Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Great Purge

We are going through "The Great Purge" at our house. What is that, you ask?

Things have gotten a little.....well.....cluttered at our house.

As we were going through stuff from downstairs, and had totes scattered and stacked all over, a neighbor, whom we had never met, came over. Of all the times.....

We looked like we should have been on an episode of "Hoarders". She was asking if we had seen her lost dog. As we were talking, I could see her glancing in the door. I failed to tell her that our house normally doesn't look like this. And, I don't always wear scrubby clothes. Ha!

So, we cleaned it all up, for the first party. This is the party house. That's what people call it because we have so many parties, and we have a house that is designed for having a party.

For your information, when I say "parties," these are not college frat house like parties. These are family friendly parties, people. Just so you know.

Currently, things are scattered all around again. At least in areas people can't see. I am throwing things away left and right.

I get in these "moods" when I just want to throw things away. Hubs is VERY supportive of this. He thinks I save way too many things. He is right.

I also have daughters who like to save. Even more than I do.

The oldest asked if I had thrown away anything "important". What is important? If she has ever written on it, looked at it, or held it in her hands.

Going through the toys, we have to save everything. The problem is, where do you put it all? Now, we live in a fairly large house. However, we will soon have to rent a storage unit for all of this "important" stuff if we don't start getting rid of it.

We joke that we want to see her playing with her toys if we have to save them. She is fourteen, and is not so interested in playing with Barney, My Little Pony, or Elmo anymore.

I now understand why my Dad would get so frustrated with me when I was younger. We moved a lot when I was in high school. I was pretty adamant about my "stuff" coming with me. Even when I moved away to college, my stuff stayed with my parents, and they had to move my stuff along with them.

As I was sorting through all of those "important" things in the basement, I was envisioning myself standing in my house, in the middle of the room, surrounded by stuff. There were just small paths to get through. Totes stacked clear to the ceiling. There I stood, muttering how my daughters wouldn't let me get rid of any of their things, so we were forced to live in squalor.

I found this hilarious video about junior "hoarders" and just had to share.



I have started telling my daughters that if it is important enough to be saved, and I don't think it is, then you get to keep it in YOUR room, and you can find a place for it. *Smile*

Now, I have to clean all this stuff up for parties #2 and #3 coming up this weekend. I seriously should have bought stock in garbage bags and totes.


3 comments:

  1. We are doing the same thing.... purging.... purging....purging.... We already filled a monstrously huge dumpster, and I think we could probably fill another one! Where does all of this stuff come from??? I sure would like to know!

    I have to admit that I have a hard time parting with sentimental things, though. My mom never saved ANYTHING~ and I have tried to buy back a few parts of my childhood on e-bay. HA! I've organized and labeled all of our "precious" things in tubs, and it's still a lot of stuff. I think about parting all of those things four ways, someday, and it doesn't seem so bad. My luck, though, is that I will have saved these things all these years, and the four of them will probably not care at all about our "heirlooms." I guess we'll see! ;)

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  2. I have lots of things from my childhood that I would have loved to save, but my parents had a flood in their basement while I was away at college :(

    I totally understand, which is why we have a hard time getting rid of things. Ha! There are certain things I absolutely refuse to part with.

    I saw the dumpster sitting outside in your driveway! Too funny :P You go, girl!

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  3. I'm trying to purge through too! I've got a stack of stuff for a yard sale and I haven't even touched the basement yet. For us clothes seem to be the issue right now. The kids have clothes coming out their ears!

    For saving special things like outgrown toys maybe allow each girl 1 tote and if it doesn't fit it has to go or something else has to go so it will fit. I saved tons of stuff out of sentimentality to pass onto my own children and some of it is actually stuff they play with frequently now, other things I've gotten rid of over the years.

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