Purging

We are in a purging mood at our house!  It just so happens that it coincides with our church's big yard sale next week to benefit the Haiti Mission Trip.  Yesterday the kids and I purged the upstairs ~ we went through bookshelves, the linen closet, and the walk in part of the attic.  Its really nice to see holes & gaps that used to be crammed full of "valuables".  These "valuables" are being donated to a very worth cause. 

We still had lots of VHS tapes of all kinds ~ we got rid of lots.  We kept some Disney Classics, Adventures in Oddysey, and Veggie Tales.  We also departed with some questionable dvd movies (language, violence, etc.), and most of our Christmas collection.  Tons of books (not much of an exaggeration) were loaded into boxes to head up to the church & some paperbacks will be listed on paperback swap. 

The kids went through the Wii games and weeded out the ones they had beat, the ones that had alot of "magic" in them, and some they just didn't want. Will put them in the Wii this morning and erased their personal files from the games.  We also discarded an old game system and its games.

I even went through my cookbook collection and took out about a dozen ~ however that still leaves 4 shelves full (I really like cookbooks). 

In keeping with our trying to simplify the December Holidays, we are also going to go through those decorations.  I have to bribe James to go up into the sweltering attic to get the boxes down.  I know there are many more things in the attic that could be donated, but since it 90 degrees outside its probably 110+ degrees in the attic, so those won't see the light of day unless he just passes them on the way to the decorations.

Our stacks of stuff are getting whittled down and they are finding new homes.  Its nice to take care of these projects just very tiring also. Anyone else walking into our home, would think we could get rid of more stuff.  And honestly we could, but these baby steps are a move in a positive direction.