New Year Organizing

I always get an organizing bug at the beginning of the year.  Actually, I always have it, but its worse every January. 

I clean closets out.
I purge the office.
I shred things.
I call Amvets for a pick up.

I've unloaded so much stuff I can't believe there's not more room under my bathroom sink.  I threw out old conditioners, lotions, half empty bottles of hairspray and checked all the medicine expiration dates.  (That's an important one!)  I also found some Zicam, which I just found out was recalled.

I got rid of clothes that I didn't wear for the last two summers.  I got rid of dingy socks.  (Santa brought me new ones!)  I purged my daughter's room, too.  There were clothes that she had out grown...in taste and size.  I also filled a kitchen garbage bag with paper to recycle.  She loves to draw, write, make up menus, design clothes and generally waste paper.  I shouldn't admit this, but I buy boxes of paper from Costco.  You know the kind that has 8 reams in it?  I donate some to school, of course, because they can't afford it, the rest stays here and slowly dwindles over the course of the year. 

Anyways, I cleaned out my kitchen drawers, too.  I have so many utensils and gadgets that I never use.  They just take up space...so they're sitting in the Amvets thrift store, too.  I got into the bottom of my dining room hutch and got rid of old candles, candle holders and vases that didn't mean anything to me.  I have a lot of things that were wedding gifts that are still sitting in their original boxes, but I can't bear to part with them.

I'm hoping to get a trash bin one day soon so I can chuck a bunch of stuff.  You know, old lawn chairs, the wheelbarrow with the hole in the middle and the flat tire, the parts of the old built in sandbox that my son used once.  (I never let my daughter play in it, it was too gross!)  If I'm lucky, I can get my husband to climb up to the rafters and see what we can get rid of up there, too!!

It feels so good to purge-toss-organize. Next up...the office...