Day Seven of the 500 Pound Declutter - Front Hall

Nothing says, "Welcome to our home!"  Like opening the front hall closet to hang up your guests' coats to find, well, this.

 

Need a fireman costume?  We're there for you!  How about Hannah Montana autograph?  We're there at the ready!  American flag bunting?  We're good to go.

As you enter our house, there is a decent sized front entryway flanked on the right by a bi-fold closet in the hallway.  We live in Minnesota, so it's "coat weather" about 8 months of the year.  This closet gets used.  And really, it is a great place to store toys.  But that said, it's also for coats and who wouldn't be proud to open this closet!

I joked with my Mom tonight about the fact that I had about 40 wire hangers in there.  Again, if you are in Minnesota, you know that there are absolutely no Minnesota winter coats that can last more than 10 seconds on a wire hanger.  "NO WIRE HANGERS!"  Those, said the Grinch, were the first thing to go.  (Sorry, have Christmas music playing in the background).  They will be recycled via my Mom (who actually does dry cleaning) tomorrow.

You will also note the lovely old holiday bows.  Kept right in the front hall in case we needed to use them, stat!

Phone books.  Cause we all still use them, right?

And now, I would like to introduce you to one of the worst concepts we ever allowed to exist in our home.  The "Tchotchke Bucket."

 

And yes, that is what we called it.  It could also be referred to by the name one of my former co-workers used.  Landfill.  Happy meal toys and horrible birthday favors aplenty.

Tonight was a big step.  We no longer have a Tchotchke Bucket.  While it makes me a bit sick that there was nothing better to do with it.  Really, it was all junk.  It's now empty and we just have landfill formerly known as toys.

You'll also note, well, Eli's Halloween costume FOR NEXT YEAR!  Aargh.  That will be put into the costume box.  

And here is what I found and am referring to as "Working Mom's Guilt."  I am pretty sure I bought these are a "Hey, let's be crafty when we have 10 minutes!" idea.

 

And then, as that aforementioned working mom with limited time at home, I am sure we used them once and I was horrified by the little pieces of intensely static-y paper that were left all over my house.  I am not crafty.  I need to accept and embrace that.

Here is where I ended up.

I have now dedicated this as the "off season" and reasonable toy closet.  I will only allow decent hangers in there.  And off to the right are our spring/fall coats.  Up above are summer beach towels, sunscreen/bugspray, coolers and pool toys.

All told, the whole thing took about 45 minutes tonight.  And resulted in a whopping:

26 pounds

Bringing our grand total to 108 pounds!