Gotta love it when your family comes home! The dog was very excited to see the girls after six days apart from them, he was very lucky and waggy of the tail for a good ten, fifteen minutes at least. I was also very happy to see them, though the messes they bring, or incur are not my favourite thing in this world ever. Didn’t take long for wrapper, beverage containers, sellotape bits, and cardboard pieces to migrate all over the house upon their return. I spent a number of hours over the six days they were gone cleaning and tidying up. I even went so far as to cut out some shapes in cardboard that my youngest had asked for.
My restraint in not going through their bedrooms and ransacking the closets & drawers for our grown or damaged clothes was monumental! I resisted the urge. Instead I got in close to some lower stakes hiding spots for junk and cleared those out instead. It was garbage day yesterday after all. I seized my opportunity, small though that it was, and mounted a mighty spiritual war on our random stock piles of garbage. Makes me feel good to see items leave this house! Small and insignificant that those items may well be, I did it, and through such action I feel better. A catharsis derived from tossing away accumulated mess. It certainly is freeing of the soul. I smiled the whole time.
This weekend I’m taking my kids out of town to visit family and do some fun activities while my spouse returns to work. She notified me that she too has plans to adjust our children’s closets and wardrobes and hand it off to a charity pick up when we are out of the house. A smart plan. The kids won’t let anything go if they can see you taking it. Busted boots or shoes, torn swim caps, out grown t-shirts, holed socks, pants with no knees, the list goes on and on. Best to donate what is still wearable for somebody younger, and take the busted textiles to a drop off bin for recycling and/or repurposing. Much easier to do when the kids are gone for a few days in a row.
I could very well have done so myself, but in my wife’s words, I’m too thorough and ruthless, so she’s a more tender hand and won’t completely strip their closets down to the bare basics. Who needs sixty pairs of pants? Who needs forty sweaters? Who needs 130 t-shirts? It’s ridiculous, and that’s just one kids closet. We have all together far too many clothes in this house. I’ve pared my clothing items down considerably over the years, so I run a leaner wardrobe than ever before. Although I did just come into four new to me golf shirts, so that puts my overall closet numbers up a bit. It’s all good though.
I’m going to be sad when the majority of these toys get put away in the toy bin for good. But, today is not the day for that, so onwards & upwards. I see my youngest is crafting away in the dining room so I’d wager there is a good amount of paper chaff all over the floor under the table. Lucky me!
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