Decluttering day 1-3

I decided to document my decluttering efforts on my blog. Our tri-parish can not continue to pay a full-time pastor forever. I don't know what God's plans for our family are, but I don't think we will be here for more than a few more years. I plan to go through every drawer, closet, and bin in our house this summer. I want to get rid of some, organize what we keep, and clean the house well. Some of the items that I am getting rid of need to be cleaned up (strollers, baby swing, etc.). And then I need to organize where what I am getting rid of is going. Some items that I'm keeping need to be packed up like the baby bouncy seat. I'm not sure if I will get to our many bookshelves this summer with everything else planned for this summer.

Tuesday- I worked through the bin of 0-6 month clothes and got rid of some. I had done this before so there wasn't a lot that I was willing to part with. Hopefully as I go to the next age bin I'm willing to get rid of more. This is so difficult because I don't know if we will have more children or the sex of those children! Baby clothes are so cute, but they don't wear them for long before they outgrow them. I did actually get rid of a couple of Pooh outfits so I'm slowly making progress. (Last time I gave away almost everything that wasn't Pooh and my mom said I was still keeping too much.) Our boys have all been small when they were born and wore their newborn clothes much longer than the typical baby.

I also worked through 2 bins of VHS and DVDs that we own-deciding what to give away, what to watch and then give away, and making a list of what we own that I decided to keep. We actually own quite a few movies and many of them we have never watched-which is the reason why we have never had a Netflix subscription.

I also almost caught up on laundry after our vacation and kept up on dishes even after making jam on Monday and a pie today.

Wednesday-I worked on the movie organization project some more. I am up to over 200 VHS/DVDs that we own! I am basically done with organizing and listing the movies. I still have a huge tub of movies that I want to watch or have the Lambs watch and then decide if we are going to keep them. Those are not included in the 200! I discovered a couple of movies that we had 2 copies of and I had no idea when it was all disorganized. Yes, the Lambs still regularly watch VHS movies!

I worked on 2 tubs of 6-12 month clothes-I would like to get it down to 1 tub, but we'll see.

Thursday- Today the Lambs helped me organize their puzzles and we got a pile to give away making sure all the pieces were there for those.

Lamb 1 decided to organize his underwear by type (Elmo, Thomas, vehicles, Mickey Mouse etc.) and get the ones that were too small ready for his brothers. It was so funny how organized his basket of underwear was when he was done! He's caught the organizing bug from me!

I spent a long time this afternoon organizing everything that we plan to give away. I have boxes or bags for my parents, my sister, Half Price Books, Hyde Brothers (used bookstore in Fort Wayne), a lot for the Seminary, Goodwill, Once Upon a Child, and a few big items to try to sell on the local radio station. I've worked a little in the Lamb room, a little on the baby clothes, the puzzles, and the videos and we already have several bags to give away. It will be much easier now that that is organized when I find more items to give away to just put them in the correct bag.