scurried at the end of the day to find 10 things to throw away.  I was actually behind by a day or two so, I wanted to find something quick to record.  The medicine cabinet (which I actually keep NO medicine in) had several items that went into the trash.

Ta-Da!!

Today's Toss:
11 random cosmetic items, thrown away!

Next to clean the medicine cabinet...

Day 54: Desk Drawers

My desk drawers are actually not as disorganized as the junk all over the top of my desk!
I started in on my top desk drawer and cleared out a few things:

2 old passport photos
2 packages of invitation
1 old membership card
7 encouragement cards
1 map of timeshare resort
1 instructions for digital camera

=14 things, into trash or recycling

Day 52 & 53: Baby Clothes

Today as I was sorting through baby girl clothes (since my baby is about to "size up") and as I was looking through all of the next size & next season clothes that I have saved from my first daughter, I realized that there were a lot I could get rid of.  Again, realizing that just because they are in good shape, or given by someone with good intentions, doesn't mean that I have to keep them.  Mostly I figure, if I didn't put in on my first daughter, for whatever reason, I probably won't use it with my second one.

Today's (& Yesterday's) Toss:
approximately 25 items of baby girl clothing

=being donated to the MMCenter

Day 51: Kid's Clothes

It amazes me that after 50 days of tossing at least ten things, that there is still so much more to purge from our house.  If I can keep it in my mind that I need to get rid of ten things as I go about my daily cleaning and putting things away, I easily find my items.

Today it was while I was sorting through the kids' closet, putting something away and realized that my son has a lot of clothes in his drawer that are old, and that honestly, never get worn.  I am confronted at how many hand-me-downs I've saved, just because they were free, without any consideration if they are actually clothes my son will wear.  It's like I feel that I need more clothes to give him a greater variety of things to pick from, yet he wears the same 5-7 shirts every week.  This definitely is changing the way I think about buying & acquiring clothes for my family.

Here it is....

Today's Toss:
14 items of clothing from my son's closet

All of them were in decent shape, so they went straight into the Goodwill bag.

Day 50: Hubby's Bathroom Drawer

I stumbled into my husband's bathroom drawer the other day when I was looking for something, and yikes!  Talk about clutter and junk that will never be used!  So today, I asked him to help me with my daily purge by going through his bathroom drawer.  5 minutes later, he told me he was done.

Today's Toss:

Donated-
1 toothbrush holder
3 travel bags
1 nose hair trimmer

Into trash-
13 items
(To be honest, I don't know what they all were,
& I don't really want to!  I am going to take his word for it!)

Day 49: Towels

So today I hit up the kids' bathroom again to look for old washcloths & towels that might be nice enough to donate.

& I found some!

Today's Toss:4 hooded baby towels
4 baby washcloths
(these I'll donate)
2 ratty washcloths-into our rags for cleaning the car, etc.

Also, to note, that as I was cleaning out the baby washcloths, thinking that some were too worn out to donate.  Instead of throwing them in the trash, I was thinking about what else they could be used for.  My a-ha moment came when I realized I could use them as baby wipes!  I've been intending to make my own baby wipe solution and use cloths to wipe baby at diaper changes.  Now I have some more cloths that cost me nothing to buy and no time to make!  Genius!

Day 48: Linens to Donate

Today's Toss:
14 twin bed sheets & pillow cases

All being donated to MMCenter (someday soon!)