De-cluttering

I am always inspired to clear out the clutter after I have talked with my sister-in-law Christy. She is very good at de-cluttering and it is always helpful for me to talk to her and then get in the mood to throw things out. Emma's room has been bothering me for quite some time. Even when it's picked up, it still looks like a mess to me. I tore into her closet where most of her toys are kept and filled several bags. I also cleared out all of her Little People toys. She never plays with them anymore, and all they are doing is taking up space and collecting dust (literally!). I have kept most of the boxes for them, as these are toys I would like to keep for them to have for their kids one day. It was amazing how much room that made for organizing things in her closet. Christy and I also talked about collecting things. She isn't a collector. I am not much of a collector anymore. I once had a Coca Cola collection. I think my Mom ended up either selling or giving away most of that stuff, which I am very grateful for. I hate having stuff just sitting around that doesn't have a purpose. I want everything to have a place. I've watched several Dr. Phil and Oprah shows about hoarders. I am not a horder thank goodness! Scott has hoarding tendencies and I'm slowly getting him to realize we don't need to keep that old crap. He still has his old basketball shoes from high school sitting on a shelf in the closet. The last time I was at Scheel's I noticed back in the shoe department that they have a great big wooden box for lightly worn shoes that will be given to people in countries who typically don't have them. I thought that was a WONDERFUL idea! I told Scott about it and he said that he had noticed that too and wanted to get rid of some old shoes. So, I went through the closets finding shoes that we never wear to add to the box at Scheel's. I told Scott that his old basketball shoes needed to go. He says, "Well, what if I want to start playing some basketball over the lunch hour or something?" I told him if he wanted to do that, I would be more than happy to go out and buy him a new pair of shoes!!! (I think I'm pretty safe there.) Some less fortunate person will be overjoyed to get those ugly old basketball shoes that have only been collecting dust here. Having moved about 5 times also helps me to get rid of things. Why move all of the junk that doesn't have a purpose? Just get rid of it.

Emma's room is shaping up. I also removed everything from her walls and I'm hoping to get the urge to start tearing the wallpaper off of her walls and give it a nice fresh coat of paint! We are halfway through the month and I'm still keeping up with my New Year's resolution to get organized! I hope it can last throughout the whole year!