Today I will be working on my clothing. I have a box half full waiting for donation and hope to top it off and drop it off today.
I noticed when putting my laundry away that the drawers are so stuffed that sometimes I just pile the excess on top of the trunk at the end of our bed. Sometimes that pile ends up getting knocked down and then I end up rewashing it all whether it was worn or not. Extra work for no reason.
Another item has been toys. A mothering book, which one I can't remember at the moment, gave me the freedom to purge toys whether they were sentimental or not by stating, "Think of toys as expendable. Like a movie or a day out at the park. Fun for awhile but not having to be hoarded." Or something like that, I'm paraphrasing here.
The point is, I can buy the kids a bag of 25 cent plastic farm animals at the thrift store and know that by the end of the week they will be forgotten and spread around the house. I can then bag them up and send them back to the thrift store (or even sweep them up and toss them) and still consider that 25 cents well spent. Because even if it's just an hour or two - they were played with. That doesn't mean they have to be kept. The freedom to look at toys (or books, or movies) in that sense is an immense help in pairing down our belongings.
Good luck with the clothes purging! I've heard one question to ask is "would I buy this if I saw it in a store right now?" Lately I've seen a lot about the konmari method, where everything you own should inspire joy. I don't know if you could use that bar with every single item, but I suppose it's a start.
ReplyDeleteI used to hate getting rid of toys because when I'd go through them to try and gather all the pieces, this toy that the kids hadn't paid attention to since two days after it came into the house was suddenly The Best Toy in the World. I eventually realized that kids will play with any toy for five or ten minutes, but it doesn't mean I have to keep it if it's not getting played with all the time or if they've outgrown it. Letting it go got a lot easier after that.
I hadn't heard about the konmari method so googled it and it sounds right up my alley! I will be looking for that book! :)
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