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Kid and Caboodle: Musings of a "Split-Shift" Mom  Ever since we had a small flood in our basement a few weeks ago, I have been going through a serious reassessment of what in our house to keep, give away or throw away. This is a difficult task because I am an incredibly sentimental person who keeps everything from vacation brochures and postcards to messages congratulating me on the birth of my son, who turned 4 last November. I also collect twist ties, rubber bands, straight pins, safety pins, gift bags and cardboard boxes because I hate to throw away things I can reuse. Lastly, I have books. Books are probably the hardest items for me to deal with because I often become distracted and start reading them in the middle of what is supposed to be a sorting session. I did manage to give away two large boxes of books to the local library recently. Many of the books I donated were duplicates of ones I already had, so it was not a heart-wrenching task to remove them from my collection. Others were in genres I don't like (such as horror and romance) or were no longer interesting after the initial read (such as most mysteries). I also am doing well in whittling down the number of unwanted clothes our family has around the house. Since my son is already 4, and we have no plans for more children, I really do not need to keep any infant clothes or shoes around. Since I lost 20 pounds last fall, I can get rid of all the clothes that are now too loose for me. I also have discarded shoes that looked nice in stores but tortured my feet after a day's use. Although I have made some dents in the large piles of clutter around the house, it seems we keep collecting more stuff every day. Since I donated all my old slacks to charity, I of course had to buy more! Since my son keeps growing, of course I have to buy him new clothes and shoes. And since I still love reading, of course I keep buying new books. Will this cycle never end? What methods do you use to keep clutter under control in your house? |
