Cleaning Mistakes 101

Good morning!
It's been cold here at the cabin for the past couple of days. Night before last it was around 45 degrees with yesterdays high in the 60's with wind. Geez, summer lasted about a week and we blinked.

The cooler weather has started turning thoughts and work toward fall/winter projects and chores. With the kids all gone, my main goal this fall is to completely downsize. In other words ... all the junk that we've accummulated over the last 8 years MUST GO! I've found that this is much easier said than done. I didn't quite realize that MOST of the stuff a family accummulates isn't "big" stuff ... it's tiny little stuff like trinkets for birthdays, photographes, notes/drawnings made by little hands ... you get the idea.

Yesterday, I attacked the task with a firm determination, "Things Must Go OR ELSE!" The first thing that came to mind was to clean out the movie cabinet. That seemed simple enough, we rarely watch anything in there anyway. My gosh! I don't remember that cabinet being so big. I pulled out no less than 100 VCR tapes, (not counting DVDs), and I had piles on top of piles. Where did all these movies come from? I spent hours going through sorting out the ones to keep and the ones to put in a garage sale. I had the loveseat covered with movies that were to go. I was so proud of myself. Until last night. I realized that I made a terrible mistake ... I didn't move the pile downstair out of sight.

I was cleaning the kitchen when I heard the Mountain Man hollering, "you're getting rid of 'this'? You know it's my favorite movie! ..." By the time I could dry my hands, he had literally emptied out half the box I had so carefully packed. (You know, I had a similar experience back when the boys were small and I had decided to clean out their toy box.)

I stomped my foot and exclaimed that for every movie taken out of the box, one from the still overflowing cabinet had to take it's place! Needless to say, things got a little lively around here.

By the time the dust settled, we were laughing and teasing each other. Oh, and I don't have to worry about straining my back when I haul the box of movies downstairs. He lightened the load considerably.

I suspect that this downsizing task is going to be more difficult than I had origionally thought.

Have a blessed day!