Purging

We moved into our current house in the fall of 2007. There are still boxes in the basement that haven't been unpacked! I don't even know what is in half of them.

We own a very small house (1000sq feet, 2 bedroom bungalow), and we are quickly outgrowing it with the addition of a second baby! However, we are not in a position to move for another couple of years. We have a partially finished basement with an awesome playroom and family room, so we can at least keep most of the kids toys and baby clutter at a minimum on the main floor.

The unfinished parts of the basement are for storage. And they are overflowing with....junk (mostly). We haven't fully decided whether or not we are done having kids, so we are holding on to all baby stuff and kids clothes. These take up a lot of space. I have some very generous friends that gave us all their hand-me-downs, so we have bins and bins of clothing for our daughter. I will be selling most of it at a mom to mom sale, once we're done having kids. So for now, we are not selling that stuff.

We do have lots of cardboard boxes of stuff that we haven't seen in 5 years (or longer)! We have been slowly going through it box by box and being ruthless about whether we want to keep it or not. Space is at a premium in this house, and we are looking at finishing one of the current storage rooms into a bedroom and bathroom. That means we need to get rid of a bunch of the stuff currently in storage. Also, I want to organise everything that we are storing so we can actually see it/find what we are looking for (do you know how many times I have bought Christmas gift tags and cards, only to later find out I have tons already, but couldn't see them/find them??). So, we are purging. And wow, does it ever feel great! Our garage sale is this Saturday and we still have a lot of boxes to go through. It's not easy to find the time when you have a pre-schooler and a newborn! There have been a few late nights. But not having much time also means we can't think too long about each item. A quick look and assessment and it either goes back into storage or into the sale pile. I am happy to say the sale pile is bigger than the "back into storage pile" at this point.

It is very refreshing to purge your stuff. This year, while I am on maternity leave, my husband and I want to do a lifestyle makeover. Get out of debt, save for a bigger house, do more activities with the kids rather than own a bunch of stuff. Instead of buying, we will "do"!