Decluttering

We've been doing some decluttering in our home the past few months. Lincoln now has his own bedroom. Our craft room (which we never crafted in) has been rezoned. It's now an official Altman child bedroom. That's what happens when two more little ones (one last summer, one later this fall) join the family. Craft supplies are being relocated, sold, given away, and thrown out. It makes me sad to let go of all those potential projects!

What makes Kara sad is getting rid of all of Viva's little girl clothes. Kara decided to give her cousin Ruth a first option on the boxes and boxes of baby and toddler girl clothes and shoes. Ruth liked most of the items, so Viva's old wardrobe is being relocated to baby Ada's home in Boston.

Out with the girl clothes; out with the craft supplies. What else went out? Kara sold her childhood daybed that was in the craft room. We free-cycled a computer desk from our bedroom, a set of three matching chairs stored in different parts of the house, a very cool (but never used) card table, and another wooden chair. Even in a house the size of ours storage space is limited. We got rid of a reclining chair from the downstairs family room and when the guests leave we will freecycle a couch from downstairs and maybe the sectional, too. We're repurposing our rooms! It's time to put to use our dead zones.

We're on a roll. We're getting rid of items both big and small. Here's one of the small items that was thrown out:

It's Kara's old Etch-A-Sketch. It was starting to leak silver dust. It's amazing that it's lasted over 20 years. I don't know if we will get a new one. Kara thinks there is an Etch-A-Sketch app on the iPad, but how could it be the same when there are no knobs on the iPad?