What a Life!

This week’s official theme is going to be cleaning out. As in, decluttering.

I still haven’t done anything with our old desktop computer, including the monitor which still works. I had thought I might try to strip it and sell the individual parts like memory and such, but I really don’t know what I’m doing so that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. I did find out this weekend that my favorite local charity – People’s City Mission – accepts old computers, both working and not working. So we will again have space under our second desk, where all of that stuff is being stored.

I sold some stuff on ebay, sold some stuff (and still have stuff for sale) over on the diapering board. Hopefully that diapering stuff will move this week and I can get that cleared out.

As for toys…I think we have way too many toys. To make things even worse, we recently inherited the toys Steve’s mom had over at her house and have given to Steve’s brother. Some are duplicates, and some that we already had are similar (like shaped blocks that fit in holes – stars, squares, triangles, and such – only need one of those, thank you).

I’m going to start by taking Ben downstairs while Joey is asleep and asking him which toys he might give to someone else who doesn’t have any toys. We’ll see what he comes up with. I think he needs to learn to give to others who are less fortunate than him, and it also may help if he notices some are missing and wants to know where they are (not that he’ll notice or anything – we have so many). Then after the boys are in bed one evening, Steve and I will go through them and make some decisions of what stays and what goes.

Really, it we don’t have as many toys as anyone else I know, sad to say. But I still think we have too many. We have more than Steve or I ever had as a kid. We have way more than my mom ever had when she was a kid. Mom had her sister’s old doll and a doll to call her own. She shared a bike with three siblings, including two boys. And their “sandbox” was little blocks of wood they used as “bulldozers” to make roads out in the driveway on the farm. Granted, they lived on a farm so they could go roam the pasture and play with the new kittens and all. But still…

Neat Repeatz is coming up and I’ll take the toys there first. Then I’ll retrieve anything that doesn’t sell and take it to my favorite local charity. They are so gracious when you bring them things. Some charities I’ve donated to have been so rude, such as our local Goodwill up on 27th Street. Never again will I donate anything to them. My favorite charity even takes unusable clothing – as in, t-shirts with holes in them and such – and sells them as rags. They gave away 43,000 clothing items in August, according to my knitting friend who works there and was at our Knitting Guild meeting this weekend.

I’ll be finishing up a number of knitting projects as well this week. I have a few that just need a little bit of finishing work done, and one that almost off the needles. But more about that later…when I have pictures.

Until then, happy Monday to all!