It was more important than ever that my indoor cleaning get done before it was time to work outside

When I think of spring, especially spring in Memphis, it makes me want to get my cleaning and organizing inside the house done before the nice weather settles in. Since my best friend and I had plans to put in a vegetable garden, it was more important than ever that my indoor cleaning get done before it was time to work outside.

My kids are constantly growing out of their clothes and toys, so their rooms needed the most attention. When my oldest was born, I started buying and labeling large bins with his outgrown clothes to use for whomever else came into our family. But when our third and final child was born, she couldn’t wear many of her big brother’s things, so this spring, I had to do some major overhauling of my clothes-saving system.

First, I went through the bins with the smallest clothes. I looked at each outfit, checked the size, tried some of the things on my younger son to be sure, and put all the outgrown items in a garbage bag. Next, I went through their closet and did the same thing, adding the outgrown things to the garbage bag and placing out of season clothes into the bins. Then I did the same thing with my daughter’s closet. I ended up with four garbage bags filled with outgrown clothes. I set them aside and called my friends later to give them a chance to go through the items, and then I took the rest to the Salvation Army. I’d rather have the tax deduction instead of a garage sale, so this system works well for me.

The next project I wanted to tackle was the kids’ toys. I was already amazed at how much space was left in their closets with all the unneeded items removed, so I couldn’t wait to see how I could transform our family room in just a short amount of time. I started with the large items and worked my way down to games and books. In the course of an afternoon, I had four more bags and a few boxes of gently used toys and books that the kids had outgrown. We had quite a few things that had seen better days and were only suited for the trash, and I was glad the good things they no longer played with would find homes with other kids.

The most amazing thing was after getting rid of all the old toys, we had enough space in our family room for a foosball table. We picked out a model from Family Leisure that my husband and oldest son could enjoy now and our other two kids could grow into. It’s a great addition to the space and makes letting go of old toys a whole lot easier!