When Cary Is Away (Again)

Kelli will play....NOT!! Actually I cleaned. Not the usual everyday cleaning but the hardly ever gets done cleaning. I love a clean house. And I love to clean my house. BUT for some reason I don't keep closets or drawers very clean. I'm sure this is some kind of syndrome. So last night I decided to clean places that very rarely get cleaned. I started in the living room. There is only a couple of places in the living room where things can be stored but in those 2 places I collected half a garbage bag full. This inspired me to the end table in the dining room, again a drawer full of needless things. So then I head off to Madison's closet. Since she was outside entertaining the neighbors in the pool I felt like this would be the perfect time to clear out "clutter". I collected another half bag full of "stuff".

Next stop was Grant's closet. I went through his toy box and collected a whole bag full of unused toys. Anyone need boy toy's?? He came in while I was pulling the toys out and asked what I was doing. I told him I was making his "keeping his closet clean job" a whole lot easier. He didn't fall for it. He knew what I was doing. But even after pulling out all these toys his toy box still runneth over and I dare to say most of these toys don't ever get touched.

Next stop was downstairs play room. My main objective down there was to clear out the coloring books that had been on the shelves forever and never get used. I figured I could donate them to church. Well to my surprise I came up with a whole garbage bag full of nothing but coloring books. I found a couple of other books and threw them in the bag. Other things that I "discovered" while cleaning: at least 10 boxes of crayons(new & old), 50+ pencils & ink pens, notebooks, folders, glue, markers, film for a 35mm (which I haven't had in forever), pictures that I had forgotten about that I was wanting to get framed, 2 old phones, sunglasses, the key thingy to my truck(still in the plastic bag), lots of playing cards all mixed together, and lots of other things not worth mentioning.

When Madison saw what I was doing in Grant's closet she knew what was next. I told her one night this week I would be doing the same with her toy box(she has no idea I already got half a bag of other things out). She said she had already went through all of her toys and there was nothing else to get rid of. I told her I beg to differ. Half of her toys are coming out also and hopefully donated to some needy child. Anyone need girl toys??

It's kind of embarrassing to see all that they have and have to give away good stuff because they never play with it. But to mine & Cary's defense we DON'T buy 98% of this stuff. It comes from grandparents, aunts & uncles, or especially a very generous great grandmother(Gran-Gran) or given to us for the exact same reason we are giving it away.

And to be fair I worked on my closet also. I still have more work to do in there. Thurs I will finish my closet, finish Madison's closet, clean under Madison's bed, work on kitchen drawers and if I'm still in the mood head down stairs to the toy closet. Hopefully when Cary comes home Friday there will be a clean house with no clutter hiding in drawers or closets. And all he will have to do, besides cleaning out his night stand drawer, is haul the many bags to the dump.