No More Stuff!!

So Hubby and I went on a cleaning rampage this past weekend. Some people call it "spring cleaning" - in my house, it's a rampage. :)

I had a complete "there-is-way-too-much-stuff-in-my-house-and-I-am-the-only-one-cleaning-it-up-day-after-day-after-day" melt down. I just couldn't take it anymore. It was seriously at the point where I literally avoided going into the kids rooms because if I actually SAW the mess I would have to clean it up. And it was NOT going to be pretty. It never stays cleaned up! The kids have SO many toys. And they play with a mere fraction of them. It's just ridiculous.

So out it all went.

About 13 large green trash bags and two days later the kids have clean rooms. Really clean. And organized. I love it. I can actually see the floors!!

Most of the stuff was trash but some of it was salvaged and will be given away. Now we just have to do the same to the basement which is supposedly the kids play area but is actually full of stuff that they don't ever play with. How do we end up with this much stuff? I swear we do a big clean out at least twice a year. I think the stuff sneaks in with the Grandparents. :) In fact, I KNOW it does.

Anyhow, I told Hubby that I hate having all this stuff. We don't need this stuff. It just creates work for all of us and becomes a burden. We both felt so much lighter after the big clean out.

So we have decided that in the future we are going to request that, when present time rolls around, everyone try to make the majority of their gift either a contribution to the kids college funds/savings or a donation to be used for their sponsor kids. I hope everyone will co-operate!

Then my sister called today and said she thought that we should give my Mom a charity gift for Mother's Day rather than buying the usual pretty much unneeded presents. Funny that we were thinking along the same lines! So my Mom will be getting a small gift from each of us as well as a contribution to this charity:

Charity: Water

It provides fresh drinking water to communities in need. My Mom chose the charity.

By this point I was on a roll! So Hubby called his sister to see if she wanted to go in on a charity gift for their Mom for Mother's Day. Last year Hubby's parents gave us Heifer International donations for Christmas so hopefully they will like getting the same thing back. We are probably going to choose something from one of these programs from Children International.

I also told Hubby I'd like to give gifts to our sponsor kids instead of getting any more stuff for myself for Mother's Day. I'm going to let him decide what he wants to do. But I'm really liking this giving rather than getting thing!!

Although I really actually do need a knitting needle case from Knitpicks too. :)