Ghosts of Christmas Past in My Kids' Toy Room

With a nearly 10 year old and a 6 year old, my house has had a lot of time to accumulate a lot of stuff.  Never do you realize that more than when you are trying to house the contents of the basement-sized toy room in your garage (and beyond) after a fall flooding (then subsequent carpet removal and new tile placement) due to a wacky weather incident back in August.

Yes, in a decade, you accumulate a lot of stuff.  Multiply that times two (or maybe even more) with two kids. And although we've sorted through it all time and time again, this overhaul was a big one!  Of course, trying to do it while decking the holiday halls (and simultaneously tackling 3 or so "dump piles" of kid-accumulated bedroom clutter), it might have been a bit excessive, here in one 7 hour shift in December.  Are we finished?  Yeah, right!!  No way!  But getting there.  Of course, it takes me back to just over a year ago, when I wrote about the tackle of my garage.... bringing about the point that the more things change, the more they stay the same!!

So it's Christmas season in my world, the li'l ones' lists have been created and sent out to the relatives. I shake my head:  boy oh boy were they long!  Doubly hard to deal with while going through all the toys we had from Christmases past.  Materialism and consumerism are transparent.. and clearly running rampant in own my household.  Frustration Station.  But how do you battle over consumption logically with wee ones who have been twisted around the pinkie of media commercials and addictive advertisements?   It's a hard one on the environmental-parental side. 

And sadly, I have no answer.

But, now, I do have an immaculately clean basement and a reduced amount of "stuff."  Organizational bliss (aka, nirvana). On top of that, I have a handful of wire hangers I can take back to the dry cleaners (thus eliminating more waste in the landfill or even space at the recycling center).  I have a car-full of items I can re-use at school, or give to the PreK class--even one exciting idea brewing for a future math game for my class.  I have (so far) 2 big bags of clothes and toys to take to GoodWill or a mothers/children homeless shelter where they'll be able to reuse our gently used items. I have a paper products galore and more that are now in the recycle bin.  I even have a re-gift or two for the perfect pal(s) who I know would love it.  And, I have my laundry baskets back!  Bonus!  If that doesn't make for a Very Merry Christmas, I don't know what does!!

Pics from my camera of my basement organizational nirvana.