Slow and steady wins the race...

You may be thinking since it has been a few days since I have posted anything about Project Purge, that we've already let it go by the way side with most New Years resolutions. That is not the case. We have been making slow steady progress. Maybe and emphasis on the slow but still moving forward.

We have been moving some things back up to the garage (that were down their while we put in a new garage ceiling), and sorting through clutter and piles in the basement before we start going through boxes and closets and such down there.

In preparing for the next step (going through the boxes) we have been making a game plan for how we decided what stays and what goes.

I believe we have 3 types of things in our basement...

1. Stuff we don't need at all or ever again. Things like clothes that don't fit us, broken things, nick-knacks, ect...

2. Stuff we aren't using right now, but may need again, or can not be replaced (with in reason). Things like holiday decorations, the baby pack-n-play, baby clothes/maternity clothes, baby swing, The extra box of dishes (you know for when you break the one of your dinner plates you don't have to go buy one that doesn't match or a whole new set when you host Thanksgiving next year.) These items would either cost a lot to replace or hole sentimental value (baby clothes... but I am going to address that in another post too cause there's a limit there too.)

3. Things we have too much of. This may cross into both categories above. I have too many baby clothes (I know it will be another post too), I also know there are too many puzzles down there. Too many extra kitchen items, sheets, towels blah blah blah...

So now we have a game plan. We both know it is category 2 that will give us the most problems. So we are gonna get our game face on and remember why we are doing this.

I did wanna update you with some pictures of the progress in the basement so here they are.

Main Room

Laundry/back room



This is that pile to give away.
 

The other areas (closet and under the stairs/office) really just look the same. As I said it has been slow goings but it is going and that's important. We may be making a trip to the City Mission soon to help clean out the basement a bit so we have more room.

The "Fat/Skinny" Jeans

Well Project Purge continues....

For the last 2 days I haven't done much to make a big dent in the whole project but there were a few things that I did do here they are...
1. Threw away some things I came across in my everyday life that I just didn't need.
2. Sorted through the extra swing set stuff we have that the kids either wouldn't use or were in too rough a shape for them to use, and threw them away.

So like I said not much, but my husband and I are both pretty sick right now and just got to the Dr's on Wednesday and started some much needed antibiotics. Hopefully we will be feeling much better soon and can get to some big progress down in the basement.

But I felt like today I wanted to do something to make progress on this big task again. At the same time it's so daunting down there that I feel like I need my husbands help with it. With all but one area of it I should say. So that area.... my "Fat Clothes" and my "Skinny Clothes."

My "Fat Clothes" also include my maternity items that we aren't quite ready to part with yet, and clothes that I wore after having my first baby when I was HUGE. After the second baby I went straight from maternity clothes to basically my old clothes. So if we ever (and don't read into that too much Nana, Grandpa, Grammie, and Papa it's a big IF), have another baby I plan to take the rout I did with the second and gain not as much weight and be able to go from maternity to regular clothes.

My "Skinny Clothes" are all the clothes I have kept from before I had my first baby 6 years ago.... Umm Yeah...

I'm very close to fitting comfortably into my pre-baby clothes but because of that I can see that most of the styles and cuts of pants are really not in style or in MY style anymore. So I tried to be very honest with myself about what I want to keep and what I don't.

As part of the clothing sorting I also went through, my closet, under bed storage, and all my dresser drawers. The results.... A very big pile of clothes that I'm getting rid of.

I still haven't gone through our "Formal Closet" That has my husbands suits, and a few fancy dresses of mine. Some of those dresses I have had since High School. Come on now. I'm 30 years old! Do I really need to keep dresses from high school. I should think NOT. So I still have that to do later today but I think this has been worth it.

I ended up getting rid that huge pile of clothes you saw (not sure if I'll try to see some of them or just take them all to the city mission or not yet), and making room in every drawer of my dresser and I now have one bin of maternity clothes (with some extra space at the top), and one under the bed storage unit that has a few of the clothes (that I do want to keep that are still a little sung) and some out of season stuff.

So success!

Kindergarten Paper Factory

Yesterday I shared the dreaded photos of our basement. Today we start fixing that problem and I'm realizing it is going to be a long process.

One of the issues I'm trying to deal with while actually cleaning out is the reason WHY it ever became an issue. I feel like it is very much akin to being over weight. There is usually an underlying issue behind the extra weight, and those issues vary person to person. Likewise with the clutter we have collected in our basement has a reason behind it and I aim to find it.

I know one simple reason it happens is that it can. We have a small house with little storage space on the main level, no linen closet or even a pantry where items can be tucked, so it gets put down in the basement where it is quickly out of sight out of mind.

Today I am tackling one of those such "items" that get sent downstairs to be "dealt with later."

As soon S started kindergarten the papers started coming home. Oh the papers. Stacks, reams, bolts of paper. Some with a few scribbles on them, others full blown art projects, traces of letters and numbers, writing practice, cutting practice, coloring practice, paper, paper, paper....

Lucky for me I had been given this amazing idea back before S started preschool and it has saved my life!

Photograph each piece of art work and make a digital photo book/cd/dvd of the art work and then throw away the actual piece.

Now I don't throw away everything I keep some special art projects and even special papers that come home, "tests" (as they exist in kindy), and awards. I just recently found this great organization idea on pintrest (really where else) that you should really check out if organizing kids pictures, art work, school stuff is an issue for you. I even have 2 small file folder boxes already and the hanging files to put in them temporarily, eventually I will need bigger ones (that match cause I've got issues), but for now I don't have to spend any money to start this organizational project.

So today I took a lot of paper work from a big mess of piles in the basement to one small orderly pile that is going in S's File Box.

Left: Keep, Right: Toss