I’m still going strong in week 2, to the point where I’ve already thought about doing this again in June (the next 30 day month).  Obviously it would be nice to part with things quickly, as they become available, but that’s not always possible.  I have clothing that will be kept until the end of the season and then let go, school papers that will be kept until the end of the year, things that have to disappear quickly to escape the interest of the children, etc.

Day 7:

Donate: The five pairs of pants and one sports bra that are in excellent condition, just not right for me.

Fabric recycling: One sock had a hole.

Trash: I have nicer toy cars than this one from a party favor bag.

Day 8:

Gift: One child was invited to a twin birthday party so I used two toys that were in my “rainy day” stash instead of buying something.  They are entirely new in box and age appropriate.  I’ve had them for a long time and the time never seemed right to break them out so this was a better use.

Donate: The tank top no longer fits.

Fabric recycling: The jeans have a continuously failing closure and its been repaired at least three times so the material in that area is getting questionable.  The pillowcase has worn through.

Trash: Three old Hello Kitty Happy Meal Toys that nobody actually needs.

Day 9:

Sold: I sold one bicycle that we no longer need as we have four in this size and only one child at a time should ever fit.

Returned: I returned the small item in the bag to Lowes.

Fabric recycling:  I had a big pile going before starting this challenge.  So, I bundled all that up and called it one item.

Recycling: I found five magazines from 2017.

Day 10:

Donate: The camo pajama pants never quite fit correctly.

Fabric recycling: All three pairs of pajama pants have large holes in the knees.  The three pillow covers are frayed at the corners.  And, yes, I do have new covers for those pillows, but I bought them months ago and just never let go of the old covers.

Trash: The two pairs of batting gloves have been replaced (first by the other and then by the current pair).  I inputted the balance of the gift card into Amazon so I no longer need the physical card.

Day 11:

I finally had a day when the kids were not home so I could get into my collection of things I had stashed from them.

Recycle: The bag and coupon are from this past Christmas.  The party hat is from I don’t know when.

Trash: I found five party favors that may or may not have come from the same party, one marble (we don’t need any), and two Chick-fil-A kids meal toys.

Day 12:

I had another day without the kids so I went back to the same stash.  Party favors generally aren’t large, but they definitely fit the definition of clutter!

Recycle: I found one party favor bag, an ad that was inside a toy that had been a Christmas present, and some fake party favor money.

Trash: The “balloon” had is from a doctor trying to entertain the littlest one during my appointment and I pulled out eight party favors.

Link to the start of the challenge: Days 1-6

 

I decided to take Spring Cleaning more literally this year and actually clean out, vs clean up.  A friend had read Marie Kondo’s book and was aiming to put her ideas into practice.  I don’t know that much about her method, but from what little I do know I didn’t think it would work for me, right now, with many small kids.  Too much gathering and looking at large collections of items over many months; not enough quick decisions and hiding formerly treasured items!

So, I’m going for cleaning out the number of items of the date, for each day in April.  Since April has 30 days, I decided to break this up into 5 posts, each with 6 days.  The goal here is to move 465 (the sum of the days in April) out of our house before the end of the month by any means: trash, recycling, donating, selling, gifting, etc.

So far, I’m off to a good start.  Admittedly, the beginning is the easy part – low numbers and probably low hanging fruit to grab and move along.  You’ll see a bunch of fabric recycling.  There are bins and each of the schools which get money from the organization for each pound that goes in.

Since I decided to start this when I wrote my goals for the month on Tuesday, April 3, I actually started with 6 (1+2+3) items.

Days 1-3:

Trash: The little “laser” guns no longer work.  The artillery piece is broken.  I finally (two years later) broke the new insurance card out of its plastic card and put it with the other insurance cards; the rest of the plastic card is trash.

Recycle: The birthday card is months old.

Donate: The shirt is in excellent condition.  It just never fit me properly.

Day 4:

Trash: The power cord is very frayed, though technically still working.

Fabric Recycling:  The sheet (upper left) has a giant hole in the middle.  The buckle on the overalls came apart.  If you look closely you can see a small metal piece.  I think that could be glued back in, but these are baby overalls and I would not want a baby to chew on the buckle and have this piece come off again.  The yellow shirt has a hole in it.

Day 5:

Trash: Two pieces of a stand for a toy we no longer have.  A broken watch.  A cord for a toy that no longer works.

Recycle: The box the Christmas cards came in was only holding stamps and address labels.  Those can go elsewhere so the box gets recycled.

Sold: I sold the Pack ‘N’ Play Sport.  It’s great for summer so this was the right time of year to find a buyer.

Day 6:

Trash/Recycle: I found six abandoned Valentine’s / Birthday party gift bags.  I sorted the contents into trash (white bag in the picture below) vs recycling and admit to keeping a few things.  We’ll use the pencils and stickers. The stuffed animals are NWT so I’m not sure where they’ll go yet (so they’re not being counted here) as we don’t need them.