I’m starting a new tradition. This new tradition has been started in part to get me into the Christmas spirit and partly to kick my butt into high gear. I’ve decided that I’m going to do a massive Christmas purge of the apartment every year and the proceeds go to a donation to the church box for the needy.
Don’t give me a hug. It’s not altruism that is motivating me. It’s the cold reality that I live in a 1000 square foot apartment and have a toddler underfoot. I’m literally bursting at the seams in duplo blocks and wooden foods.
Strangely enough, I’ve found now that I’m a parent, I had more Christmas spirit prior to giving birth. Don’t get me wrong, I do get the Christmas spirit but usually later in the month. My old self would have all the Christmas to dos done by now to enjoy the Christmas merriment. Now I have to juggle the boring stuff with the glee. I think being a parent has actually deepened and honed the spirit of Christmas for me but that’s a topic for another day.
Today is about my tornado of a home. We have a tiny apartment but I jokingly divide our apartment into the west wing and east wing. The east wing is where we retire at the end of the day aka the bedroom. The west wing is our workspace aka the living room and kitchen.
DH and I spent Monday and Tuesday sprucing up the east wing and now we have a beautiful serene east wing complete with a newly cleaned utility closet. I can walk into it again!
I also sorted and packed TG’s clothing and baby gear (bassinet, changing pad, bathtub, bouncy seat, etc) into boxes for storage. Ok, I did the clothing. The baby gear requires a trip to Target to pick up those gigantic Ziploc bags and some hefty trash bags so they can be stored protectively.
I also posted a large quantity of baby and non-baby items for giveaway or nominal donation. Items that don’t go will go to the local church donation for the needy and the funds received will go towards a family Christmas donation.
We clear out stuff we haven’t used or don’t need. We’ve given stuff to folks who could use it rather than fill a landfill and we’ll give to others. I think it’s a nice tradition that helps highlight the spirit of giving and unity I hope to instill in TG.
I still have the west wing to tackle which is why I’ve been telling folks my house looks as if the police raided it. See, I’ve moved the to-be-stored boxes to the west wing so DH can get the hint that he needs to go to storage. Sadly the hint was missed and he pushed them back to the east wing this morning but I will not harp on this.
Then there is the three boxes of donations that are awaiting pick up that are sitting in our foyer.
Then we’ve got a million boxes that need to go to recycling sitting in my kitchen.
Oh let’s not forget the Mega Blocks and various assorted kitchen plates, spoons and forks that TG likes to strew around the kitchen.
Notice I haven’t even gotten to the living room?
I woke up this morning after a very fitful night (TG is teething again) and I felt like I was in an episode of Hoarders.
Anyway, I don’t know who it’s comes to this but in our tiny apartment I had collected 30+ towels (there are only three of us), unopened movies and games and more shoes you can shake a stick at. Don’t ask me why you would shake a stick at a shoe.
I haven’t even tackled our coat closet, the pantry or the kitchen. I’m scared. Last time I overhauled the kitchen I found 50 packets of sugar I had collected from various takeout orders. Why did I save all those sugar packets?
