Simplify My Life: Stage 3

A little more here and a little more there. All that makes for big garage sale piles. Soon my little bits will have to stop because I am running out of room to store it all. And the garage sale is still several weeks away. I will do the last bits the week before - namely the toy clean out and pricing.

I am not very inspired with deep organizational thoughts this evening so I leave with a few photos with captions. But I should warn you - most of the time when I think I have nothing to say, I usually say enough to fill up volumes.

Here is the pot and pan cabinet. I rearranged a few things, but didn't eliminate much. There was a grill type skillet my sister was going to get rid of and that I haven't looked at since the day it was put in the cabinet. And a blue rubber cake pan that made my cake really weird.


Then there is the baking dish and large flat things cabinet. I got rid of a few things here. One thing I noticed was that I had a total of 6 or 7 loaf pans/dishes. I need my 2 metal ones for breads and a glass one for meatloaf (I prefer my Depression glass one), but 7???


Then there is the plastic ware cabinet under the island. Who needs 8 heart shaped cookie cutters? Got rid of a couple of cook books and some other miscellaneous odds and ends that were either melted, crushed, bent, broken or had no partner piece.


Aaaaah! The problem drawer - well, one of them at least. My utensil drawer is always a jumble. Just too much in there that never gets used. I got rid of a few more things out of there today. The biggest thing was the box of the Pampered Chef Easy Decorator thing. I really prefer my Wilton bags and tips. Notice I did not get rid of any of our ice cream scoops. Go ahead! Count 'em!


I also worked on the pantry. I clean this out periodically because with all the little hands in there, it gets pretty messy pretty quickly. And often times when I get home from the store on Monday nights, things get shoved in by the grocery helpers and I get too busy with other stuff to straighten it all out. I did get rid of at least four insulated baby formula carrying cases (you know, the kind you get at the hospital). I saved the two we actually use. I also uncovered some very old, ugly bibs and one of three aprons I don't wear. I mean to say I don't wear any of them. And, yes, I have 5 containers of lemonade Gatorade and 4 boxes of Pepsi Max.

I also went through the rest of the nursery and some of the kids clothing boxes. I do not know how I had soooooo many white baby socks! 30 pairs, I kid you not!

And here are the piles from the kitchen. By the way, Michele, if you want the stoneware dish, it's yours!



Oops! I think he grabbed a few things to take off with before I hauled them out the door. He kept saying he was making dinner.


I do not share all this to pat myself on the back. Hardly. I can't believe how much excess I have! How I let things go. How I hold on to things I don't need or use. I hope it is an encouragement to others who desire to do the same. I hope it inspires. And I hope it convinces some that even someone who thinks she knows how to clean out and organize, still needs to do a lot of cleaning out and organizing. Purge away dear friends! And as I told Robin yesterday, "Be ruthless!!!"

Now before I fold a load of laundry and go work on something like this, I must tame this beast. All this belongs to the little girl who cringes when I want to fix her hair. I must have had high hopes that she wouldn't be just like her mommy.