I have been purging recently....purging myself and our house of unnecessary possessions and junk (and sometimes Bob's things too, much to his dismay). Someone asked me why I was on this mission and the only reason I can think of is that once I looked into the abyss, simplifying and organizing my life seemed very important -- and I don't want the "weight" of so many unnecessary possessions.
We have an unfinished room downstairs on the lower level - we call it the Cave and it is our only storage space ---- about 10 by 15 feet in size. We had 3-foot deep shelves built along one wall (best investment EVER - we also did this in our last house). So today, after reorganizing my Christmas closet (a perfectly sized space under the stairs), I started cleaning out the Cave. A formidable challenge! I worked in there for about 2 hours and filled 5 big Force-Flex bags with trash, not to mention the tall pile of empty boxes that had somehow found their way to those shelves. Oh, and there's also a large pile of things to take to Goodwill - and I already took one gigantic car load of things there earlier this week. Tomorrow I hope to finish up --- and there will STILL be too much STUFF!
I found the box with Laura's Cabbage Patch dolls (and a CP lunchbox), another box with her American Girl dolls, and a big plastic container with a doll cradle that Bob's dad had someone make for Laura. In that same container there are a lot of Madame Alexander dolls, large and small. I cannot wait to transfer possession of all these treasures to Clara! Doesn't she look like she will love all these things?