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amyable
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| Posted: Nov 17 2009 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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Do share. 
With two birthdays in November, Christmas, then more birthdays in February, I'm trying to make room - physcially in our house and mentally - for the onslaught of stuff that always seems to come no matter how hard I try to keep it OUT.
Anyone else doing a pre-Advent or pre-Christmas purge? I feel it will help ready my mind for Advent and the coming of Christ.
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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*Lindsey*
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I am! We have a tiny home and not much room, so every year around this time I go through things and also encourage the kids to pick out toys to donate.
I am ridiculously unorganized about it, though. I have a list of all the rooms/areas that I want to de-clutter. It would make most sense to work from the top of the list to the bottom and finish one area before I move on, right? Well, that's not how it happens! I think it's because I often have to stop in the middle of it and go tend to other things.
My list is:
My closet
Dh's closet
kids clothes
under beds
kids shoes
kitchen
vitamins/medicine
top of filing cabinet (a real "hot spot" for me)
recipes
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Lindsey
Mama to DS (11), DD(9), twin dds(7), DD (5), DS (4), DS (3), and 5 angels in heaven.
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SuzanneG
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We're ready to "wrap-it-up" over here and get things flyin' out the door! In time for Thanksgiving weekend. We also have a garage that's being converted into finsihed living space, so I'm more motivated than normal to get things purged and organized. Want to have things cleaned up by Sat. after Thanksgiving!!!!!!!
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Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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Waverley
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We do a pre-Christmas purge every year here as well.
I work with one kid at a time to go through everything they own. We start with a garbage can and a laundry basket. We look at each item and decide if it is a keep (we put away), a garbage, or a give-away (goes into the laundry basket). We then go through the give-away basket to see what can be put together as a set before donation. For example, I will purchase some holiday ziploc baggies and we will put in a bag one Polly Pocket with 2 outfits. The baggies also work well for sets of legos.
After I have worked with the kids, I go through my things and then my husband goes through his things. As each donation bag fills it goes into the back of the van.
Good luck purging. I always feel so much better after a purge.
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Waverley
wife to Dh for 19 years, dd (16), dd (11), dd (8), ds (6), dd (4), dd (9-13-1996)
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Mackfam
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I ABSOLUTELY do, Amy! I'm done downstairs and the kid's bedrooms are on my list this weekend! I'm BRUTAL (she says in her most sinister voice laughing devilishly)! 
All will be on its way out the door early next week. 
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Nov 17 2009 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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AND...I do this again during Lent...the post-Christmas purge!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Lisbet
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Yes indeed - this year we are moving! I'm not taking anything with us that we haven't used in the last year. I also noticed how many toys the kids have, but how few they play with. I'm seriously considering throwing out (donating) everthing but the doll baby, blocks and legos, and puzzels and such...
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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SuzanneG
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Neil Diamond and Alan Jackson are my official PURGE-MUSIC!!!! I JUST pulled out the CDs....they are waiting for my ruthless arm to start tossin' and flingin' !!!!!!!!!
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Suzanne in ID
Wife to Pete
Mom of 7 (Girls - 14, 12, 11, 9, 7 and Boys - 4, 1)
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Maddie
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Mackfam wrote:
I'm BRUTAL (she says in her most sinister voice laughing devilishly)!
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Yep, brutal, that's my middle name. I love that purged feeling. Love this time of year.
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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amyable
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Forgot to share - one hopefully fun thing we are doing is using up our craft stuff. I'm going to take a few days off school and set the girls loose on the three rolling carts of craft junk, I mean supplies! Maybe we can even get some (cough) gifts out of that junk!  Anything left over will get donated, unless I have real plans for it. Hoping I can be brave enough to have that include my big tote of fabric.  If we are not using it, why do I have it??  
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Mary K
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I'm doing one. I've been decluttering all year, but now I'm being ruthless!! I'm sorting toys in the downstairs room while my 15 month old and I are there alone. Here's how I do it: I'll find all the parts to something (ex: polly pocket dolls), get rid of the pieces that aren't used(shoes, etc), then put that away in the back room until I'm done. I've learned that they will play with what is out and I'm not constantly repicking up the same stuff!
