Managing Baby Clothes

Another item I placed on my mission list is sorting baby clothes. We are blessed to have been the recipients of many, many hand-me-downs for our daughter. Clothes and toys continue to come in as she grows. Meredith also has many aunts and uncles and is the first granddaughter in 13 years on one side and the first grandchild at all on the other side. Needless to say, she is often spoiled with new outfits.

As Meredith has changed sizes, I’ve tried to carefully box away the former size and put it in the basement. I never put much thought into the clothes I was packing away, though. When my basement horror took place, I saw the boxes and boxes of baby clothes peeking from behind the junk. I decided I need to sort through them now, both to make room and bless others.  There is no reason for me to have two full containers of every size!  After all, my goal is to simplify our home!

I sorted the clothes into four piles:

1) Clothes I couldn’t bear to part with (yes, you will learn I am very sentimental!)

2) Clothes I could let other people use and wouldn’t be brokenhearted if they weren’t to be returned

3) Clothes that needed thrown away (stained, too well-worn, etc)

4) Things I probably won’t use again (because of taste, style, etc) to be added to the garage sale pile.

I sorted two bins of clothes and was able to give one bag of clothes away, threw away about fifteen items, and set aside about fifteen items for a garage sale!

Another step in the right direction…more bulk removed!

Box #1

In my quest to “transform” the basement, deciding where to start was a little overwhelming. Ahem. So, in a very scientific approach, I grabbed the box closest to my feet and hoisted it up the stairs to begin the transformation.

As I pulled out the contents of the box, I found the same statement recurring in my mind: “why didn’t I get rid of this sooner?” The same reality beckoned me as this journey started to take shape in my mind weeks ago: what a large amount of things we own that we don’t use but don’t get rid of for one reason or another. Often I find myself saying “maybe I’ll use it one day” as I pile it on top of something in the basement. In all honesty I know I won’t use it again. Such is the case with this box. My taste in scents will never change to accommodate the awful overpowering smell of the bag of potpourri I was storing away. I’ll never grow to appreciate the dust that candles not encased in glass attract. So, why keep the little green votives? I most certainly will not change my primitive/antique decor to mocha-colored glass hurricanes (I do admittedly think this is pretty, but it just doesn’t fit my home and I wouldn’t have the slightest clue how to display it).

All in all, my fifteen minutes of work yielded two items for keeps:

Two vintage glass bottles. We are redoing a bathroom and I thought these might look cute displayed on the counter or small shelf.

The pile below will make its appearance in a garage sale this spring. Whatever is left behind will be donated to Goodwill.

Though I certainly have a long way to go in simplifying the basement, it feels great to take one small step forward!

The journey begins

Welcome! I’m glad you’re visiting as I begin my journey to live on and with less. Here is a little history about me and why I’ve chosen to publicly share my journey!

My husband and I were married in May 2004. I began my job in December 2003 as a fresh college graduate!  My husband graduated from school 4 weeks before our wedding. When we got married, we thought we were set, that we could afford all the things our parents could, and that we should “reward” ourselves with things as fresh college graduates and newlyweds.

Fast forward a few years…Our credit cards were adding up and we realized things needed to change. I am a natural saver, however, my husband is a natural spender.  We worked hard together to cut our expenses and find ways to save.

When our first child was born in 2008, I began to strive to change our spending and habits even more. I never though I would want to stop working, but as soon as the thought hit me that I would have to leave her to go to work, I became determined to save every dollar I could. Simultaneously, I slowly started to lose my desire to “do things” (before our daughter was born, I never wanted to be at home). I began finding joy in simply staying home, baking and cooking from scratch, and laying on the floor with my daughter for hours at a time.

So, you ask…What is the journey? Well, let me share my humiliation with what I saw when I walked down into our basement to get a jar of pears I had canned:

And there was this, too:

And, sadly, this:

So there it is. My junk.