Purging

Have you ever started looking around your house and thought: "Where did all this STUFF come from?" I'm talking about STUFF--extra linens, shoes, clothes, decorative items, dishes, cookware, etc...and it seems to triple when you have a child. Yes, this happened to me this week. I think bringing home all of our STUFF from the lake really sent me over the edge.

I'm a neat freak, a germ-a-phob, and the organization queen, but somehow while I've been living life and working hard my STUFF has accumulated and gotten way out of control. I occasionally get in "clean out" moods and when this happens, watch out! Lantis gets scared when this happens since he has pack rat tendencies and I'm ruthless when it comes to cleaning out and throwing away. I dont have the "I might need this one day" or the "so-and-so gave this to me" mentality. If I dont need it now or have a place for it, then it needs to go. If I need it down the road, I'll buy a new one. I've been so busy since I had Hudson that I haven't had the time that I used to have to keep the house as spotless as it used to be, or to keep things as organized as I used to. If you dont constantly stay on top of the clutter and maintain the neatness, then it gets way out of hand, which is what has happened in our home. I have begun planning a yard sale for sometime this fall (stay tuned for those details). Now that I'm home a few more hours every week I thought this would be a great opportunity to start purging things and getting the Hollis House back into shape.

I go up to the guest room earlier this week and open the closet door...OMG!!!! I have clothes, shoes, bags, purses, old college books and projects, old comforters from my parents house and Lantis's houses, and photo albums galore! What am I supposed to do with all this? I stand there looking at everything in that closet and I nearly had a nervous break down so I close the door and run away. I decide I'll start downstairs. I open up my closet and dont even look around; I just start pulling out boxes of shoes--I have a keep pile, a yard sale pile, and a garbage pile. I had no idea how many shoes I had. I filled up two garbage bags of yard sale and garbage shoes and I'm still left with a TON of shoes. I begin couting the pairs of shoes in my closet and AFTER I threw away God knows how many pair, I reorganize the boxes and I cout 103 PAIRS OF SHOES in my closet. I then cleaned out tons of clothes and realized that I constantly buy new clothes--a shirt here, a pair of pants there--but I haven't thrown out anything in awhile. I am always bringing new stuff in, but never sending old stuff out and that why there's so much JUNK in my life. Rather than throwing out all the old clothes and shoes, I've been throwing it to the back of the closet and taking it up to the guest room closet. So I decided that tomorrow I'm continuing my journey and I'm going to tackle the guest room closet. Rather than sorting through those clothes and shoes I'm going to put every bit of it in a trash bag to be used in the yard sale. I dont even know what clothes are up there, but I dont care--its all going away since I obviously dont wear it and have forgotten about it.

Now, for all you fellow mommies out there...what in the heck am I supposed to do with all the clothes that my child out grows daily? Wow. I have three tubs full of clothes he's outgrown in our attic and I've given away/sold three tubs of clothes. I've kept only the outfits that were sentimental or that I really loved on him (again, I'm ruthless), or that I thought I would use again if we had another boy. I'm keeping all the baby gear for now of course--swings, high chairs, etc. I dont know if we'll have another child, but just in case I can't let any of that go. Anyway, there is a constant turn over in wardrobe for this kid. Keeping up with which clothes he can wear and needs to go back to the closet, and which ones he can't and need to go into a tub is exhausting. Then after he outgrows it, I have to decide if I want to save it or not. IF we decide to have another, and IF we have a boy, then I'll be glad that I saved this stuff. Otherwise, I have a lot of baby clothes taking up precious space in our attic that are never going to be worn again. Oh well...maybe I'll look back one day and cry over his sweet clothes that he once wore...for a fleeting moment. Ha!

Included in all this STUFF at our house, I have a lot of home decor items. After I started selling Southern Living I accumulated way too many dishes, serving pieces, and decor. We have 4 sets of flatware!!! So when the yard sale happens, I'll be letting go of lots of old stuff that is taking up space in closets, drawers and cabinets.

I'm headed to Wal-Mart later today to find some shoe organizers and buy more Rubbermaid tubs for the things I must save. I have no idea how you're supposed to organize 103 pairs of shoes in a very small space. My problem is I want all of this stuff done yesterday. Once I get started on a major project like this I wont stop--would probably not sleep or eat--until its done. Matter of fact, just being at work and thinking about all the things I could be doing at home is driving me insane. Ugh. I should seek therapy for OCD. I'll keep you all updated on the yard sale status. I just want all this STUFF out of our house so what doesn't sell will be taken straight to Hannah Home!

ok...I feel better after venting about it. :)