Day 5

Whoa. Friday I didn't get to do much in the purging category, but that was ok, because I was "ahead" a little bit. Then Saturday was a lovely, cool, springish day, and we cleaned out the garage and now I don't even know how to keep track.
We gave to friends a bike seat (for a toddler to sit behind a grownup) and a carseat; donated our big wheel type toy to a local toddler playground; filled an entire outdoor trash can with trash from the garage; recycled a large trash bag full of plastic; filled an entire cardboard box (from a new booster seat) with more cardboard and paper for recycling; filled one box and two bags of toys for donation; filled two bags for Goodwill donation; one box of books for library donation; and that might be it. In the process, I discovered my car's missing owner's manual, my black pumps (missed those!), and a library book I honestly thought I returned...oops. I'll beg forgiveness tomorrow. Plus there were four bags of yard waste filled and more in the back that I have to handle with thicker gloves (we had a huge pricker bush growing back there, which I'm in process of digging out).

The yard looks fabulous; I'm so grateful to my husband who did all that, did half the work in the garage, AND made time to play baseball with the kids on the street. It was awesome and a great weekend all around.

Conservative total: TEN bags and/or boxes. Whoa. Bringing the four day total to 14. This did put lie to my title, though; there is a definite difference in the garage. Huge, in fact. I felt like I could spin like Julie Andrews in the beginning of The Sound of Music in there, which was not the case before. Some of the difference was seasonal (rotating the snow blower, shovels, etc., to the back) but I guess ten boxes later (and three large items)--you can feel it. And the amazing thing is--some of that is still in there! (Recycling doesn't come until Weds.; there wasn't room for the books in my trunk, etc.). And...we're still not done in there. I could really do forty bags from the garage, I think. But--a good start. It felt great. And I have to carry that with me as I keep going. Because it will get harder from here.