Responsible Purging: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Refuse

I really, really want to pare down the house.  Would love to live in a minimalist house- at least my fantasy-self thinks she would.  I wonder, from past experience, would I sabotage?  Would the space I see in magazines and have at hotels leave me feeling empty.  In the past I have filled it back up - with different stuff.  At least it was newer stuff that I can say better suited my current self, but what of all of the stuff that has finally been displaced?

Here is where I am trying to go with this post, really.  I see the blogs and videos of decluttering, where so much is thrown in the trash.  I understand that you should not donate or give away trash.  But so often that is not the case, rather it is just the easiest, quickest answer.  I know some people have truly hoarded actual trash, and there is no place for that but the skip.  For many it is not trash, we just keep to much 'good' stuff.  Perfectly good, usable stuff.  That is the reason we kept it right?!

When we finally see the light, while it may be easiest to throw it in a landfill, where those resources are lost for eons perhaps.  I feel it is my penance for collecting it in the first place to find it a proper home, where it can actually be used!  While I don't need 50 towels,  someone else may have actual need for some of towels I am no longer housing. And even if those towels are shabby, they can be used by an animal shelter!

Be Responsible, allow for the reuse of things you no longer need.  Not only will you directly help those who receive your discarded items, but the entire planet (really, I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true!!!) will benefit from your generosity.  Remember, if it is not worth selling but still in good condition, donate it.  I just keep a   bag hanging just inside the door in the garage, so I can quickly grab an item as I find them and toss them in as I go.

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...