Cleaning-Out Saga Continues...

Don't think I haven't been thinking about Round 2 of cleaning out my house. It's been heavy on the brain lately. Having never done such a massive clean-out before, I had no idea how long this could take. See, I got tired and overwhelmed after the huge garage sale, giving away of 12 or so garbage bags full of baby clothes, taking a few piles to Goodwill. I've discovered that some things take quite a bit of time to think about before you know exactly what to do with it. Where to donate it, how to sell it, or if you want to keep it. So I've made a guideline for myself to follow: don't ever make decisions in a hurry and don't make decisions about someone else stuff.

One choice I made that hasn't had the dramatic (negative) impact my husband feared it would is: whittling our dishes in the kitchen down to what we use in a day or two. I now wash the top rack of the dishwasher (always hand-washing plastics, cookware, and cutlery) each day or two because the entire dishwasher was difficult to fill up. This made a huge difference in what I was able to see and retrieve from our kitchen cabinets. They were entirely too full of plates, bowls, and cups for me to get something out without other things either falling or having to be shoved to one side. I also sold all but a very few of the girls sippy cups in the last garage sale. I boxed up half of the plastic drinking glasses we have use daily since we got married without hubby noticing, making room for the fun glass and pottery glasses we have always enjoyed using but bypassed for the plastics. Now we use the glass more often, paying more attention to aesthetic detail than in the past.

These are the kinds of changes that have lasting effect on the de-stuffing process. I don't feel like I'm saying to myself "now why did I get rid of all those cups?" when I held on to them for months and we didn't even miss them. I'm applying the same principle to kids toys, clothing, home decor, toiletry products... and probably more that I am not willing to make my brain come up with at the moment.

Progress! It's not happening as fast as I initially imagined it would. But it's happening and our entire family is benefiting from it.