Day 10 - 1/4 of the way done!

So here I am, 1/4 of the way done with my Lenten purge.  Some fun facts:

1.  I am a giant nerd.  I have a spreadsheet of the areas I've cleared out, how many bags/boxes I've removed, and where they went (trashed/recycled, sold, donated, returned).

2.  From this spreadsheet we can learn that I have removed 19 bags or boxes of stuff from my house.  Let's let that sink in...19.  So I'm ahead of schedule!  Eight have been donated.  Three have been sold (or at least listed....still waiting on some pick ups!).  Three have been recycled or trashed, three returned to their original owners, and one has been passed on to a friend.  This is one of those times that I wish I could pile it all up and take a picture.  The sheer volume of this is mind boggling...and I still have 3/4 of Lent to go!

3.  There have been some major improvements to my daily life.  Since clearing out and organizing Levi's toys, my nightly clear-out of the family room has been cut down to 5 minutes instead of 30.  My clothes are easier to see and organize.  The linen closet is no longer spilling out into the hallway.  Best of all, we had friends over last night, and instead of spending the entire day cleaning, we spent an hour doing the deep cleaning things (mopping floors, vacuuming) and were done!

4.  In the words of my husband (who is only kind of on board with this project) "but we still have way too much stuff!"  Seriously, it doesn't feel like we got rid of 19 bags of stuff.  I can still look around and see tons of stuff that is begging to be bagged, listed on Craigslist, and taken out of my house.  

So onward we go!  Last night when our friends were here, we gave them back their baby swing that they loaned us for Levi.

Levi napped in that thing for almost 6 months. He had reflux, so the upright position and the rocking soothed him.  Even so, I was grateful to see it leave our garage.  If there's anything I learned about baby gear, it's this:  Everyone has too much.  If I'm ever in need of a baby swing again, I'm sure I can post to Facebook and have one in my family room in days.

And now I'm glad it's Sunday, a day of rest.