Every once in a while I get an itch to clean and organize. It usually results in a bigger mess as I dump everything out, become overwhelmed with the huge pile and not knowing where I'm going to put things and then after filling a trash can, a good will box and rearranging a little I tidy up and can't really see that I've made a dent. Today I decided to tackle the laundry room...specifically the totes of clothing! Currently I have a pile on the floor, three baskets full of goodwill stuff, one garbage can, and new labels on the totes. There is one tote for each child of clothes that they will grow into. Jakob doesn't have one, because I don't have clothes that he'll grow into. Amelia has three of them, and the largest tote contains school uniforms (well, not yet, they're still in the pile) One tote is overflowing with clothes that brought on the tears this morning. As I opened several totes and began going through them, I found myself saying, "Jakob, this was yours when you were a baby...oh...this was Jonathan's...this was Benjamin's from so-and-so..." I don't know how i'm going to part with these things, yet there is no reason to keep many of them. My solution is that I will prioritize and keep one tote of things I absolutely can not let go of and the rest are going to Shannon for her little boy that is due in August. Of course, I will mark the labels just in case! :)
There were some things that I finally let go of that I've been hanging onto since Jakob was a baby. SIGH. I hope I don't regret that.
My laundry room does not look clean or even organized. I still need to go through Amelia's totes and organize into sizes so I know where to look for things. There are two totes of shoes that must be pilfered through...most too small for any of the boys. There is a whole tote of girls shoes!! I can always find my grandma Stricker in me when I do things like this. It's hard to throw things away...I just might need them, use them, blah, blah, blah.
It might be interesting to know what the rest of my kids were doing while i was organizing, because time flies when you're having fun, so I spent 3 hours down there!! Well, my oatmeal and brown sugar are gone...both were 3/4 full, the pan of brownies is gone, licked clean (there was a little more than 1/2 a pan left), the new bottle of sugar-free vanilla syrup from Starbucks now has about 1/3 left as Mathilda made herself a cup of coffee this morning, and there is still a spoon in the peanut butter. Joseph looked like he had rolled himself in the brown sugar! There has been some crying, screaming, TV watching, playing, a little bit of helping--sort of--and of course, I need to acknowlege that Amelia's diaper was changed, she was held and transferred to her swing, and played with, so not all was a circus.
And for lunch? We ate peanut butter and jelly (and oatmeal!) :)
There were some things that I finally let go of that I've been hanging onto since Jakob was a baby. SIGH. I hope I don't regret that.
My laundry room does not look clean or even organized. I still need to go through Amelia's totes and organize into sizes so I know where to look for things. There are two totes of shoes that must be pilfered through...most too small for any of the boys. There is a whole tote of girls shoes!! I can always find my grandma Stricker in me when I do things like this. It's hard to throw things away...I just might need them, use them, blah, blah, blah.
It might be interesting to know what the rest of my kids were doing while i was organizing, because time flies when you're having fun, so I spent 3 hours down there!! Well, my oatmeal and brown sugar are gone...both were 3/4 full, the pan of brownies is gone, licked clean (there was a little more than 1/2 a pan left), the new bottle of sugar-free vanilla syrup from Starbucks now has about 1/3 left as Mathilda made herself a cup of coffee this morning, and there is still a spoon in the peanut butter. Joseph looked like he had rolled himself in the brown sugar! There has been some crying, screaming, TV watching, playing, a little bit of helping--sort of--and of course, I need to acknowlege that Amelia's diaper was changed, she was held and transferred to her swing, and played with, so not all was a circus.
And for lunch? We ate peanut butter and jelly (and oatmeal!) :)
