Had to clean out the car today before we went to Walmart. Two kids and a husband who travels all the time = lots of accumulated flotsam in the car, and no real time to dedicate to cleaning it out. That’s my excuse, anyway.
So in the back seat, between floorboard and the space between the two car seats, plus cargo area, there were 8 hats for two girls. My theory is to keep one hat in the car for each girl in case we end up outside somewhere and it’s sunny. But they are both hat-lovers and so favorite hats get brought to the car and left there.
There’s a good 6 more hats inside, counting the coat closet and their closet. So 14 hats, give or take, for two pre-school girls.
That right there is a red light on the dashboard of my life, indicating that I have a consumption problem. Two girls should equal four hats total - summer & winter chapeaux for each of them. Now if hats were their passion, I could concede a bit more - I mean, I have an ardent love for shoes and handbags. It’s a want vs. need situation, and I’m not saying that life has to be spartan.
But 14 hats. Really.
It speaks for itself, and I post this only to show you what types of things I’m noticing these days. Noticing this stuff is a great step towards fixing it. SORTING your stuff and putting like things all together is a great step towards noticing you have a problem.
My goal by end of day today is to have all children’s hats report to the library table, where I will have them help me pick some to donate, pack away the Tigger hat with the orange tail in the baby box, and then stow the keepers where they belong.
I gotta start somewhere, right? What crazy things have you noticed that you have rampant amounts of?
L
Hello–”PTRN” here.Just stopping by to add you to my blogroll.
Forgot to answer the question: way too many magazine subscriptions. I’m trying to cut back on subscriptions to those I merely like vs love, and pick up occasional single issues instead of adding even more mags to the clutter and recycling pile here.
Hey…pagan_mommy here!!!
We have way too many children’s books. Yeah, books are wonderful, and every kid should have a pile, but I have two kids (one who only lives here part time!) and probably 400-500 children’s/young adult books. At least. The three shelf bookcase is stuffed full, piled on top, spilling off the sides, there’s a dozen or more in the car, a stack on my nightstand, a stack by dd’s bed, books on the entertainment center, books on the coffee table, books in the couch (yeah…), books on the adult bookshelf, in the bathroom, in the kitchen (?)……they’re everywhere!!!!! And the young one is at that point where she’s blowing through reading levels like mad, so the books that were perfect a month ago are too “babyish” now *sigh*. I really need to go through them and donate about 2/3 of them (all the “baby” picture books that don’t have sentimental value)! Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow. And maybe I’ll get lucky and there won’t be any more book orders or fairs before school gets out!!
Too many stuffed animals too, but as dd has named them all and can tell when one is missing (even the ones I never see her play with), I don’t think I can do anything about that *sigh* Hopefully she’ll see the value in passing them on soon!
I have too many kids. However I think I nipped that one in the bud.
However, if there is a recall on a strawberry blonde boy for not being able to follow directions, I’ll be down a whole kid.
Really? Our biggest wasteful item? Pillows. I have 17 pillows on *my* queen size bed. My kids have inordinante amounts of pillows. DH has 7 pillows. I think total between 2 kids w/ pillows and 2 adults we are pushing 30 pillows.
I think it stems from having to share a pillow as a child so now I must over indulge. Sad thing? I sleep with ONE pillow to actually sleep. The rest get tossed to the floor.
Steph - IBB
Huladancer coming in to say we have too many bathing suits. My daughter has 5-2 bikinis, 1 one-piece, 1 rash guard and boy-cut shorts and 1 halter and boardshorts. My son has, no joke, 10 pairs of boardshorts. But he wears them as regular shorts. Do I get a free pass on that one?