Purge - Week 4

#20 Plastic Bags - We have reuseable shopping bags, but sometimes we forget them, especially at non-grocery stores. Our punishment is that we go home with plastic ones. We deal with them by rolling them up and tossing them in our pantry. My mom even taught us this special way to tightening them up really small. Still, they are junk and mess up our pantry, but I hate to toss them in the trash. We remembered to bring them back to the grocery store on Saturday along with our own reusable bags. Score!
Went to: Meijer

#21 Kitchen Items: Doesn't every one have a kitchen junk draw? We do. These were just a couple things that i pulled out while looking for something else. We never used the spaghetti measure (that painter's palette thing). The yellow zester and the metal scraper thing both suck at doing their job. And we now have an amazing Microplane that does so many things we want it to. We also have fun cheese slicer that eliminates the need for the two pictured here.

Went to: Good Will

#22 Girl Books

We've had these on our bookshelves too. I got them before I was even pregnant cuz it's so hard to find good books with girls as the main character. These two books also do a great job of talking about girls as strong, fun, smart, beautiful, etc. We've read them a couple times, but again, I was pretty sure someone else could use them more than we do. I hope our boys do see girls as those things, but we can talk about it and live it out, which is prolly more effective for them than reading about it in a book. Anyway, it was Adsen's b-day this week, so she got them.
Went to: Adsen

#23 0-3 Month pants
In October, we gave a lot of our baby stuff and 0-3 month clothes to Jen and her adopted son Jay. Some how these 2 items missed getting included and were in another box of baby clothes. Luckily he can still fit in them. Awww...they are sooo tiny!

Went to: Jay

#24 12-18 Month Pajamas
I'm positive I bought this at a consignment somewhere when I started to wise up and not by all brand new clothes for Bean. It's the first 12-18 month outfit Monkey has outgrown. It's kinda liberating to get rid of something so quickly after it's lost its use for us.

Went to: Declan

#25 Children's Ministry Materials

I passed the baton of leading children's ministry at the beginning of January. Talk about liberating! It would have nearly impossible to do that plus a full time real job (that plus full-time fake job of grad school was already a stretch). This was also an opportunity to pass along materials that I have been collecting over the years. Man, if only I could count all the stuff that was passed to me and I trashed, but that I did a long time ago. Here are some binders and folders of administrative documents and also curriculum. You might recognize these as some of the multi-year inhabitants of our junk room
Went to: Melinda

Purge - Week 3

#12 About a dozen fall/winter shirts, #13 Bath robe, #14 Dress Socks
I went through my closet and cleaned out what amounted to 13 pounds of clothes. I got rid of anything that I've had it since college, was too short, too tight, too loose, cut too low, uncomfortable or not exactly my style. Some things were new and in great condition, and will hopefully find a good home. Clothes that don't fit have really been ticking me off and I'd rather just wear a hoodie and look like a slob then wear something that I'm uncomfortable in. And at work as far as my dressy work clothes, if I haven't worn it yet, I'm prolly not gonna wear it, so it's better if someone else will. The bathrobe I've had since college and rarely use it.
Went to: Empty Tomb

#15 Magazines
I have an ongoing subscription to "Parents" magazine, which was a Christmas present last year from my brother and sister-in-law (Thanks, guys). It is chock full of helpful information, but I tend to only need to read things once and it's in my brain, so really archiving the past year on the shelf underneath my television isn't really necessary. I just saved 3 of the most recent issues.
Went to: Cyndi, a preschool teacher

#16 Cooler
This isn't even ours, but we've been borrowing it for YEARS. We initially borrowed it from Bo's dad for our annual BBQ each summer. Since then it's been in our basement and also our garage. I'm sure many of us have stuff that isn't ours and not only is it taking up space in our house, but the person whose it is prolly misses it. Give it back!
Went to: my father-in-law

#17 Baby Crinkly Books
Like I said the week before last. We have PLENTY of books. These are a few of baby ones that we don't use anymore cuz Tey is past the stage of eating books. YAY! I love that we can read for long periods of time each night with both boys.
Went to: A new grandma named Jenny who bought them from Craig's List ($3)

