Purging Mode

Sarah from the amazing blog Clover Lane wrote a great article on purging her home's contents here and here. This girl is amazing. She's a hard core family loving woman who is not afraid to tell you how she feels.

Today I dropped off 4 trash bags of clothing, housewares, and other miscellaneous items to my local Goodwill. It's so nice to free up some space in our spare room! The thing that I love most about what Sarah does to purge is to use BLACK trash bags. That way, your kids (and husband)won't see what you are bagging up (aka toys, 40 gazillion shirts that your hubby doesn't wear anyways), and when its in the bag, its in. You can't see it's contents so its much less tempting to pull things back out of it!

Now, I am all about asking my husband permission to get rid of things that are his out of respect. My hubby had SO many t-shirts they took up one whole rack in our closet! Seriously, over 40. Maybe more. (Need I start in on the hat collection?) One thing that I came up with to prove he didn't wear or need EVERY. SINGLE. SHIRT. was to turn all the hangers backwards on his t-shirts. When he wore one of his shirts, after I laundered it I put it back on the hanger the way it regularly goes. After a few months it was pretty obvious which shirts he loved and which ones he really didn't need to hang onto.

He was a good sport and ending up purging a lot of ones that he really didn't need. He also let me donate half of his hat collection - which meant that I got to donate 20 hats (and gain back a nice chunk of overhead closet space over MY clothes).

Could I get rid of 40 trash bags in 8 weeks? For me, probably not because I am a habitual purger. Seriously. My husband gets worried sometimes that I get rid of TOO much stuff. I am consistently taking a few trash bags full of clothing and household items to my local Goodwill or Deseret Industries frequently as I don't like things to build up. I really don't like clutter. At all. And I am a believer of only keeping items that are useful or that I find beautiful AND love.

Going into the holiday season its a great time to clear some space in your kids rooms and throughout your house as well! Do you think you could find 40 trash bags to take out of your home? This also includes paper trash and other garbage to throw away. Imagine how much more open and airy your home would feel - I bet you'll feel like you had a weight taken off your shoulders!