A playroom half full!

We did it!

I couldn't have done it nearly as well without Jeremy's help. We had three baskets/bins.  One for "get rid of it," a second for "put it away" and a third for "sell it."

Before the night was over, we had removed over half of the toys and furniture from the room AND made $40! Seriously, I put a couple toys on our Clovis Yard Sale Yahoo group and our organizational toy bins. The same woman came and bought them all. THEN, I asked what else she needed and proceeded to GIVE her as many other toys as I possibly could! It was great knowing that our things were going to such great use AND I had helped earn $40 for my husband to buy the sprinkler heads and screws he was hoping to purchase to finish some gardening projects. Yeay! I love how it all works out!

My kids have already been playing in our playroom again... its so... stress-free! So much less stuff! AND, the mess they left behind was not anything like it usually is! My 3 year old took a nap the first day after we cleaned. He was surrounded by tons of books. He just didn't want to leave. Love it! I can tell this is going to be a super fun adventure.....

My kids enjoying our new stress-free playroom. One book shelf. Two corner shelves. Three bins. Thats it.

Enjoying some time in his clutter free playroom with some books! A reader!

Purging in Action!

Okay, I had to stop just to tell you... WE ARE DOING IT!

I've been avoiding the playroom for ... well, since my last post. It overwhelms me. I had plans to do it this weekend. I walk in there and.. walk right back out. I have a personal attachment to many of the things as well.

WELL, I asked Jeremy to help me... and now we are doing it! It IS possible! Stay posted on how my playroom ends up.

P.S.  the kids are napping!

It's a GO!

I'm not even sure I finished the statement, "Jeremy, I think we should get rid of half..." when he agreed. I knew he would.

What surprised me was my oldest daughter (10 years old). I ran the idea by her and SHE was all for it too! Well okay!

My three year old? Mmmm, not so much. Well, he's not sure anyway. He's kind of just going with it at the moment. Patiently. He likes to process and mull on stuff before agreeing. But in the end, I know he'll do it.

I think I was a bit ambitious. I secretly (or did I say it publicly too?) thought I could get it done in a day. Or at least half a day. YEAH RIGHT!

Since my last post I have successfully gotten rid of HALF of the clothing of my two toddlers. Thats about it. And maybe 1/6th of our kids books. Actually, the clothing was a big chore. I mean, HALF of all of their current clothes and maybe even OVER half of all the stored clothes. I've taken them in two loads to a new consignment store in Clovis called A La Mode Clovis. I made about $30 on a bunch today. I'm going to be taking the rest of the clothes to a consignment SALE in March. Hoping to make some money on these! And, giving some to friends too.

Never got to the closet.

Too bad I started in February.

It can be done!!! I'm already feeling more free... just knowing it will be done!

I've gotten some really neat feedback. One of my friends sent this message to me on Facebook today:


Hey Marcy, just reading this, but I want to encourage you in this. We left Fresno at the beginning of Feb and are about to embark on a long term(1 year+) family roadtrip through Europe. Anyways, to make that happen we had to purge heavily. From the photo of this blog post: http://www.goodmorningfrom.net/we-arrived/
We fit our whole life in a 8x5 trailer (only about 2/3 full). It took a lot of work, but I did what you are doing. Got rid of half of our things, then got rid of half of what was left and so on. We have friends who have been traveling long term, each family member with only a carry on luggage. We won't be that sparse, but will only take what our luggage allowances allow for. (we'll be shipping our van and buying a travel trailer once there)

Anyways, purging is so freeing, especially when you can pass things off to someone else who can use them.


How cool is that????? I love that!

Here's another link that was sent to me:  http://guynameddave.com/2010/11/the-minimal-challenge/

Love it! Keep sending me all of your fun stories, your commitments to join me, and anything else you think relates!  :)

New Goal for 2011

Well, its already half way through February... but I think I finally have a goal/resolution for 2011.

I'm hesitating to call it a resolution. Perhaps its my 2011 challenge.

Whatever it is, it certainly falls in with the theme verse of this blog:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Boy do I need to hear that again today!

Anyway... this is what I'd like to do. I'd like to get rid of half the stuff in my house this year. I'd actually like to do it this month. I have a new AMAZING job working from home (hence my unusually long blogging-silence :) and I have even LESS time to keep up with all the "stuff."

I don't know what this looks like yet. I only know that I'll be starting in my closet. I haven't even run this by my family. I suppose my next blog will consider their thoughts. I'm pretty sure my husband will agree... and probably start with my childhood toys :) 

What do you think?