Have you entered to win $30 shop credit with Chelsey Alyse yet? I’ll pick a winner tonight!

Ooooookay. I should probably never set date deadlines for myself because, inevitably, something will go a bit  squirrely.

In this case, this adorable little squirrel got a stomach bug on Monday morning…

theodorbs

…which means that I’ve been holding a very snuggly, very sad, very Theodorable little koala bear for every spare minute of the last two days.

But, BUT! I would like it to be known that I achieved my goal.

3week50bag

Well, I guess that I didn’t meet my goal of 50 trash bags full. Some of those are shopping bags, some are grocery bags…I just kind of grabbed whatever was at hand as I was stuffing. But, as you can see, quite a few of them were pretty dang large.

Unused bedding, stained clothes, old mismatched shoes, random clutter, books, unloved toys, dress-up clothes–all fair game. The craziest part is that I take multiple bags of junk to Goodwill every few months. HOW we have this much clutter in this house–even with 8 people living here–I’m not sure.

Almost all of this is going out the door to a charity, but some of it still needs to be listed for sale. I’m not looking forward to that, and, honestly, if I don’t get around to it fast, I’m just going to chunk it all. Because that is a BIG pile of junk in my dining room (which, if we’re going to be fair, never actually gets used for dining, so it’s not as obnoxious at it would otherwise be).

Also, I haven’t even gotten to the decor that I mentioned, so if you’ve been wondering why I haven’t listed anything, that’s why. I started one day, but I was having one of those brain-paralyzing, “But I still like this and might use it some day,” moments that we non-minimalists tend toward. So, I passed that up and went for the pile of 6 (!!) fuzzy blankets we no longer use that I was more than happy to boot out the door.

Sadly, I’ve still got the remains of a closet that I’ve been stuffing the kids’ outgrown clothes in for–oh–2 years to go through (although I made a good start), and then those cupboards full of decor. And probably some other stuff that I’m conveniently forgetting.

PLUS! We have a barn that I haven’t even touched. Oh. Man. The Barn. I don’t even want to think about it. If I remember correctly, there are boxes of back issues of Popular Photography in there. Yup. Boxes of magazines. I won’t name any names, but let’s just say that keeping them was not my idea. Ahem.

So, basically, I could probably (and very well might) issue another 50 bag challenge and do it all over again.

ANYhoo, that’s how I did.

But enough about me.

How did Y’ALL fare on this here #3week50bag challenge?

Did you push through? Get close? Go over? Fail miserably (that’s okay)?

I’d love to hear how it went. You can even add pictures in the comments if you want!

0 Comments

  1. I failed miserably. 🙁 I did good the first week, i did manage to get three giant boxes filled for goodwill and three garbage bags of clothes purged from my closet, but then i caught the flu really badly and haven’t done any more. Six boxes/bags of stuff is better than none though!

  2. Ok. Here’s my question. You said you’re getting rid of outgrown clothes, and maybe you’ve addressed this before, but what I’m wondering is do you save outgrown clothes to hand down to other kids? That is my biggest storage/mess/take-up-space problem. I have 4 boys and 1 girl. The boys clothes get hard use, and the girl clothes… well, they’re too cute to get rid of. Maybe I’ll have another girl… (not a very good track record so far, though, huh?) I would LOVE to toss all the clothes not in current use. But I can’t go buy new wardrobes for kids when they need the next size. And I sorta envy the people who say “we’re done!” and get rid of clothes as the youngest grow out of them. But at the same time, storing that many sizes (even though I go through them regularly, get rid of what’s worn out, only keep enough for one child, etc) along with coats, boots, shoes, cloth diaper stash… well, it takes up a whole room in my small house. So, what’s your system? (Not that it will change what I do, I’m just burning with curiosity other other mothers-of-many.)

    1. I’m so sorry to leave you hanging for so long! Honestly, I’m not great in this area. I mostly have one closet that I stuff EVERYTHING into that I don’t feel like categorizing that very minute. The rest get bagged, labeled, and put underneath our bed or in the closet. Stained/torn clothes get tossed. We’re never saying we’re “done,” so I feel ya on the clothes limbo. I keep the cutest stuff and donate the rest (when I’m feeling especially motivated). Also, I ONLY buy my kids stuff from Goodwill or on maaaaajor sale from somewhere cheap like Target or Old Navy. So, I honestly don’t feel too guilty about tossing some things that have gotten their fair share of wear and then replacing them with more $2 items from Goodwill. 🙂 I doubt that helps too much, but there it is.

  3. I’ve decided to keep very good track of all of our donations to charity (a local church organization, similar to Goodwill, but serves locally) and try and claim it all on my taxes next year! Individually sorting/pricing is such a pain.

I love hearing from you guys!