Spring Cleaning Cast-offs

I know, I know. I'm putting up a lot of blog posts lately...hope I'm not flooding you out too much. I've found quite a bit I want to talk about in the past few days but I'm going to run out of words soon, I suppose.

My "To Do" list for today consists mostly of beginning a rewrite of my novel and a belated spring cleaning of my house. If I wait any longer on the housework I'll have to call it summer cleaning.

I wanted to share with you a few thoughts about housecleaning and de-cluttering our living spaces. A lot of junk laying around and household clutter can make a clean house look dirty. Now, I don't believe in putting on airs to appear "better" than we really are, but I also believe in presenting a tidy and appealing home for our husbands and children, and yes, others to some degree.

My goal today is to gather stuff that we don't need, won't use in the forseeable future, and don't really want anyway. If it's truly junk, it's going in a pile in the garage corner to be thrown away. If it has any life in it at all, though, it'll be donated somewhere.

What do you do with items you no longer need or want? Here are the options I came up with:

1. Have a garage sale. This doesn't work well for me. Every time I've had a garage sale I've made no more than $100. For all the work and bother it is, it's not worth it to me. After the sale is over, I end up having to repack everything and donating elsewhere anyway.

2. Donate your items to Good Will or Salvation Army - or another charity in your neighborhood. Perhaps your town has a clothing shop where useable goods are donated and others can take at no cost. Gaylord has a shop like that in the old feed and grain store. The Vanderbilt Community Church has a basement stuffed with donated goods that they offer for free to those in need. The Gaylord Evangelical Free Church has Shepherd's Closet - a program that offers your items to others who need them. The recipients pick them up at your home or storage space.

3. See if your church has a program that distributes used items to missionaries. When you do this type of thing, please be sure you give USEABLE items, not junk. Too many people give missionaries their trash because they think those people should be happy to get anything at all. Have you ever watched the movie, Polyanna? Haly Mills in a dreadful dress because that's what people gave missionaries still vividly appears in my thoughts and it doesn't make me feel good.

4. Sell your things on E-bay. If you do this, you'd better make sure that your items are as described.

Have fun working and giving or you'll be miserable!

There are other tips linked up here.