Reformed Clearance Junkie...

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The last remnants of my obsessive clearance shopping are gone.

Today I cleaned out the toy closet. It was filled with toys that I had bought during Target's infamous toy clearances and I was honestly just so over keeping them.

There was a time that when there was a big clearance sale, I would fill my cart with reckless abandon. 75% off toys were just too good to pass up and I figured that they were so cheap, why not buy them? I could give them to my kids or as presents to other kids.

That mentality, as I now see, is stupid. The toys I was buying for the future actually ended up being thing my kids weren't into- how is one to know what their kids will like in a year? I also felt cheap giving out the toys as gifts- it felt so impersonal to just pick something out of the closet because I want to save a buck. Granted, there were times that I had things that I actually wanted to give but those were few and far between.

I love giving gifts, I love putting thought into what I give and always want to recipient to like it. I also love giving my kids gifts, ones that they will like and not ones that I just gave them because I got them for 75% off. Giving them stuff I got for cheap adds to clutter and clutter is not welcome in my home anymore.

No more salivating over when Target's toys go down to 75% off for me. It is just not worth the time or effort and I don't want to bring anymore crap into my house unless it has an actual purpose. As I have proven to myself this Christmas and last Christmas, I am able to get awesome deals from my couch that get delivered to my house. My kids have gifts that I was purposeful in buying and that I know they will like and use. Any birthdays that come up for friends, we will go to the store and have a fun time picking out a gift because I think it is important for my kids to connect gift giving with putting thought into what the recipient will like- not throwing some toy into a gift bag and calling it a day.

I really hope that some children will be blessed with a wonderful Christmas from the three giant bags of toys that I donated to Toys for Tots. I know that in the future I will still take advantage of good deals to give as gifts and to donate, but there will be meaning behind what I purchase and something being on clearance is not good enough in itself.

Stuff Is Just Stuff...

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A little over a week ago my family and I lived in a decent sized house. We had three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a very large family room, a den, a large dining room, a kitchen, a garage and a finished basement. We had room for stuff so we filled our home with stuff.

Then we had an unexpected move and downsized to an 1100 square foot townhouse. Downsizing meant that a lot of the stuff we had accumulated wouldn't fit so we purged. We went through every corner of the house- nothing was safe from being sold, given away to friends or being donated. If it wasn't going to fit in the townhouse then it was gone- no matter if we just bought it or really liked it. No fit, no keep.

We got rid of so many things that if not put in this situation I would have said no way, no how am I getting rid of it. I was attached to objects just because I thought we needed them or because I spent money on them and thought it would be wasteful to get rid of them. Well, a lot of stuff is gone now and guess what? I obviously didn't need them because I am still alive without them. I've also realized that spending money on something is not a good reason to keep it if it is cluttering your life.

I feel free without tons of stuff just hanging around my home. Everything we have now is intentional- everything we kept was looked at and we made an intentional decision to keep it, not a mindless decision to just throw it in the back of a closet or in the basement to collect dust because we may use it someday. My outlook on what I bring into my home has changed- whatever I buy now I look at and ask myself if we really need it and if I have space for it. If the answers are no then back on the shelf it goes, no matter how cheap it is. Spending a penny on something that I don't need is a penny too much and even if something is free I would be spending the precious resource of space which isn't worth it to me.

It really is quite humbling getting rid of so much stuff but what a lesson we learned from this experience! Stuff is just stuff. It doesn't make you who you are or make people like you any better. We purged half of everything we owned and you know what? We are better people for it.

Mission Impossible- Declutter the Toys

My kids have a lot of toys. My son had a lot of toys and then when my daughter was born the toys seemed to have spawned new toys.

At one time we just had one large Ikea bookcase in our family room to hold my son's toys. We then bought another one to place beside it when my daughter started to accumulate toys but ended up putting more of my son's toys on it. All of my daughter's toys were put in our den which we gated and baby proofed so she would have a safe room that we could put her in when we couldn't keep an eye on her. Both rooms started neat enough but then turned into something I hate- cluttered rooms.

The other day I took it upon myself to start consolidating the kids toys into the family room because my daughter is old enough to not have to be locked up in the den (the rest of the downstairs is either gated or toddler proofed) and I want to den to be back to a grown-up room. My goal is to have all of the kids' toys together and then when the baby starts crawling to make the den the baby's safe play room (but with way less toys).

I did pretty good- I moved the kitchen set and various dishes and play food into the kids' playhouse in the family room and I also moved a bunch of my daughter's toys. The only things left are all of her Little People sets, a bunch of random toys and a bunch of stuffed animals. Once I go through all of my son's toys and put some in the basement everything should fit neatly into the family room.

Is it me, or has the nesting stage of my pregnancy already begun?