Update: I tried the new blogger look this morning. I am not sure what the problem was, but it was impossible to format my posts. Everything got all mixed up. It took me the whole day to publish this post. Ultimately I gave up and decided to keep the old look for the time being.
When I started decluttering my house I didn't know how much time I would gain, how much easier it would make my job as a stay-at-home mom. It really clears my head and I love it!
^ This is a sensitive subject...music lessons. I finally threw away tons of music paper. The boys played the flute, saxophone and cello for years and it made me very proud. But when it became more and more difficult to combine music, basketball and homework, they had to drop something (they opted for the homework :-)) and they dropped music. My second son told me lately that all these music lessons were the worst experience of his life (ouch!).
(The kids are taking music lessons and my daughter is starting to play an instrument next year. I might be lucky this time).
^ Three garbage bags full of clothes. These are picked up twice a year by our community.
^ Son number two likes to organize his stuff and can easily give/throw things away. He still has a lot of school books he doesn't need anymore because he is graduating from high school this year.
^ More of his books. He has had 12 years of French and most of his lessons were in French in high school. He asked me to get rid of them because "he is not going to read another book in French for the rest of his life". A bag full of basketball magazines (I'm sure somebody is going to be very happy to find them at the recycle centre). A waffle iron that isn't working properly anymore and this thing to keep your feet warm (I don't need that anymore because my computer table is right next to the radiator).
^ Two reward boards. The kids are 8 and almost 7, we don't need them anymore. Two pillow rolls. They're from Ikea and they are terrible. It takes about 15 minutes to change the cover. They really have to go! More kids' clothes. Bed linen with at least 100 tiny buttons all over the sheets. Lovely, but impossible to iron. Time is just too precious around here with four children.
^ A whole stack of Dutch magazines. I used to keep them but I don't anymore. They usually go to my father's wife and she gives me other Dutch magazines instead. I also used to keep every single dvd, until I realized that I was never going to watch them again. So now I pass them on and only keep the one's that are special to me (mostly about Africa for the kids when they grow up).
^ And last but not least: toys. Puzzles, board games and some other small toys. We are going to try to sell these at the second hand toy market somewhere in June.
I feel so, so much lighter now!
