The Stuff is Piling Up!

I have hit a road block. The good news is, things are getting clean. Walking into Violet's tidy and dust free room gives me hope for the rest of my house, and adds to my resolve to keep at it.

But, the kids are now on to me, and I think I might have some challenges ahead. As I sift through the clutter, I have been essentially sorting into three piles: 1. Keep in circulation 2. Keep as a keepsake 3. Garage Sale bound and the rest goes into a trash bag and out of the house as soon as I am done. However, my dear husband is a bit concerned that I am going to throw away something valuable one of these days so we have a deal. If I can't decide if it is for keepsake or garage sale I leave in a pile on his side of the bed, and then he can pick where it goes. He's like the stop gap for making sure my enthusiasm to purge doesn't result in me chucking out a Honus Wagner card or the title to the car.

I thought this would be simple. If I put it on the bed, even if he was tired he'd have to decide before he went nightey-night. But, it's turned into him just MOVING the pile somewhere else until he has time to think through it. And, while I would like for it to be done, that's not really the end of the world. I know he'll get to it, and if not, I'll just put it all in the garage sale and he'll be forced to fight off bargain shoppers to get it back inside the house.

The trouble is the fact that the pile got left in plain view. As in, the kids spotted it, decided everything in it was "the best toy ever" and now won't part with any of it. AND, it made them realize that the pile of things in the corner of my room (the garage sale stash) also housed some of their old things. Now they are trying to go through that as well. Trying to think fast, I lured them away with the promise of Phineas and Ferb in the other room and then covered the stash with the damaged sheets I found cleaning the linen closet. So far that seems to have gotten them off the scent. But, the pile is only going to get bigger.

Honestly, I have convinced myself I can conquer messy drawers, grime, 8 years worth of magazines and window cleaning. But, I am not sure I can win this battle, if every round is followed by a defense of every decision by the jury of other residents. Not sure how I'm gonna over come this one.