Getting Ready For the Holidays
I loved Meredith's post yesterday about cheerful frugality and giving gifts that people really care about so that your money does not go to waste. I may sound like a little old lady, but I really am amazed at how much people buy for themselves. It becomes increasingly more difficult to buy for people, including children, when everyone has everything they could ever want already.
I was sitting in our playroom a couple of days ago looking at the overflowing bins of toys. I am handing out Christmas lists to grandparents, yet we seem to be living in Toys 'R Us. How do I know that we have too much? Because we can't find anything and when I take toys away from my children, it has no impact on them whatsoever.
With a trash bag on one side of me and a giant tote on the other, I decided to do some decluttering to get ready for the holidays, but I am extending it further than our playroom. No, this decluttering needs to be happening everywhere in our home. I would love to just point fingers at my children and my husband, but a careful look at my closet told me that I have way too much myself.
Here are some things that I am working on to get our home ready for the holidays:
1. I am trying to work on one small project each day to clear some of the clutter. This past weekend we worked on our closet and got rid of any clothes that were not in regular rotation. I am using this tip for the fall/winter season to see what we are actually wearing in our closet. Amazing how many nice clothes were pushed to the back of the closet or what missing treasures I had.
2. I decluttered all of the kid's toys in our playroom. Toys that they had outgrown or no longer played with got moved to the donation bin. We actually involved my oldest child in helping to choose the things that he wanted to get rid of. He was giving with wild abandon while I was clutching to the things we had spent more money on. Isn't it funny when your children are less attached to their toys than you are? All of the toys that had missing pieces got the boot as well as random McDonald's toys and small items that were receiving no love from anyone in the house. The reward for me is the bins looking nice and neat and the reward for the children was that all of their toys and their parts are now together. Want all new toys for your kids? How about shining them up a little and putting some batteries inside of them? Just these two simple steps can restore new life in those sad toys.
3. The garage and basement are my catching grounds for anything that I don't know what to do with. Most people have a place in their home where they deposit the randomness of their house. I got my garage cleaned out enough that I can now park a car in it (what a novel thought!) and now I am working on making the basement a useful place in our home rather than the travesty it is.
These are just the beginnings of places that I would like to start. Have you been getting your home ready for the holidays? Is there a weeding out process so that you have room for all of the new goodies that will be coming?
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7 Responses to “Getting Ready For the Holidays”
November 13th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
We’ve been doing lots of freecycling. It feels goo to know that our old stuff is being used by someone who really wants/needs it instead of just sitting around collecting dust.
In addition, our Christmas presents for 2 of my nieces will be some of my daughter’s old toys. I had talked to my sister about Munchkin wanting to give her old toys to her cousins, and she suggested using those as their Christmas presents. So, we’re decluttering old toys and making them into new toys for others.
As I get out the Christmas items, I’ll be sorting out items that we no longer need/use and pass that along to others as well. After all, it is the season of giving.
November 13th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
We recently decluttered toys in the form of a collection my son was no longer interested in … Little People. We had amassed the collection at thrift stores for anywhere from $0.25-0.99 each, including the big items (like the house, farm, etc.).
Like you, my son was more eager to get rid of it than we were … until we had moved it around 10 times in 3 months and realized that it HAD TO GO!
Fortunately for us, we listed it on Craigslist and got all our money out of it. Not bad for 3 years’ worth of play! We plan to do this with future toys as well, reinvesting the “profit” into new (or should I say, new to us) toys.
Great post!!
November 15th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I went through our playroom a couple of weeks ago, and I was amazed by the amount of stuff there was to get rid of it. Some of it was donated, some of it was given to specifice people, and yet another whole bag was just thrown away. And after all that, I STILL have several things that I’m planning to see if anyone in my MOMS club wants before I donate it.
The sad thing? The playroom still looks pretty much the same.
Thanks for the inspiration to keep going!
November 15th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Amy, I think you’ve cut to the heart of the matter. We indulge ourselves so much, there’s very little we even want.
Sad. So sad. And I include myself in that statement.
November 15th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Amy, keep us posted on the basement clear out, mine could use a good sort out. Lets us know any tricks for getting rid of things.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
So true! I love freecycle and have lots to take to Goodwill a couple of times a year. But, I have made the decision to stop adding to the clutter buy choosing gifts more thoughtfully and with less of a monetary value in mind and more of the recipient’s nature and personality in mind.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
We over-indulge too but we’re trying harder to only bring something in the house when we need it and if we can take something else out (of commensurate value/size). My 14 year old daughter has been trying to do this with her closet for a while and it is keeping things at bay, to some extent.
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