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Monday, May 04, 2009

In The Mood To Spring Clean

It's amazing to me how easily a family can accumulate stuff. So.Much.Stuff.

I've got this nesting thing going on lately. Everywhere I look, I see clutter. I hate clutter. I am a true believer in "A place for everything and everything in its place".

Yesterday, I threw on my old clothes and sneakers and opened up the crawl space doors. I dislike the crawl space and usually make Mr. Schmitty deal with it. But he was unavailable and I was itching to organize. And seeing as its my nature to be impatient, I decided to suck it up and get to work.

The crawl space is about four foot something high, so I can stand, but I need to duck my head and bend my shoulders forward. It does wonders for my aching back. It is also damp and dusty and usually triggers a slight allergy attack. I pulled out all bags, boxes, and containers, as quickly as possible to minimize my sneezing and to avoid traction.

I was also afraid I would see one of these:

Shiver.

When I was finished, I climbed out and began to make piles. Keep. Toss. Sell. You know, like that show.

I told the kids that they could split the money made on any toys we sold at a garage sale. They all want the new DSi. I figured that was a great bribe incentive to get rid of some of their junk.

Yea, well, I'm a dunce. The minute they started seeing some of the old toys, which I must say were in great shape, they started yelling, "I want that! I love this!"

Now, my crawl space is spotless, except maybe for these:

SHIVER.

The rest of my house? EPIC FAIL!

11 comments:

The Fritz Facts said...

You are much nicer than I am...I told the kids I was pulling toys and if they gave me grief they wouldn't get the money at all. That kept them quiet. They never play with most of their toys anyway. BYE BYE!!

Dawn Parsons Smith said...

LOL! I just went through this at my house! My kids ended up keeping the old junk like it was made of gold or something!

Well, at least your crawl space is organized!

Jill said...

We cleaned out toys earlier this year and hid them in the storage room. Rocco hasn't missed any of them -- except some stupid Diego thing I think I actually threw away. I'm planning a garage sale this summer -- and sending the boys away when I have it, so Rocco doesn't have the reaction your kids did. Thanks for the warning!!

Heather said...

My kids do the exact same thing. And so I relent, watch them play lovingly with the toy, start to think maybe I was wrong and we should keep the toys, then 5 minutes later the toy is abandon and not touched six months down the road.

Grrrrr

J'Ollie Primitives said...

It's even more fun throwing out your husband's toys that he never ever plays with....HOOOOOWLS of agony this weekend as things were tossed..."hey! that's a 1936 Chalmers piston! I might get an antique car and I'll NEEED it!"

muuhahahahaha

ThatsBaloney said...

I hide it in the attic for a month to see if they miss it.

Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings said...

They are so not as bad as the spiders with all their legs! Aaaaaagh! Scary!

We need to spring clean too and get rid of a bunch of my kid's toys.

mamatulip said...

EW - what the hell are those things?!

j.sterling said...

omg, THOSE PICTURES!!! i need warning! lol

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah said...

What ARE those?

Mary@Holy Mackerel said...

Oh dear...it sounds so much like my house. That's why I don't dare do any cleaning. I just know it would only get worse instead of better.