40 Bags: Week 3

Obviously when life got put on hold the last two weeks, so did my big cleaning project. It was almost hard to get back into it.

26. FHE kits to Richelle

I did get an early start on Thursday. Earlier in the week, I was talking with a friend at work about ideas for her to do for Family Home Evening that night. I told her she should do the Easter Egg lesson. Then I remember I had made it once and I might still have it. I found it, along with a treasure load of other lessons my mom had made in a group when I was young. I called my mom and asked for permission to give it all away. I think the most exciting part was realizing I now had an empty tote to use! I always need more of those. I put everything in 4 grocery bags, but it seemed the equivalent of one garbage bag.

I spent most of Friday in town and came home in the afternoon, planning a lazy day. But then I realized that we were going to Vernal the next day, and it would be the perfect time to take a load of stuff to the DI. I already had several bags, but decided to make it worth it and fill some more.

Originally, I was going to save the attic for last. Its been almost 2 years since the bats lived up there, but it still scares me to go upstairs. But I figured the attic would have plenty to fill the car for the DI. But to get to the attic, I had to first clean the stairs. Yikes!

Growing up, I hated having stairs because they were always cluttered. But since I never go upstairs, I let the same thing happen to my stairs. The first few steps were cleaning supplies, which have a new home under the kitchen sink. Which sometimes leaks, I think that is why they were on the stairs to begin with, but I'll try my luck.

After that, it was just bag after bag of junk. Old cleaning supplies where there was only like 2 drops in the container. When Josh got home, I made him look at the stairway, he was surprised to see we have stairs.

27. Garbage
28. Garbage
29. Empty juice bottles and egg cartons.

The empty bottles were going to be water storage, but 4 years later, they were still empty. So they went to the trash. The egg cartons I took to my in-laws. They have chickens and always need egg cartons. But now they won't for awhile, I took them 25 eggs cartons, most of which hold 18 eggs instead of a dozen.

Between the stairs and the attic, it took me only an hour to fill the garbage can. Sad thing is, I have a pile upstairs big enough to fill it at least 2 more times.

30. Garbage - old boxes.
31. Garbage - old boxes.

I found boxes to stuff we haven't had in years! Old telephone boxes, old camera boxes, etc. One box was 8 years old from when we bought a rechargeable flashlight. We always thought we had a second charger, but could never find it. I had finally decided it had been lost in a move. Nope, it was in the box, brand new.

32. Picture frames. I think I hauled 2 dozen to the DI.
33. Old Christmas ornaments for the DI.
34. Old Christmas ornaments for the DI.
35. Old Christmas ornaments for the DI.

Sad thing is, I didn't even really go through my Christmas decorations. I think if I went through all the totes, I could fill at least one more bag. A lot of the ornaments were in box, but I managed to clean out 2 more totes! I now have 3 empty totes.

I ended up filling the back of my car and the back seat with stuff for the DI. It feels so good to be rid of all that stuff. I've noticed how I seem to take more care in the rooms I've deeped cleaned to keep them that way. I took some time to scrapbook yesterday, but didn't leave my room until everything else was put away. The same seems to go for the bathrooms.

I've declared the attic nearly done. Life is going to be crazy the next few weeks and I might not have the time to dejunk like this. So if nothing else, I can spend 20 minutes hauling garbage from the attic to the can outside.