Reducing my Stash

I have a LOT of material for sewing.  Too much. So I slated some to leave and then decided not to because it was too much to decide.  Then very suddenly decided to just pull a 'good amount' off of the shelves.  About 17 bolts of fabric left.

Funny the shelves are still full looking.  Obviously there has to be more space there than before...
I don't think I will miss it.  Wonder how many pounds that was? A Lot, my husband was a dear and carried it all for (for the second time, the first being into the house).  I hope it all finds a use.  I often wonder how much of the stuff i give to others who want it just ends up in a landfill eventually.  Well, I have done my best, I was a good steward, kept it in good usable condition and passed it on.

Here is a major plus, I had about 25 requests for my 2 gallons of ceiling paint after posting it on Freecycle!  But coordinating a pick up was amazingly difficult, with people asking me to drive 45 minutes to drop it off?!  Well when the woman came for the cloth I offered it up as an extra freebie and she snapped it up for her brother.  Once something is slated to go, I just hate having it hang around.

Things they purged from the drawer to 
make it easier to access 

While making lunch the children were asked to review their tableware drawer.  The necessity of this drawer is waning.  It was the one where we kept non-breakable dishes for the kids to open and play with when they were toddlers.  We do still have the occasional toddler in the house, but I don't think that merits a whole drawer in the prime real estate area.  The kids however, are sort of possessive of the space.  It is easier for them and their friend to get to this than it is to get to the cabinets, which they have to drag a stool over for.  .

Why the Clutter Out Box Works for Kids

We keep a little green plastic box under the kids art table.  The kids can throw any unused items in it at any time.  This works for them.

Yes, our Clutter Out Box is a Lego Bin!! so appropriate

Why It Works 

They don't have to ask where to put it or bring it to the garage, where I keep the outgoing items.  They know that if they put it in they never have to put it away again.  The item will sit there for a fair bit in case of any regrets either by themselves or by siblings.  This has not happened though, rather they have found that once an item is placed in the bin, they know they can live without it, and without even missing it.  It give me a chance to see what they decided to fling, in case it was an odd part to something of ours, or a toy set. 

 I also, sort items from the bin.  sometimes they don't want to throw away an art project, but no donation center would do anything but throw it away, and they don't need our trash.  Also, this gives me a chance to think on the waste we create, and have our children create.  I have been working toward not having the children spend their time, and our money, on projects that are just going to end up in the trash!  School is another thing....sooooo much waste.

As I am writing my daughter is sitting next to me working on a project kit she received for her birthday.  This is a better one.  she is making a headband-so it is something useful.  It looks to be of reasonable quality, and I think that it will be a useful item that will make her happy to know she made.  Still there is an awful lot of packing to dispose of.  Awareness is the first step.

  She is saying, "how do you type so fast, it clicks like every five seconds.  It is such a happy computer.  That computer is enjoying you."  Hmmm, interesting, the computer is happy to click?  Or is it happy because it has my attention?

Failure to Reduce : Legos My Nemesis and Obsession?

While on and off efforts to reduce the ' house load ' have preoccupied me, I have alternately collected Legos for my son.  He loves them.  They make him happy.  I want him to be happy...and quiet (sometimes)...he is amazingly creative with them (and often quiet).

Today he built his sister a little Lego kitchen!  It was so sweet---I should grab a photo of that.  While he was doing that she was pretending to be a dentist-washing his mouth with a (pretend) mystery medicine that was dispensed from an elephant, but that didn't seem at all strange to big brother.

I know that more is not always better.  There is too much of a good thing.  I think we might be drowning in Legos. BUT we are happy doing it, mostly.

We have one room that was the music and study room that is now mostly the lego train room.  The desks moved to the dining room, because, well there just was not room for them in that room, what with the train tracks and associated city.  The family room, or toy room, has now been completely inundated with the Legos too (but they are out of the kitchen and dining room).  We tried having them in the cellar play area.  However, we found that unsupervised King Kong was visiting and destroying.  This left a very frustrated boy and very messy legos that would then scatter and end up destroyed as they were ground into the cement floor.

Oh, and my husband and i have spent more nights than I want to admit sorting and building Legos.  Some because it needs to be done, but mostly because we enjoy it.  Strange, but we prefer to say going to the movies most nights.

Wooden Lego Sorting Station

We have been through many iterations of Lego Organization.  We do like the paper sorting Cart with multi-colored drawers.  We have 2 of those.  There was a nice wooden sorting station, we liked it because it was very easy to access.  It was a good station when our collection was a more reasonable size, so i think that we will be selling it ($10 in pocket is better than something that is not working for us right now....but then i think maybe i could use it somewhere else...).

Organizing carts we now are using...

In another post I may become brave enough to walk around and actually take pictures of all the Lego stashes we have....perhaps laying it all out on the same page will motivate me to do something about them...I know, I know, I need to reduce.

Perhaps I should ask my son his opinion, after all from what I have seen posted out there, I am going against the grain with my post about involving the children in minimizing our belongings...

Get Rid of It

The Get Rid of It tab at the top is a photo library where i will be posting pictures of things.  Certainly not all of them, I know I have already missed boatloads--when you are in the mood to fling, sometimes you don't want to slow down for photos.  Other times, it seems like such a herculean effort to clean out and part with items that you want to memorialize your success and share it.

stuff that was on loan that is ready to go back with its owner
and a few Christmas present that were found on top of the Piano...

I will try to post a picture and the thinking behind why it left our home.  Sometimes i will add where it is going and/or why.  I hate to waste, and hate to send things to the landfill...

"Put it in the 'get rid of its'!"  That is how it was phrased by my mother.  I still think this, but in practice we have been using a green Lego bin in the kids area where they can simply put anything they no longer want to have to clean up.

Right now I in the middle of a real purge, I will have another post on that in the near future.  For the first time the kids have really been involved--and i think that they are enjoying it.

I also, added an About Page, so you can understand what I am presently trying to accomplish with my blog.  First and foremost, this has to be something that I want to do, as I am not sure that anyone else (save my poor husband, who almost chided me into writing a blog by joking i should write a blog because what else would i do with my photos of stuff i am getting rid of) will ever read this.

Happy I am to try.

Is this a sustainable practice time will tell...will I run out of things to get rid of, run out of other things to reduce and simplify?  At this point I don't think so, but it is nice to believe that it might be possible to 100 percent achieve this goal.