Purging

Today was a fairly productive day. My husband and I spent most of the day getting rid of things we don't use anymore. My main focus was on the playroom, and with the help of my children we managed to get rid of quite a lot of toys. Every now and then nostalgia would creep in, but removing the clutter propelled me forward past the majority of my nostalgia. At one point my husband popped his head in the room to let me know if there was anything that I wanted to keep then we would find a place to store it. He is pretty sensitive to my bouts of nostalgia too. I do have a couple of toys that I won't part with, but we simply don't have room to keep every toy our children ever played with or enjoyed. It is time for other children to benefit from our gently used toys.

Basically our system was that it had to be a unanimous decision by BOTH children for any toy to be given away. My eldest is very generous about giving away toys my youngest plays with routinely. Go figure. I do consider it a success that we only had tears once! These came from my eldest, and believe me it was over the oddest thing: Winnie the Pooh and Little Mermaid Mega Bloks. I tried to ascertain the last time they were actually used by anyone, and no actual date could be determined. So, I moved them to the discard pile, and the wailing began. My husband intervened, and tried the same tack...when were they used last? Finally, we conceded to keep them in exchange for a large item to be discarded, because they take up a lot of room. I am not sure why we conceded to keep them, because I know my eldest still won't play with them, but maybe we can revisit the issue in a few months. Anyway, the playroom looks clean and tidy. Ready for the onslaught of new toys that will arrive with upcoming birthdays and Christmas.