Day 5: Give and let go

My morning started by rushing to school, stopping at the store, but accidentally slamming my daughters finger with the car door. I still got to drop off a little something at my friends house on our way home. Thanks for the nice lady who got us a bandaid out of her car. :-)

After some tears I got to sort through our play kitchen and doll clothing with my daughter today and was surprised how willing she was to 'let go' of many items. My tactic is to remind her why we do it (less clutter, more space to play, reuniting items that where long lost, finding old stuff, downsizing so we can enjoy the important stuff,... she got the idea by now). Once in a while she freaks out if I touch a favorite item before she gets to tell me what she wants to do with it, but other then that, we are just zooming through 2 to 3 big bins of toys in about an hour.

I spent a significant amount in the garage, sorting, packaging, tagging the consignment items for Saturday's preschool sale. I found about 300 items so far, clothes, shoes, all kind of toys, games and only had to fight a few times 'not letting go' but realistically never using it. Knowing someone else might and if it's not sold, it will go to Westside Baby is a great way to make it easier for me to let go. I think I made good calls. And I also filled a few garbage bags. It always hurts me knowing my consume produced trash for the landfill in the end. Very happily I caught the trash pick up right before and could get rid of all bags.

With all the toys sorted and stored, I would think I freed up about 10 % of the space. It was about 85 % packed, just a slim trail through, but I can't believe if I look in the other corners and see that many stuff still left. Untouched. Overwhelming. But my goal is to tend to all these step by step and I am doing it! Yeah!

After that, I'll hope to have some space for a table so I can start sorting out old paper (currently about 5 big moving boxes) and getting rid of one big metal shelf, then moving on to seasonal stuff - reducing 3 moving boxes of Christmas stuff to 1, then cleaning up my gift wrapping and craft table in the corner (it's piled in 3 tiers, no way you can wrap anything there), sorting out luggage, selling IKEA corner shelf, installing bike rack, sorting books, boxes, gardening and outdoor stuff with the big goal to have only the important stuff on shelves and a completely clutter free space.

I end an intense week of toy sorting with 2-2.30 am night sessions tonight. I hope I'll be done with labeling and packing up for tomorrow sale before 1 am. Wish me luck.