Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Babes in Toyland

Toys. Toys. Toys. There are toys coming out of my frickin' ears right now. And it's not just because of the Christmas haul. I actually didn't buy Kirk a single toy for a present (the same cannot be said of Mr. b's purchases) and neither did either grandmother. But I haven't been keeping up with toy removal all year. My sister has the best policy for her girls: for every new toy acquired, one old toy has to go. And as much as I love that plan, I still haven't instituted it.

Oh sure, we hauled an entire bin of crap off to live in the basement of the cafe. And I recently went through the drawers of books and pulled out everything that was too young or too annoying to keep on hand. But it's just not enough of a difference. Besides Kirk's own toys there's a steady stream of our toys from the 90s when we were still major collectors. Cars and Star Wars action figures and plushies and it's just never ending. Plus, apparently the new thing is now to give out gift bags at every single birthday party we attend. When did that become the rule? I can understand it for certain overachievers (yes, I mean you Auntie G, HA!) but it's just never ending now. I was relieved when we went to a party and didn't come home with any prizes. Nothing against hobbits but dang, no wonder they need the mathom house. That adds up!

So for the New Year I resolve to purge. But not just toys. The entire house has gotten out of control. The last time I pulled out stuff to go to goodwill it made it as far as the garage porch and there it sits. The basement is ridiculous. There's an entire section that, were it not the dead of winter and far too cold on that uncarpeted floor to stand on for long, we can't use for anything because it's just become stacks and stacks of boxes and tubs of storage. I need to purge as though we were moving. Show no mercy. Everything's gotta go. Now I just need to figure out how to sell on eBay. Of course first I'll have to track down the missing camera cord so I can upload pictures again...

4 comments:

superbadfriend said...

Awww the year of the great purge! I am still finding and deleting stuff from our recent move. I don't even remember how we acquired so much stuff. My advice...go in quick and don't sort, just plow through. Don't get emotionally attached either ~ part of the reason I still have some boxes of crap I will never use. I was weak! Weak I tell you.

Good luck with the removal of the excess. :-)

Jill said...

And do it when no one else is home. I tried to go through Liv's toys with her sitting right next to me (so she could pick which toys she wanted to keep) and the waterworks were on full blast the entire time. Then there is Ben who will whine and complain when ANYTHING is thrown away. I did do a pretty good job on the cabinets and hall closet and managed to get rid of 12 garbarge bags full of crap while home alone. It was nice. Now on to the rest of the house.

Oh, and sorry about gift bags...I feel your pain after attending various holiday parties and kid parties and promise to contain myself from now on ;-).

Anonymous said...

Alternatively, those could be party favors/Halloween giveaways. I've known people to unload whole comic book collections in this way.

belsum said...

I'm pretty good with keeping emotional attachment out, Jess. The problem is that I'm lazy. HA! I've been trying to start small. So far the kitchen junk drawer and the cabinet of miscellaneous who-the-fuck-knows-what have been purged. I set out EIGHT phone books for recycling!!

Good point about working when everyone's gone, Jilly. I always get the most cleaning done then, too. Otherwise Kirk wants to "help".

I love it, g a! Then I could treat the gift baggers to some of their own medicine. Heh. Although I must admit that once, probably 5 or 6 years ago, I got in a gift bag at a friend's daughter's party an issue of Wonder Woman that was the very issue I had as a kid. Trippy.