What? You don't have any furniture or appliances to take. You don't need winter clothes. The boy's last year summer clothes are too small anyway, so get rid of them. Throw out all Dave's ratty old jeans and shirts with frayed hems and holes. Get rid of all those frumpy dresses in your closet. All shoes with run down heels goes out, any underwear with skid markes goes (do you wnat your new maid to see that?) All single socks go. There is a whole new play ground where you are going, so get rid of the miscellaneous toys. Keep the bikes. You have used up all the board games anyway so they go. All the music and pictures are on computer so any loose hard copy of that goes. Go through the videos and throw out every other one, better yet have Dave put them on computer too. Clean out your makeup tray, most of it is too old to use anyway. Keep one towel per person, one washrag per person, and one sheet set per bed ( you are going to have a maid to keep them clean and anyway and there probably will be some very nice stuff really cheep where you are going). Now get rid of all the plastic crap in the kitchen. Throw out any pot that is dented, scorched, or stained. Flower pots and vases go out unless they are good enough to send to your sister-in-law for Christmas then you can keep them.
Easier said than done! Oh, and I am keeping my board games for rainy season! I did make some progress today. All the kids clothes that are torn or stained are gone. All the clothes that were outgrown have either been passed down to the next little brother or are bagged and ready to become hand me downs at someone else's house. At the end of the day each boy has one laundry basket of clothes. Total weight eliminated today? 65 pounds! I hope I can get rid of that much again tomorrow.
The declutter/spring cleaning bug must be going around. One of my favorite blogs Scribbit had a post today on how to throw things away complete with handy flow chart to help you decide what to keep or and what to throw. Maybe I should print it out and tape it to the fridge. No, never mind that would just be more trash. I will have to memorize it instead.
13 comments:
We are going through the same thing right now! My new favorite site is http://unclutterer.com/. It's set as our home page, so comes up every time I sit down at the PC...a great reminder!
Good luck!
If you need me to come over and help toss I"m always up for that :)
I love your mom! But was she saying all of your dresses are frumpy, or was she just advising you to throw away the ones that are? I have trouble determining my own personal frump level, but I did finally throw out my 10-year-old business suits - definitely frumpy.
I notice she didn't tell you to toss those famous shoes. Does she have some too?
mom's message is hilarious!
And can I tell you that I LOVE these posts? One of my fav things to do is to declutter/organize...not that I can do this w/ 2 preschoolers...must go check out the two sites mentioned. Good luck!!
Hi there, dear friend!
Be ye of good cheer - for no matter what happens in this world, there will ALWAYS be someone around to make fun of your shoes!!
:)
Love your mom's message :D !!! Great job on the 65lbs down. Cheering you on long distance, also sending you a tea break, right here-> *20 minutes* <- take it, put it in your pocket, and don't forget to use it!
Sometimes - eyeballing it is wrong - especially as the guy didn't move you here and may not know exactly what you own or how much you had. Two things - Find out the weight of any new stuff. Then - I'd keep somethings in a "maybe pile" (In order from most wanted to least wanted) - when the weightometer comes, if you are under you can add from this pile.
Scribbit --how soon can you catch a flight to Frankfurt. I am dying here. How did we end up with so much stuff???
Donna-- I would love to say she meant for me to get rid of the frumpy dresses but I suspect she was saying my dresses are ALL frumpy and I should get some style. I did finally throw out all my "teacher" dresses the other day when I finally realized it had been almost a decades since I set foot in a classroom.
Connie-- I started my day with a cappuccino break to get ready to move.
Jakarta Rocks -- I am sure he is wrong. The way they do estimates they have a set weight for a closet, for a dresser, piano ect... Then they add up all the stuff we have, BUT our piano is digital and weighs 65 pounds ( I don't do kilos, sorry) not hundreds like a traditional piano, a lot of drawers are empty, they boys, our apple computer weighs a lot less than a regular computer set up with tower. ect... but just in case I am cleaning house. If nothing else it means more shopping in Africa. :)
Oh I forgot to say No my mom doesn't have any of the shoes, she thinks they are dead ugly.
i love, love, love your mom's note and i can totally see you writing that same note to your daughter-in-law years to come. so frank and to the point. love it!!! oh, girl. i am going through the downstairs next week in preparation for painting. woo-hoo. i am actually looking forward to it!!! course, i will have a different attitude when i am in the midst of it, i'm sure. ;o)
Can't wait to see the new paint job. What colors are you going with? Please don't say pastels!
Your mum is right, of course, but I would check to make sure you can get good sheets there before you throw any away. In Mauritania you could not get decent quality sheets, and in Morocco you can but only the VERY best at the VERY BEST PLUS AIRFARE prices.
I am not getting rid of my nice high thread count sheets. While we could get good quality linens in Jakarta I am not counting on that being true of Malawi. Indonesia has an active textile industry, I often notice a Made in Indonesia tag in clothes. I don't think I have ever seen a Made in Malawi tag.
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