Out with the old

I’m having this overwhelming urge to clean, organize, de-clutter, get rid of old junk, and prepare for new stuff coming in. With Caden’s birthday just a short time from now, closely followed by Christmas, we will soon be having an influx of more stuff. And we’ve just been inundated with stuff from Noah’s birthday. It’s just making me realize how much stuff we have, and how much stuff we really don’t need.

Today I worked on our very cluttered office desk, which included working on our kitchen desk and our kitchen counter, as office-type stuff and paperwork tends to spill over everywhere. I still have a huge pile of papers to go through before I’m done, but I don’t think that’s going to get done tonight.

While I was reading another blog, Stop, Drop, and Blog, I found myself reading all about how I’m feeling right now. She has two boys, 4 and 2, who are just about to celebrate their birthdays. And of course, their birthdays are shortly followed by Christmas. So it really was just like reading about my life (minus the amazing photography)! She had a great idea: have each of her boys choose three toys to donate to children less fortunate than them. I’m all over that.

In the next week or so, I will be putting the boys to this task. I’m hoping that the three toys may lead to more. I’m also hoping the boys learn about the importance of keeping a clean room. And part of that is due to decreasing the amount of stuff that keeps a room from being clean. Another thing they could learn, as FireMom pointed out, is that we outgrow things. Most importantly, I want the boys to understand the idea of sharing with others who aren’t as lucky as they are. We are very blessed with what we have and what we’re able to do. There are so many others who don’t have the opportunities we do, and the boys need to learn that. It’s an important life lesson.

So I’m ready to make my way, room to room, to get rid of some of our stuff that we don’t need. I have a laundry room full of bags of stuff to be donated or sold. I have a closet shelf full of clothes to be donated. I’m ready to be rid of a lot of our stuff.