Do you ever walk into your house and you feel completely overwhelmed. Everywhere you look there is stuff, stuff, stuff, and MORE stuff!! I feel like when you have kids it just magnifies the problem because my kids leave their stuff everywhere. Toys and clothes in the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, living room. The hubby and I are fed up! And you want to know what’s sad? We’ve only been in this house for a little over a year. Funny how much stuff you accumulate. So, this past Friday night after we put the kids to sleep we looked around and decided to take up a challenge. Get rid of 1,000 things before 2017.
So, to start this challenge off we decided that we will have a garage sale next weekend. Yes, NEXT weekend! Ekkk! We’ve had a garage sale once before. I don’t really remember how much we made as it was almost 5 years ago. Some people love garage sales. Some people not so much, but when you accept a challenge to get rid of 1,000 things you can’t be picky and hey, it can’t hurt to make some extra money too!
Saturday morning after breakfast we gathered up the kids and told them we were going through each room and giving away clothes and toys they didn’t need anymore. My oldest was hesitant at first but we told her she had a lot of clothes that didn’t fit and toys she was too old for that someone else might be able to use.
We tackled the twins room first. I have a ton of clothes in trash bags in their closet. 3-6 months, 6 months, and 9 months. I was in charge of the clothes while Dustin looked through the toys. Since the twins are the youngest their toys don’t get played with after they outgrow them. We also had a couple of boxes of Elise’s old stuffed animals and toys in there. In their closet, we also had an old file cabinet the previous owner left that we decided to get rid of as well.
Next was Elise’s room. This is where we also had a lot of items to get rid of. We asked Elise to go through her toy box and pick out the stuff she was ok to part with. To our surprise, she pulled several things out and we all agreed it was time to part with them. Again, Dustin helped her with toys while I looked in the closet. I pulled out some clothes and some old books that we wouldn’t use anymore. While Dustin finished up in her room I looked in the hall closet and pulled out a couple of jackets I no longer wear.
Luke’s room was spared because he is only 18 months older than the twins. We didn’t want to get rid of any of his toys or clothes. We ate lunch and then put everyone to nap. While everyone napped, Dustin and I tackled the living room. This is where the majority of the kid’s toys are. It was an absolute mess in there, so while we went through the toys we cleaned up! DOUBLE WIN!! We put everything upstairs in our spare room and also dug around up there to see what else we could get rid of. We are still needing to go through the rest of the house— our room, 2 more closets, and outside items. Once we have gone through the entire house, I’ll plan on tallying up everything that will either get sold or given away to other people or organizations.
I’m actually excited about the garage sale. I’ve read some neat ideas online that I’m going to try—one is to have a “bake sale” and sell those items too. I’ve been eyeing Pioneer Women’s cinnamon rolls recipe for a while and just might do that!
What about you? Have you had a garage sale? If so, please share your best tips!
[…] last week’s post, I shared that Dustin and I were fed up with all the clutter and toys around the house. We made the […]