The Cleaning Out

You know how when mothers' have just HAD IT? Well, that was me on Sunday, so today I did something about it. There is just TOO much STUFF! I literally filled garbage bags full of stuff out of my kids bedrooms today. I did this while they were at school, so that no one could pitch any fits about keeping this and that. I started with Christiana's room, and boy did I have a hay day! That girl had way more than she could handle. I followed my sister in law, Wendi's technique. I told her how hard it is to decide what to keep and what to give away, what to throw away, and what to sell. Too many decisions for me, so I just threw everything in bags and put them in my secret hideout ( the attic off of my bedroom closet.)
Wendi suggested that I just hold the stuff in there and then if nothing was asked for for a few months, get rid of it. But, the key is to not open the bag. I thought I would give this a try. Gabrielle, Christiana, and Eliza's room got hit today. So far, these were the results:
Eliza went in her room and said, "Something has changed." She couldn't quite figure it out. I told her that mommy had just organized her room. I didn't tell her that anything was missing, until she heard me "spill the beans" telling someone about it over the phone. She said, "You took my stuff???" I had to reassure her that I just moved it. So far, she has only asked for her heel shoes. I did retrieve them for her. Those shoes ARE very important to a girl. I just thought I might get away with something.
Christiana gave me a big hug, and told me how much she LOVED her room. She was so happy and absolutely adored her closet. Now she can actually walk in there if she needed to. I loved her response. I had a feeling she would like it. It should be much easier to clean now.
And Gabrielle hasn't noticed much and is just fine so far. The experiment remains to be evaluated. I will let you know how it all turns out in the next week or so.
If you have any tips for de-cluttering let me know!