Week 8 PURGE - Freecycle week

One person's junk is another person's treasure. I've never believed this more than since I joined Champaign-Urbana Freecycle several months ago. It boggles my mind what people are able to give away and what people are willing to take. You should join for nothing else then to laugh when people post an offer for a professionally mounted ringneck pheasant in flight position or post a search for Richard Simmons exercise videos. If you are partnering with me to PURGE, you should definitely join cuz you'll be able to get rid of stuff that you've convinced youself should just go in the trash if only you can bring yourself to part with it. Because you don't have to deal face-to-face (there's no exchange of cash like on Craig's List), you don't have to be embarrased about offering your junk. See my comment on another local mom's bad pennies. With Freecycle you have nothing to loose, except for, well, your junk. So this week, I challenged myself to give as much away as possible using only Freecycle.

#43 Handful of Pens and #44 Binder - I have 2 storage places for pens. One is in my bedroom closet in a set of plastic drawers that also hold other office supplies. Those drawers were left over from my college years because I wanted everything I needed close to my desk, but not on it. I know, this doesn't make sense to now have in my closet, but WHATEVE. Those drawers are to be attacked some other time. The other hiding place is the basement. Oh the basement. We've moved all of our office stuff (all except what's in my closet and a desk that has been in our bedroom since I wrote my dissertation) into a big, but somewhat organized pile in the basement. This is an improvement, believe me. In this pile I also found one large binder I was willing to part with (I might need the others to organize my grad school papers).
Went to: Krista

#45 6 Scrubs - We've had these in the bottom drawer of our washing machine. Somehow we inherited them from Bo's brother when he moved from this area years ago. They're really soft, so good for PJs, but I'm too in love with my own jammies to put these to use. I used one as a rag, so it was pretty badly stained. And just FYI scrubs don't make good rags.
Went to: Canaan, a friend from church, and fellow Freecycler who's in vet school

#46 9 PC Video Games - We accumulated these over the years and have been storing them in the basement. Bo has played with all of them, but some of them we played together in college and maybe during an early bit of grad school. They bring back very fond memories (like naming our characters, kinda like naming kids, but you can be more crazy). Because we knew that we'll never play them again, we tried selling them on Craig's List but all offers seems spam-licious.
Went to: Karen

#47 20+ Travel/Trial Size Toiletries - I'm sure you have these too. You snag them from hotels...heck, you maybe even sneak extras. Well, the ones you don't open and use can be donated to homeless shelters or troops overseas. What to do with the opened ones that you only used once or twice while you where at the hotel? Freecycle! We now have one very clean bathroom drawer because all of these are gone!
Went to: Joy

#48 2 Bath toys - Well, we used them as bathtoys, but they're just random stuff that float. PURGd them from the bathroom too.
Went to: Joy

#49 8 Thank You Notes - Leftover from Monkey's birth for gifts we received. They're too baby-ish to use now. They've been in that big, yet somewhat organized pile of office supplies in the basement.
Went to: Joy

#50 Nonstick Skillet - We bought this as part of a set of pots and pans in the summer of 2001. We had picked out the set online, but couldn't find it in store locally. So while we were on a road trip to week-long dance workshop on the East Coast, we stopped a Kohl's to picked it up. We sold the rest of the set at a garage sale almost 2 years ago, but somehow missed this one in the depths of the basement.
Went to: Kim

#51 Mug - It's funny how this also related to our college dancing history. Bo and I each got one of these mugs because we were on "Let's Swing," a WILL special where we danced with to live music featuring The D'3 and UI Jazz Band. This has been in the basement too, cuz we only use a couple mugs.
Went to: Kim

#52 Kitchen Utensils - We have too many duplicate utensils from combining households. I'm sure there is more I could have gotten rid off, but these were just what I found from a quick swoop of our utensil drawer that I already cleaned out just a bit in Week 4 PURGE. In another week, my theme will be to clean out kitchen drawers.
Went to: Kim

So, are you conviced about Freecyle? Next week I'll PURGE by returning items to their righful owners.

Week 7 PURGE

Playroom. Wine cellar. Home theater. Guest room. Music studio. Game room. These are just a few of my favorite dreams for our basement. Even though I know we won’t ever have all of these things, each item I PURGE brings us one step closer to at least finishing the basement and somehow making use of that space for something other than storage of stuff we don't use.
My accomplishment for this week was to sort through some children’s stuff in the basement and box up what could be sold at All Things Kids, a consignment store in southwest Champaign. Consignors can only bring 2 crates (tubs, boxes, etc.) of clothes from the 1st through the 15th of each month, but there is no limit on other items, which you can bring them any time.
Above is what I PURGED this week:
#35: Car seat cover - Used by Bean only. Monkey was fine using his puffy winter coat.
#36: Crib sheet protector - Used by Bean only. He slept in one position well enough to make this useful. Monkey, not surprisingly, has always been a mover and shaker all over his crib even when he was an infant.
#37: Head-positioner for car seat - We never used these cuz the Car Seat Class we took at Carle told us they were useless and perhaps harmful to some babies.
#38: 2 Diaper bags - I *think* I might have used one of these once, but not as my everyday diaper bag.
#39 Mini-electric Breast Pump - I got this from my sister in law, but I never used it cuz I had my own electric one that was portable.
#40 Potty Chair - Got this at One Week Boutique, but we never used because Bean always sat in one of those rings on the toilet, and Monkey is just starting to do the same. The rings are much better in my opinion because I don't have to directly deal with poop and pee :)
#41 Box of 3-to 6-month clothes - It was sad to see these go. I forgot how small babies can be :( If/when baby #3 comes along, we'll get new or consigned stuff. I'd rather have my space back. Plus, you never know, we could have a girl.
#42 Box of 6- to 9-month clothes - Including the aforementioned puffy winter coat
Went to: All Things Kids

