Saturday, January 8, 2011

10 Lessons learned from the annual household purge

1. This annual event is easier to pull off in January than December because my primary work space isn't home to a Christmas tree.
2. But doing it in December means making the charitable donation before the end of the year.
3. I am an inspiration collector - I buy fabrics that remind me of dear friends. I buy papers that make me want to create something. I buy new craft materials because I see things made by others and think "I'd love to make that, too!" I buy cross stitch magazines - the expensive ones from England - because they have projects that will look beautiful when they are done or will make great gifts for people I love and they come out more often than the US ones, giving me more inspiration for the year.
4. I can realistically only do one craft at any given time. If I have a love seat full of boxes and bags of craft projects to give away, that means I have let my "collecting" get the best of me.
5. I have enough craft materials in my house at this moment to keep me crafting for years to come. 
6. It is time to stop collecting and start creating.
7. One child isn't very tough on toys which makes them easy to pass on to others
8. My son was my hero during this project. He set a great example with his willingness to pass on some favorite toys he doesn't use to a younger child who would love them.
9. It helped that we started talking about it at least a month before we actually did it so he could warm up to the idea. His room looks fantastic after all of our hard work!

and, my final lesson learned....

10. Legos are an evil thing to try to store! There is no good storage system when Legos are sold as sets to build specific things. I have a small house, so I don't have space to store each creation on a shelf. Legos have to go in boxes, which means they get broken or taken apart to make the lid fit. And no one is willing to just dismantle the lot of them and and start from scratch.

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