Summer Cleaning

David and I have been back for a week now and it has been quite wonderful to be in our own apartment! Don't get me wrong, we LOVED being at Project Impact this summer but what we love even more is being home!

Since we lived in a one bedroom dorm room with just the necessities once we got home we realized we had a lot of things that we didn't need and a lot of unnecessary clutter. So we decided to embark on summer cleaning. We know we are a little late on this but we were learning how to be parents in the spring and didn't have much time for anything but that.

In the last week we have gotten rid of 2 huge boxes and 4 garbage bags of clothes and thrown away many many things that we have no need for. David cleaned out his book shelf and has been giving away books he no longer needs and I have cleaned out my craft (clutter) closet about 10 times throwing away things that I no longer need.

Why is it so hard to get rid of things? I got all teary eyed when I had to give away a hot pink picnic blanket that I got for our wedding... that I NEVER used! It's not like I can never go on a picnic ever again because we no longer have a the "picnic" blanket. And even if we did go on a picnic David would not want to sit on a hot pink butterfly blanket, pretty sure he would rather sit in the mud.

I also struggle with getting rid of clothes. I have clothes from high school that I can not separate myself from. Here is my top 3 articles of clothing that have been in my closet for over 6 years and I have not worn them once in those 6 years!

1. Doc Martin Shoes. Oh man how I wanted these shoes. I am pretty sure they were at least 100 dollars when I got them in high school and they were my babies! I would wear different colored socks with them and even though they weighed around 10 lbs each I loved them. I would have given these shoes away sooner but David LOVED them as well and so I kept them (yes, I just blamed David for my shoe hoarding disorder) This week I had a break through though and tried to sell them to a consignment store yet oddly enough my big black clunkers weren't stylish enough to be taken. Go figure ;)

2.My green American Eagle sweater: Ok, so I have worn this sweater once in the past 6 years and I guess that has kept me hanging on to it. I think I like it so much because it is 1. my favorite color 2.actually fits my monkey arms 3. because it is AE and brings me back to high school days. Three reasons why I need to get rid of it 1. It's too tight 2. It's too short! Even though I read Hillary Leonard's blog about how to wear a cropped shirt I just don't think I could pull it off ;) 3. I look like I am 16 in it. As much as I want to stay youthful I think there are different ways to do so without my AE green sweater.

3. My random cross country clothes like my racing briefs. Why do I still have these things? God knows I will never wear these again even if I lost 20 lbs and became a great runner so why do I hold onto them? I remember the day I made varsity cross country and how all I could think about was wearing "the briefs" Those infamous, hideous briefs! I went home, tried them on in front of my mirror and figured it would increase my race time not because they were aerodynamic but because the faster I ran the sooner I could put on some clothes! Yet I hold onto them ... to maybe show my kids someday??? Weird right? Anyways I don't think any consignment store will take these and I find it strange giving them to Goodwill so I will just continue to hold onto them. Who knows, maybe someday Calvin will want to dress up like Superman and I will have just the right homemade outfit for him!