Ending the year... clean out your junk!

If you're anything like me, you are probably in the process of putting away Christmas stuff, and wondering... why do we have so much stuff???!!??  I try to keep our home simple - not too  much stuff so it doesn't take too long to clean up the mess, but somehow, in about the time that it takes me to BLINK we have too much stuff AGAIN AND AGAIN!

Over Christmas we had our hardwood floors in our upstairs restored (the came out BEAUTIFUL - will post on that later this week along with who did it!), and in order to have the floors done we had to move EVERY SINGLE THING out of our upstairs - no furniture, nothing in our closets, nothing on our walls, etc.  Our upstairs was completely blank - looked like no one lived there.  It was a TON of work, and now that we're in the process of moving things back in, we are trying to select what we put in the rooms with purpose... the process of moving everything out made us see every single thing we don't really need.  Do my kids need 4000 books?  No, need to donate some to their preschool & they can check out the ones they really want from the library.  Do they need 20 T-shirts?  No, they only wear the same 5 over and over again.  Does my husband need to pack his sock drawer so full that you can never put anything away?  NO, get rid of some socks. Is your closet full of clothes you don't love and just feel depressed about looking at day-after-day?  CLEAN THEM OUT - if you don't love it, don't keep it!  Do you hate emptying the dishwasher because every cupboard you open up is already full and there is no where to put those coffee cups?  GET RID of some COFFEE CUPS!  

I encourage you to spend a few hours today to PURGE.  We're in this process, and are committed to taking a load over to the Rescue Mission's Mission Mart Thrift Store or St. Martin's by the afternoon.  Get rid of some of the stuff you don't need - feel better going into the new year - and get a tax deductible donation receipt to put toward your 2011 taxes. 

Happy Purging!