God bless,
Mary-ny
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Stephanie_Q
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Have been working on it as we re-arranged downstairs and painted two rooms upstairs before the baby comes. Girls moved to a new room and I got to get rid of lots of stuff.
I even purged my bookshelves to get ready for our library booksale (which I see you're doing...I kept my Just Ask books, though ;)
Love the "Lenten Purge" idea, Jennifer. We usually do something similar. They can keep all their Christmas / birthday stuff for a while, but if they don't have room for it in their toy bins, then it or something else has to go to make room. If it's totally obnoxious, the toy fairies come and take it away at night.
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dd 6.02, dd 8.03, ds 3.05, ds 12.06 at Catholic school.
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molly
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I am purging, as I mentioned in another post, I organize a Christmas swap with other HS families, so I am gearing up for that. We do it on Black friday, perfect day to purge instead of gathering. I have my dc fill up a box each they are willing to give away, I go through the good church clothes and shoes, CDs, DVDs, books, toys, dishes, basically EVERYTHING gets second thought. And, like Jenn, I do this again in the spring. We too, have a small home and what we gather in a years time is ridiculous.
Off to purge.....
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Christine
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I want/need to purge, but I have to ask when do you find the time to do so? I can't even keep up with laundry.
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
Pretty Lilla Rose
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amyable
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Most of the time, I wind up "purging in the moment" when I can't find a good chunk of time. I keep a garbage bag in our unfinished room that I fill up a little at a time. Like I'll be looking for something to wear, and see that I haven't worn a certain shirt in months. Out it goes! Same in the kids closets and with toys and books. I am "thinking decluttering" at all times it seems so when I have that minute I just do it. I think we are able to do it like this, however, because I have gotten stuff down to a more manageable roar already.
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Amy
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The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Mary K
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I try to do 15 minutes in the morning, afternoon and evening. The morning is more likely since my 15modd likes to wake up and "entertain" us by banging the piano (no lid and no way to keep her away from it), so we head downstairs and I declutter after coffee, prayer time and email check.
God bless,
Mary-NY
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Angel
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I'm in a constant state of purging, but have been doing more lately because we'll have visitors for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I do sometimes think that the house would look less messy if I didn't purge, though, because then we wouldn't have all these boxes sitting around, waiting to be donated. In particular right now I have 4 or 5 boxes of books sitting in my entryway, my husband has 3 or 4 boxes of books in the back of his van from many, many months ago which he was supposed to bring to the used book store, and I *think* I saw a book donation bin near one of the malls in Albany, an hour away. Living out in the middle of nowhere makes it hard to give stuff away. I guess that's why people around here have so many garage sales as soon as the weather turns warmer!
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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Paula in MN
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I purge monthly!
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Paula
A Catholic Harvest
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Mimip
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amyable wrote:
| Forgot to share - one hopefully fun thing we are doing is using up our craft stuff. I'm going to take a few days off school and set the girls loose on the three rolling carts of craft junk, I mean supplies! Maybe we can even get some (cough) gifts out of that junk! Anything left over will get donated, unless I have real plans for it. Hoping I can be brave enough to have that include my big tote of fabric. If we are not using it, why do I have it?? |
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I am soooo doing this! The craft stuff for the fall is getting low, paints are down to the bare bottom, foam and felt is down to a minimum! What a great idea!!!!!Thanks Amy! 
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In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: Nov 18 2009 at 8:41am | IP Logged
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Christine wrote:
| I want/need to purge, but I have to ask when do you find the time to do so? I can't even keep up with laundry. |
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Most of the time, I find I need to just totally let everything else go in order to get true purging done (no dishes, no laundry, no vacuuming, etc - at least until I can't stand it anymore!). Now that my son is older, he can help keep up with the minimum on that stuff as well as help get rid of stuff.
We use the pentitential seasons (Advent and Lent) to really focus on getting rid of stuff, though the past 3 months have afforded several opportunities as well, so perhaps this Advent will be that much deeper of a purging. 
I also have a weekly/monthly rotation of areas in our home that are supposed to be cleaned (every week is a different 2-4 hour focus, for deeper cleaning) and I'll try to purge at those moments as well.
We have tiny space and a lot of "categories" - somehow I need to consolidate those categories to really do more than I've been able to accomplish thus far....
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Anyone doing a pre-Christmas purge?
