30 April 2010

40 Bag Challenge Update

I am up to 20 bags. I can't believe how much stuff we have!! I said that I didn't really notice a difference, but I was wrong. Our house is so much less messy all the time. Even at its messiest lately it is still pretty straightened up. It has been a lot easier to keep on top of it. I can't wait to finish. I did our bedroom, except under the bed. Hopefully I will have time to do that this weekend. Then on to the shelf in my dining room. All of that goes, then I can move our dog crate to that side of the room and it will look so much better. I need to do the bathroom bad! I have had to stay more on top of our laundry lately (which is easy because it is never more than three loads) and I have found out that we have too many towels, they all do not fit in the closet.

My children do not miss the toys we got rid of, nor do they play with the ones we kept anymore than before. It is still books, dolls, blocks, and anything that belongs to me that they want to play with.

20 April 2010

40 Bag Challenge

A few months ago just before Lent I participated in a discussion about what to give up. Of course I suggested that I would like to give up sweets knowing full well that I would fail after a few days, I know the weaknesses that I have that I am ready to work on and chocolate is not one of them. One of the women gave us a challenge she called The 40 Bag Challenge. In this we would commit to taking one bag of "stuff" out of our house each day of Lent until we had taken out 40 bags. I really wanted to do this, but my baby was just too small to start a project like that then, but I am ready now.

I started this weekend by going through our clothes and then I slimmed down our toys today. So far I am up to 9 1/2 bags of "stuff" and 1 1/2 bags of garbage, I don't mean the small grocery store bags, but the large outdoor garbage bags. I only kept a few toys that my children really play with; dolls, art supplies, dress up clothes, and a hopscotch. I am still on the fence about the Mr. Potato head toys. I really love that family of spuds, but my children only like them. Next will be the shoes and then onto my bedroom. I am saving my books for last in hopes that my 40 bags will be full or almost full before I get to them. How do I choose which ones to keep and which to not. It is too much for me to think about right now.

I have some pictures of what all of this stuff looks like, it is amazing because there is not a lot of difference in our house yet, except that I can now remember the color of the carpet in the girls' room (ugly orange) and why I wanted to forget it in the first place. I have 11 bags of stuff in my dining room that we don't need, I am amazed and embarrassed at the same time.