Purging & Preparing

With a move right around the corner, we've been in full steam purge mode around here. We've been really trying to minimize/declutter for a while now, but with the move so close we've just kind of kicked it up a notch. We've been making almost weekly drop-offs at Good Will & Salvation Army. It feels so good each & every time I drop a load of stuff off! One really simple thing we did a few weeks ago in regards to decluttering was get our toaster & electric can opener off of our kitchen counter. Ever since we got married & set up our first "grown-up kitchen" together, our toaster & can opener have lived on our kitchen counters in each of our houses. I think part of the reason I kept them there was b/c that's where my mom always kept hers, so I just thought that's where they should be. But suddenly it occurred to me that we rarely used those two appliances, so why shouldn't we store them elsewhere? We are really fortunate in this house & have more kitchen cabinet space than we have stuff to fill them with, so into the cabinets went the toaster & electric can opener. And the result was divine--clear countertops make my heart so much happier!!!!

And since we're in purge mode, nothing is safe--not even the girls' masterpieces, which makes my mama heart so sad. But the realist in me knows we can't save every.single.thing even if I want to. I do have a tote where I store a few of my favorite pieces that they've created, but everything else gets showcased for a while on one of our art displays around the house then they're sent to the trash/recycle. For whatever reason, these two items made me especially sad to purge so I figured I could take a picture of them & post them here so they can be archived in our blog books. :)

This was the Mother's Day card Shelby picked out for me last year, and she was SO proud of it! She thought it was absolutely hilarious. ;)

On Sunday night, we emptied out our guest room closet and transformed it into our "stuff to keep with us during the move" closet. When we moved from Biloxi to San Antonio, I was fully prepared to be without our stuff for a week or two on the front end of the move & a week or two on the back end of the move, but it ended up being waaaaay longer on the back end for us. So this time, we are preparing for the worst case scenario just in case. ;)  Right now our "stuff to keep with us during the move" closet is full of air mattresses & newborn essentials {ie. carseat, pump, burp cloths, etc} in case this baby decides to arrive before the movers deliver our household goods to the new house. Hopefully he'll stay put until we're somewhat settled in the new house, but at least we'll be as ready as we can be if he comes earlier than that!

When we PCSed to Virginia and Biloxi, Derek had already moved ahead of me and had each house almost entirely set up by the time I arrived. So our move to San Antonio was a whole new ball game for me since we arrived together with NONE of our stuff, plus it was our first time ever moving with kids! Needless to say, we learned a lot from that experience! I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power, and like Oprah always says--now that we know better {aka that we might be without our stuff for way longer than we'd like!}, we can do better! It feels so good to be so on top of the move prep this time around!! Here's to hoping I'll still feel that way in a month! ;)