I can’t do it. All morning, I’ve walked into Adelyn’s room, garbage bag in hand… look around and that’s it. My chest starts to feel heavy and my body gets tingly, so I walk out.
The plan is to clean out all the toys. All the things that are no longer played with. We need to make room. Since my sister took over Stone’s room, his crib is in ours, but all of his toys are in with Adelyn. It’s a disaster zone.
I don’t know why it’s so hard, I know they won’t miss the toys. Each toy represents something, either a gift, hand-me-downs or special big sister presents. Things she hasn’t played with in months. Infant toys he hasn’t touched ever.
Saying good bye to babyhood. It’s hard.
flower clip: c/o Treena Bean
I don’t know what to do with the toys. I’ve always just dropped off clothes and other things at Goodwill. Which I think is great. But Goodwill charges for people to buy these things. I want these toys to go to a family in need, a family that can’t afford to even shop at Goodwill, because lets be honest… there are families worse off than us, and some things at Goodwill are too overpriced for me.
February is going to be a month of organizing. Spring cleaning a tad early. Out with the old, in with the clean and organized. I’m at peace when everything has a place, and lately, nothing has a place. There is just too much stuff in this house, I look around, and it looks a mess… even though it was just cleaned. Every closet in this house is filled and over flowing, our attic might cave in on us.
So with our tax money this year, after paying ahead our bills, I will be scouring every thrift store searching for storage solutions, I have a million ideas thanks to Pinterest, it’s just finding the right pieces for the right price.
In the mean time, tell me, how do you keep your house organized? What storage options have worked best for your house. What about the kids rooms?
Hope you had a fabulous weekend, or week, as I’m not sure when you’re reading this.
# kristanlynn
xoxo
Just a thought, is there a family emergency shelter in your area? Or an organization that helps with crisis pregnancies? We have to emergency shelters and one crisis pregnancy center near us. All these places can use things like toys and baby gear. They can keep it on hand to use for babies and kids who are at the facilities and sometimes they give it to those families to help them get set up when they're ready to leave the shelter. Our church has a drop off for one of the facilities. The others we can just stop by and drop the things off.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, remember that Goodwill uses the money they charge to help people in need get necessary job skills. Or maybe there is a St. Vincent dePaul or Salvation Army store near you? They usually charge less than Goodwill in their stores. Those are two organizations that help the poorest of the poor and don't turn anyone in need away (I have worked for both in the past and they are incredible groups). Not only do they charge less, but the money they make also goes to helping people who are in need.
As for organization ideas, I have none, so I'll be watching your blog for the ideas you come up with!
I don't know what state you are in but I love to donate to refugees. If you have a resettlement agency in your city, they will take them. (Refugees come to the united states legally and are only allowed one bag. Although often they don't even have enough to fill one bag.) Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteWhen my son was born, there was an overflow of wonderful gifts. I quickly realized that there was going to be a lot of stuff FOREVER, so I'd better get moving on a solution. Mine was simple - for every toy or piece of clothing that came in, one had to go out. Period. And I was uncharacteristically strict with myself! Some things were donated right away; the educational toys were were dropped off at the local elementary school; some things were just put in a nice box at the curb that said FREE.
ReplyDeleteThe upside of this was that there was never an avalanche of kid stuff; the downside was that I was constantly having to make a what-stays/what-goes decision for both my son and (later) my daughter. So when my son turned 5, I turned the toy job over to him. I made a pretty big deal about it so he would feel great about his new decision-making power. He loved it, since suddenly he was boss of his own stuff! This was something my daughter looked forward to when she turned 5, too. (I stayed the course with their clothes - otherwise, they both would have gone to school looking a little odd!)
At the time, I was doing all I could just to work and do mom stuff and keep up with the day-to-day. In retrospect, though, I think I stumbled on a pretty good idea. Both kids say they plan to do it with their kids, too, so maybe it's a tradition.
A footnote to this is that my husband and I had to do this, too! That, I have to say, was much harder, but had a great payoff in the long run.
I really hate clutter and we have a pretty tiny house so I really don't keep anything that we don't use regularly. Living a simple, clutter free life just makes me happier. I totally agree with the whole Goodwill thing and giving toys to people who need them..maybe check with local churches or something?? Just keep in mind that memories will last a life time and the toys are just "things." Good luck, you can do it :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of giving them to a family truly in need! And I hear ya sister on the clutter - moving to a larger house was a huge motivator for me to finally get organized since we actually have room for storage solutions / furniture now! We are nowhere near done, but I started out by buying those ClosetMaid Cubicals while they were on sale at target and I fell in love. The beauty in those is that the whole system works together, so you have a ton of options, and they're buildable. Everything is made to either stand alone, or stack on top of another, mount to the wall, etc. So far we have bought one of the 9 cube "shelves" with fabric bins for my craft room, 2 small one-door cabinet units we're using for nightstands, a larger 2-door cabinet as a microwave stand/storage in the kitchen, and a 15-cube shoe organizer. Plus I've bought a ton of cute fabric bins (i found some grey and teal ones in the dollar section at target for $2.50 each as opposed to the $6 for the closet maid brand, but they are too big to fit in the closetmaid cubicals so you do have to buy the expensive ones for those) to put on the shelves and in our closets as a way to separate and organize things. They have made such a HUGE difference! You have to put them together yourself and they aren't the highest fancy quality, but they look nice enough, they match, and they work for us on a budget. I would compare them to IKEA's products and prices, except of course you don't have to drive for hours to get them :) As much as I love the thrifting and the idea of refinishing some old furniture, realistically those projects would never get finished and could end up costing the same or more money. It's definitely worth checking into!
ReplyDeleteshe's so cute! Thank you for making me smile with this post!
ReplyDeleteXoXo
Plami
http://www.fashionthrill.com/
She is simply the cutest little lady - that hair is to die for! I often wonder about donations as well. I really need to look into that for spring cleaning. You are so right that there are people out there struggling to even shop at goodwill. I would love to be able to contribute and help them. I did look up one last year and was able to find a mission for men's things but nothing for women. I must not have looked hard enough. I am adding that to my list of things to do!
ReplyDeleteHappy Monday - Brandi
She is too cute!! I always have a hard time getting rid of things I'm such a pack rat it's terrible.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lyzhang.com
My house isn't organized. Like you I can't bring myself to get rid of ant of my sons' stuff.
ReplyDeleteWe have to teach our children while they are still young to clean up. It is good to start from cleaning up their toys after their play time and eventually they will get used to it until they grow up. environmental services
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