Lessons from Simplifying

On Friday I had a hot date so I threw one of my favorite tops in the washing machine with a whole load of my clothing as well as some of the kid's clothing. Being short on time, I threw everything into the dryer instead of attempting to hang it all outside. Just before I was set to leave with my husband I rummaged through the dryer to find my top and was immediately puzzled by all the blue spots on my favorite pair of capris. As I dug deeper into the dryer I saw that all our clothes now had spotted blue designs. I found the culprit at the bottom of the dryer - an empty crayon wrapper.

I was upset, as you can imagine! Included in this load of clothes were some of my favorite outfits (and I have very few favorites) as well as some of the cutest outfits for the kids. I rushed around trying to find another top before leaving for date night but my excitement was a bit squashed as I fumed over my ruined clothes. I finally had to stop myself and take a deep breath and tell myself I am sure there is a way to get the crayon marks out and I will just enjoy my date and do a little Google research once I arrived home.

I had a blast on the date with my husband. What is better than one on one time with hubby at a romantic table at a Chinese restaurant?! It had been over a month and a half since we were able to eat alone without children clamoring for our attention!

Back home I googled ways to remove set in crayon from clothing. There were millions of recipes and I settled with the one I had on hand: rubbing each stain with a bar of soap and sticking the clothing in a hot water soak overnight. This morning I noticed some of the marks were gone but most lingered on. I went to the store looking for Goo Be Gone or other products that were recommended but found none. I grabbed some Oxi-Clean Spray hoping that would do the trick and was found spraying each spot on my arrival home. I did another hot wash and took my basket of clothes outside to see how they fared as I hung them out to dry. Some of the clothing was salvaged. Some were still stained considerably but are pajamas so not a big concern. And some (my white top and my light capris) are ruined. I was upset.

Then I realized that they are just clothes! It was not my whole wardrobe. It was a few pieces of clothing. If needed, they are replaceable. They are not sentimental items or something of great value. If my house were to burn down right now I would not be mourning over the top or capris.

Things. They can own you, if you're not careful. This was a wake up call to me and just one of the many lessons that I am sure to learn throughout this simplifying process.

On that note, I spent a good part of this evening sweating myself silly in the playroom (which felt more like a sauna) organizing. I found a huge giftbag full of items to throw away and filled a large garbage bag of items to drop of for donation on Monday. Most importantly, I am learning to let go...both physically and mentally.