If you watch those simplify your life/de-clutter shows they always follow a simple formula. When you are going through your mountains of stuff (for the record we only have small hills, no mountains in this house) you should seperate it all into 3 piles: Throw out, give away, sell.
If you decide to follow this plan, as I did, I give you one piece of advice. If you can't get the "give away/sell" pile out of your house immediately - HIDE IT!!!! If you don't, your 3.5 year old will find it, and he will go through it. And he will find toys that he didn't even know he had (they were buried under other crap) and say things like:
"LOOK Mommy, look what I found. Ohh I love it. I wonder who gave it to me? Look at this stuff in this bag..."
ARGGGGGGG! I just might have to resort to stealing those two beany babies back while he is sleeping. Or maybe I will let him keep them. OH GOD HELP ME!!! I need to get rid of this crap!
13 comments:
I know this... I have gone through this several times just this week in fact. I have two seekers of thrown out things. Ahhhhh!
BTW, I find it VERY surprising you're not hit on-- maybe you just don't recognize the hit?
Good advice. We made the mistake one time of having a garage sale with the kids around. What started out as a full table of toys, stuffed animals, etc. quickly became a pathetic smattering of crap that even the hoarding children didn't want.
In our house, with kid things, we dispose of the good while they are playing at Grandma's. Because it just isn't pretty (or possible) when they are in the house.
I have to hide the stuff I'm throwing out/giving away from my son AND my husband!!
SO true. My kids are hoarders - especially my oldest. Even things that aren't toys - old vases, broken picture frames - will make him cry if he finds them in the garbage pile. All artwork must be sorted and disposed of in total secret!
We had that problem too!! We still have yet to get rid of a bunch of the toys. Birthday is less than a month away, we figure the night before the party we will moce them out of the playroom then so that when we come home with all new toys, there will be room. Great idea, huh?!?! Let's just hope we remember to do it!!!
You are doing such a great job!!!! Keep up the good work!!! You can do it!!!
ugh children can so destroy the declutter plans!
Sometimes I declutter while the kids are out or asleep and sometimes I make my six year old help me. I want her to know it's okay to pass things on when we're finished with them. We have someone in our family who is a serious hoarder and I'd like my kids to learn an appropriate way to deal with the stuff we collect in our lives.
HA! I have lived this exactly five or six or six hundred times at least!
Haha! That's great advice. If only I had somewhere to HIDE everything.... Then my house would be considerably less cluttered....? (THANK YOU for the kind words you said about me at Bliss, by the way. Really....xoxo)
I have a big bag 'o toys hiding in the basement right now! If they are found, I'm dead to my children.
Laughing with you. When we moved out here I had a big, big yard sale. Halfway through my father arrived, walked down the tables, had a hissy fit and removed some stuff. Shortly thereafter my daughter arrived, freaked and removed still more. And if you have a recipe for how you got the man in your life to give up on his clothes (mine is a super hoarder) I will love you for life. Thanks for the stories in my comments; I am really glad to know you and that you do it too. I am about to make a calendar for Feb at about 16 point. In red. Whimper.
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