#18 6-9 Month Onesies, #19 6-9 Month Sleepers and #20 6-9 Month Coat
Monkey doesn't fit in these anymore but a coworker's baby does! Just FYI, we haven't made a final decision not to have anymore kids, but these things take up space and someone else can use them immediately. In this economy, I'd much rather someone else who needs them be able to put these to use immediately than for them to sit in our basement to be *possibly* used in the future. If and when baby #3 comes along, we can get stuff at consignment. And you never know, we may have a girl the next time around ;)
Went to: Tanisha and Jacory

Purging Earnings: $3

Purge - Week 2

The laundry room was the target area of this week's Purge. I posted these to Free-Cycle with the request for one person to pick up all and I got 25, yes 25 responses! Who knew my trash would go like hotcakes? Rebecca, the lucky recipient of all this junk, will hopefully make more use of it than I did.

#7 Dryer Balls (BTW I'm continuing counting from last week, so I know the total # at the end of the year)
I think these work pretty well, but Bo wanted to get rid of them. The are Earth-friendly in that it decreases your drying time and you don't need dryer sheets, but in the process of making these thingers, the some bad toxins are released. Bo wanted nothing to do with them anymore.

# 8 Dreft Laundry Detergent
We only bought one of these when bean was born and also used it when Monkey was born. We never finished it and there was about 1/3 left! Now we just use "All" for our laundry cuz it's also perfume and dye-free. So this Dreft has just been sitting in our laundry room collecting dust, literally. I had to dust it off.

#9 Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
I got this as a free sample in the mail and have never used it. I'm pretty sure I've had this since soon after we moved into our house, 7 years ago this week!

#10 Clorox Toilet Tabs
We used to use these before the kids were born. Man they kept the toilet clean! But especially in the guest bathroom, which we didn't use as much, you'd get a waft of bleach when you finally did use it. No good.

#11 Can of Lysol Disinfectant (Mountain Air scent) and #12 Glade Potpourri Spray (Rainshower scent)
I don't remember ever buying these. I might have inherited them from a college roommate. Wow! I haven't lived with anyone else since 2001. I probably didn't just want to throw them in the garbage. I'm glad someone took all of these off my hands.

Purge - Week 1

#1 Infant Car Seat and Base (baby not included)
In November we moved Monkey into a larger carseat in the hopes that he would more the roadtrip to Virgina more. Well, we never made that trip, and still the carseat stayed in the garage since them. Bean also used to ride in this carseat. It will expire in another year, so it still has some use in it, but certainly not by us!
Went to: Jenna, a new mom who just gave birth to a premie 2 months early. She hasn't been able to work due to a high risk pregnancy and her boyfriend just got a job. Needless to say, money is tight and she posted a need for baby items large or small on Free-cycle.

#2 Play Gym and #3 a Box of Miscallaneous Baby Stuff
Burp rags, teething rings, a pacifier (never used), random baby clothes including at least a million socks, outlet covers, a baby blanket, some Baby Oxi Clean, and a play gym have been inhabiting a box our basement for since the summer. I just keep adding to it as I find stuff. It's stuff I didn't think would sell, but for someone who is not picky, it's certainly useful.
Went to: Jenna from #2 was the lucky recipient of all it it.

#4 Children's Books
We have plenty. And we read a lot of different books each day, so it was really hard to purge in this area. These are the few that aren't read as often mostly cuz we have other books just like them. Went to: Urbana Free Library. The sell them each season at a book sale to raise money.
#5 Ink Cartridges and #6 Batteries
Most of us probably don't go through many of these, but don't throw them away in the trash! Many locations have collection boxes and will dispose of them for you. Don't forget to tape the battery terminals
Went to: Urbana Free Library drop boxes.

:( Lanfdill :( My House Slippers -
I've had these for years and they served me well. They needed to be tossed last year when I got a hole worn in one foot's toe. That hole has since worn all the way through to the point that my toe was actually touching the floor. This year, pieces of sole were falling off in chunks. I got a new pair (thanks, Cheryl), but haven't seemed to find the time to get rid of these. Until now!