The Story of Stuff

This video is a must see analysis about where our stuff comes from and where it goes. The Story of Stuff can have a happy ending but it's our job to change the cast of characters now!

Week 6 PURGE

#30 - 3 Diaper Wipes Containers
I cleaned out the boys' closet this week and now I can see the floor! Bean was impressed too ;) These were hidden in a corner since Bean was a baby. They came in handy when we had diaper changing stations all around the house, which is convenient when your kid needs 12 diaper changes a day. Now that Monkey likes to sit on the potty, we've been using more TP.
Went to: Lacey and her daycare (she also pick up another 2 bibs I found, but didn't want to count it, cuz I purged the majority of them last week)
#31 - Kids Hangers

These were scattered in the boys' closet, so I bagged the them up to give to a friend who said she needed them. Her kids' clothes end up in laundry baskets or all over the house. Glad PURGE can come to the rescue!
Went to: Tanisha

#32 - 2 Bath Books

These were in the boys' bathroom. When Bean was a baby, we got the seal one from one of the Urbana Free Library's book sale. BTW, if you want to stock up on cheap books this is the place to go for 3 books for $1

The rubber duck book we got as a gift from my dissertation advisor when Monkey was born. I don't think I need to repeat that we have ENOUGH books.

Went to: Lacey and her daycare

#33 - 4 Bible Craft books

These have been in the basement and were the few that survived a PURGE that I did years ago. I've received to many of these as hand-me-downs and many are not very good. These were, but I knew someone else would get better use of them.

Went to: Patti and her children's ministry class.

#34 - 3 Diaper Ointments
We bought these before Bean was born cuz I read somewhere that when you kid gets diaper rash, you don't want to have to run to the store to buy it. Monkey has never gotten diaper rash and Bean got it fewer times than I can count on one hand. So, we just kept one small bottle of Burt's Bees Lavendar stuff, which should hold us over.
Went to: Lacey Lee and her daycare

:( Landfill :( A pair of Bo's old boxer shorts that he's owned for at least as long as I've known him, which is almost 11 years. I found them at the bottom of his underwear drawer. When I pulled on the waistband, it permanently stretched. The elastic must had dried out. I had Bean bring it to him to ask if they still fit and we all had a good laugh. Adios, Chief!

Purge - Week 5

#25 See N Say - Another item that wasn't ours. As Director of Children's Ministry, I always got handed whatever was left in the classroom after tear down and clean up. One week, this was found under a table. It's been in the playroom for several months because I keep forgetting to return it.

Went to: Our church's children's minitry toy box

#26 Baby Toothbrush/Gum Massager and Storage case (Oval thing on top)- Bought this new for Monkey. He was pretty observant about Bean's toothbrush, so took to that quickly. We didn't use this very long so it has been sitting useless in the boys' bathroom drawer.
Went to: Joy and Isabella after I posted it to Free-Cycle

#27 3 Bulb Syringes - These were also in the boys' bathroom drawer. We use them as bath toys because the boys barely ever get sick and when they do, we've NEVER found these to be useful. We have enough bathroom toys.
Went to: Joy and Isabella after posted it to Free-Cycle

#28 - 38 Adult-size hangers
They've been in our closet. After the Week 3 purge of my clothes which I donated to Empty Tomb, many hangers were left over that I didn't need. Even if I buy a bunch of clothes, which I hope to do come spring, I won't need all of these hangers.
Went to: a coworker, Tanisha who told me of her need of hangers and was gonna buy them brand new at store. Double win: I declutter she saves on cash.

#29 About a Dozen Bibs
They were in the playroom closet which is where we keep all the boys' clothes. Tey still uses a couple bibs, but just the plastic- or vinyl-type ones that we can rinse off and reuse pretty quickly. I'm sure there are more cloth ones in the laundry, but that means we're USING them. The pic is just of the more boyish ones. I gave the others away before I took a pic.
Went to: 2 different families on Free-Cycle (sharing the love)

#30 Children's Ministry Curriculum - 3 Teachers guide, 1 student book and 3 CDs
BOXES of curricula were given to me when I became CM Director. I purged a lot a long time ago. This is what was left. I kept it cuz I was teaching in the age range, but I soon realized that I'd rather come up with my own stuff. I also almost never do music stuff with the kids, so the CDs would have been useless anyway.
Went to: Someone named Laura who posted to Free-Cycle that she was looking for this kinda stuff and this age range. Coincidence? I think not.