By now the explosion that was Christmas 2012 is cleaned up and put away for most of us. Are our lives any better for all the spending, wrapping paper, giving, and receiving?
Is Clutter Holding You Back?
Many people feel cluttered I am noticing and who can blame them?
This dawned on me the other day when I remembered that another local blogger is soon moving across the planet. Her family has given away or sold most all of their worldly possessions to make the trip go as smoothly as possible. I had to mention when we saw her and her boys how nice it must be to have such a clean house and she mentioned that it is actually really nice. I think at heart she is a person that likes the minimalist life style and this move made it easier for her to jump in. I think I would like it too. I think a lot of us would like it but we are scared. Why we are scared I am not really certain. A post for another day perhaps.
For now though the rest of us have homes full of stuff and now is a great time to consider just what gifts fit and what ones have gone untouched. I am seeing all over the web in places like local for sale groups and Music Magpie people selling things that have gotten no attention these last two months. Some still new in boxes. This is a reminder to the rest of us. Clean out the post holiday clutter!
Crunchy parenting is all about being green and parenting naturally. Is it really natural to have 8 TV’s in your house or 20 sweater? Or 200 toys your children don’t touch? What about the broken toys that you still have not parted with? Fix them or part with them now! Just the other day the dog got a hold of an adorable handcrafted wooden toy kitty. I had to trash it! I felt badly but it will break down in not to long a period of time and it just was not safe for the dog who would surely find it again, nor the kids to play with any longer. So be it. If it had been a beloved toy I can tell you I would have one like it on the way to the kids now because when you reduce the number of toys, the beloved ones mean all the more and so you want to keep toys like those around.
Did a costly gift not get the love you thought it would?
Some gifts just do not go over as well as we think they will. A friend bought her son a robotics kit like the one my daughter has and told me she wished her son liked his the way my daughter likes hers. It isn’t the mothers fault, and it isn’t her sons fault either. Time to find that kit a new home and figure out just what her son does like!
Have 2? Let go!
So if your like Joe who told our local group “I need to sell my nintendo wii as I have a Wii U and don’t need two” get on that, don’t wait. There are kids out there who don’t have a wii at all and would love it. Don’t be a pack rat! Sell the things you don’t love to gain some more stability or to put into things you do love. Personally I am letting go of things I do not need to get a new camera lens!
Help the kids to reduce – reuse – recycle too! Be sure when donating things though that you check out the program your donating to, not all of them support the things you think they might! Happy Post Holiday Clean Up!
