40 Bags Update, Bags 2-8

Since I'm plenty ahead on my decluttering challenge, I've been kind of sitting on my laurels, and that just won't do! I need to find my groove again and get rid of some stuff... But in the meanwhile, let me tell you about some things that are either gone, or in the process of finding their way to a new home.

You may remember that bag #1 is some scraps left over from making baby leg warmers. I will be featuring a link in this week's roundup for a pin cushion that can be stuffed with many things including "t-shirt scraps" so I'm thinking I might save a few and try that - especially since I have needed a cute pincushion for a while. So maybe I won't toss them just yet.

Bag 2 - a paper grocery sack of movies and some DVDs. Most of these went via Freecycle. I created an account on Swap A DVD and listed some DVDs that I thought might be of interest to someone but I haven't gotten any requests for them. I'm thinking I'll pull them and perhaps list them on eBay, and if that doesn't work, they'll get Freecycled.

Hubs and I both went through our collection and I'd say we're getting rid of around half of what we had. The funny thing is, we did that so we could get rid of our old entertainment center (a "bag" coming up) and our old TV (another "bag" coming up), as we got a new TV handed down from my parents that is too big for much of anything except a table.

Bags 3 & 4 - The movies we opted to keep were moved to a dresser in the spare bedroom. From that dresser, I cleaned out two garbage sacks full of towels, bath sheets, hand towels, and wash cloths. (What's a bath sheet, you may ask? It's an enormous towel. I kept two, as I used them while I was pregnant and couldn't get a regular towel wrapped around my belly. Hope springs eternal that I'll need them again.)

I actually haven't gotten rid of these bags yet. The Altar Society at my parish is collecting towels and wash cloths for "hygiene kits" at our next meeting, so I'm thinking I'll give them away there, and any left overs will be donated elsewhere. I think I mentioned before that I'd like to give them to the local humane society in honor of my sweet calico, Camilla, who was adopted from the society in Colorado Springs.

"Bag" 5 - This is a small "bag" but it's meaningful! I took the Christmas cards we received a few years ago and cut out the pictures to make gift tags. I didn't do this with this year's cards, since I lost my Christmas card address list, I had to use last year's to recreate it. So, I'll hang onto this year's cards until next year and THEN I'll do the same thing.

I'm actually kind of hoping to reuse some of them (we give gifts to the same people pretty much every year) so I reinforced the holes with those stick-on . . . reinforcer thingies. (hey, it's getting late.) This was actually a pretty fun project.

Bag 6 - Hubs bought me a porch swing for my birthday a few years ago, which I LOVE. One of the many things I love about it is the way Hubs would take a tiny cranky, crying Goose out there and swing until they were both calm - and giggling. When we got it, I was convinced that I needed a cushion for it so I could spend a couple of lazy hours at a time out there, swinging and reading and relaxing.

HAHAHAHAHA!

That hasn't happened, and the short time we do spend out there doesn't require any padding. So, this is going to my sweet cousin.

Bags 7 & 8 - I love shoping our local semi-annual kids' consignment sale for Goose's clothes, but since just about everything MUST be on a hanger, I have ended up with lots of hangers. I'm not ready to sell anything back yet so I don't need them, but I sure am tired of storing them. So I e-mailed the lady that runs the sale and asked her if she knew of anyone in my area that needed hangers. Within 24 hours, I'd made arrangements for someone to pick them up. It helped her, it helped me - that's what I'm really trying to do here!

If you're decluttering for Lent, how's it going? You can see the rest of my Lenten resolutions here, and for more frugal ideas, visit Life as Mom.