Wednesday, August 15, 2007

First steps ..

Monday I wrote about learning to live with less. I even said I was going to get rid of things in my house.
We started today - the entire family (well, minus the little guy). We went through our videos. They now all fit into one spot. So when we want to watch a movie, we can see all that own at one glance.



(well, the bottom shelf might have to be moved below because the little guy thinks the movies there are now toys, but I'm hoping after a few days he'll lose interest and stop trying to open them all up! But, I won't have to move them because they don't all fit and that's exciting!) I would like to point out, there is a bit of room there to grow. We could acquire a few more videos and fit them in nicely.

I should have taken before pictures, but I didn't think about it. Needless to say this cabinet:

was full of videos before. The few in there now are blank tapes to be recorded on or homemade movies we don't want the kids getting into by accident. Both shelves had too many movies on them and they were all kind of thrown in there.

Here is the pile of movies that will be going to good will soon (and in case you are wondering why they look oh so neat, well, that was dh's way to "stack" them up. I think that was his way to toss them in a pile LOL!)



The kids did a good job of really picking movies to toss! And they had to both agree to toss them for them to end up in the pile, but I was proud of the girls. They got rid of the right amount.

I do think that this was a good item to start with. One because the whole family was involved. Two because after we were done it was nice to step back and just see it all so nice, in one spot, with no digging involved to find movies anymore. I mean, really, it just felt good! And now I have an empty cabinet in the house - which is completely nice because we've been trying to find a nice place to keep our library books. I'm pretty sure we found it tonight!

Anyway, that's my first step. Things that need to be done next:
kids clothes
kids toys
kids books
adult books
my fabric stash
my yarn stash
kitchen items
magazines
craft supplies
linens

Here's hoping we can get it done!

1 comment:

Kim said...

At our house we call this "Mom's Madness" or the "Spring Fling." (as in flinging it away...) Actually, what the kids call this is "OH NO, MOM'S AT IT AGAIN!" Twice a year we go through it all, clothes, books, toys, etc. and purge, purge, purge. I LOVE IT! They don't always like the process, but they really do enjoy the end result.

We have a rule. One thing in the house means two out. So, if you buy one pair of shoes, two must leave... etc At least till we get to a small and managable amount. We have a LONG way to go, but we are in the journey.

Welcome to the trip...
Blessings, Kim