Day 12 of the 500 Pound Declutter - The Playroom

I mentioned after the most recent storage room decluttering escapades that the boys' playroom was next.  This room was a mess. 

 

It was just belching toys.  And most of them things the boys didn't even play with anymore.

In particular the costumes were driving me crazy.  They were a combination of previous Halloween costumes I let the kids play with, random dress up clothes, and stuff we have been given or picked up randomly along the way.

I sorted them into four piles.

1. Stuff that still fits and they actually play with

2. Stuff that doesn't fit and Eli might wear someday

3. Stuff that still fits but I wouldn't allow them to wear it (one hideous, why-did-I-buy-this-even-for-just-a-quarter-at-a-garage-sale six-piece skeleton costume comes to mind)

4. Stuff that I don't know what it is or why we kept it in the first place

Wow, that cut the massive pile in half.  The too-small-maybe-for-Eli-someday stuff got put into a Halloween-labeled box.  A bunch of it went into the Goodwill pile and the rest of the still-active costume stuff found its home in one of the big IKEA wicker baskets that fit in our bookshelves.

 

 I picked up, tossed, and evaluated.

 

Their stuff had taken over the room so much that it had started to spill out into our family room.  Yes, this is our family room.  And yes, that is a giant chair box that came to us back around the time Brian opened his clinic.  Which, in case you are keeping track, was in October.  And this box has been hanging out as a fort in the basement ever since.  A huge, ugly, needs-to-be-recycled fort.

Have I mentioned I have strange pangs of mom guilt?  For me, it manifests itself in situations like this.  I find myself thinking, "my kids have to be away from home at school and daycare and after-school care all day long.  So the least I can do is accommodate their whims when they are at home."  And evidently that meant letting them have a box. 

Wow, my thought process is pretty ridiculous when you look at it like that.

Ugh.  I bit the bullet and, when no one was looking I broke it down and took it out with the recycling.  Fine, I will give in and they can play with the couch cushions.

Then there was this thing.  I have a confession to make.  I bought this about a year ago.  It was really, really cheap.  Like 75% or more off cheap.  And you know me, I am a sucker for cheap.  It's that mom guilt taking over again.  And so I hauled all 50+ pounds of it into my cart, being very careful to put the bar code up at the front to make it easy.  And I headed to the checkout lane.  I was multitasking -- kids, wallet, Eli and groceries -- at the lane.  I slid my card in before the transaction was done and signed my name.  Off I went to the car. I loaded it all in and drove home.  I unloaded it.  Never even looked at the receipt.

And two days later I found the receipt.  Despite the fact that the ginormous box was right there, with the bar code intentionally right at the top, she didn't scan it.  I hadn't paid for it.  I set the receipt aside with full intentions of going back.  But life got in the way, and I didn't ever find the time or energy to reload it into my car and haul it all back.  So, I never made it there.

The kids found the box (which was supposed to be a gift) and tore into it and that was that.

Ah, I feel so much better.

 

The worst part?  After all of that, they didn't play with it!  It has pretty much sat in this position for a year now.  And so now, to atone for my non-intentional sins, I will give it away to someone whose kids might play with it.

By the end of the great purge and reorganization, I ended up with this:

And got rid of 62 pounds of stuff.  Bringing the grand decluttering total to:

255 pounds! 

I am over half way there.  In just 12 days of chipping away at it day by day, I have gotten rid of 255 pounds of stuff.  I will resist the urge to go and shop for cheap stuff that I don't need to celebrate that success.