The bad part about clean sweep is watching Rob while he watches the show. He fidgets, complains, and usually breaks out in a sweat before he declares that the show is ‘cancerous’ or whatever term he’s using at the time. All before leaving the room or changing the channel. He absolutely detests the show.

I’m a firm believer in recycling. Today, for example, I took 9 full sized lawn bags, two boxes, a large paper grocery bag, and two backpacks full of stuffed animals, clothes, baby toys, toddler toys, and ‘silt’ (more on that later) to the Goodwill. I have already filled two more lawn bags and put them in the back of the trunk for round 2. Set out a large desk and some multi colored storage bins for big trash day a couple of days early, but within the timeframe allowed so we don’t get a fine for junking up the neighborhood. Rob’s already helped a lady load the desk up for her own house. I bet the bins get picked up before the Trash Man cometh. Tomorrow, we set out the washing machine that I recently replaced. Hopefully a junk dealer will come and get it.

2 things:

silt=small toys, trash and toy parts that sink to the bottom of toy bins and rubbermaid totes. I go through all the silt twice: once to weed out the trash and determine what must be kept, and then place it in a pile; a second time to ensure I haven’t gotten any Star Wars parts in the piles to go out before putting it in the black bags for Goodwill.

I try to use black trash bags for the big stuff that goes to Goodwill, unless it’s stuff I’ve been keeping in a long-term charity pile and everyone has no problem with the items being thrown out of the house. The theory behind the black bags is that once you can’t see the stuff heading out the door, you’ll quit pining over it.

I always have a charity pile going in the house. That way, when we come across clothes that are unusable for us, I can pull them out of our laundry debacle right away in a vain attempt to make our laundry situation better.

Rob, now I see why your friends bond so quickly. You’ve all got some of the same issues and justifications for keeping stuff. It works though.

Yeah, I’m a little unstable.

If nothing else, this post makes me feel better knowing that others have similar problems.

And with our very modest-sized home that features very small closets, there’s only so much you can do. So I’ve gotten pretty brutal about what stuff to keep – if we haven’t used it in 6 months, it’s suspect. A year or two? Prolly gonna be relegated to the Goodwill drop-off pile. I’m very averse to piles of stuff lying around, though, so I usually go ballistic about every 2-3 weeks and sweep through the entire house, tackling piles and stacks and stuff just lying around.

We have 6-7 Rubbermaid 18-gallon storage containers that we use to rotate out the clothes in our closets – we essentially only have 2 seasons here in arid West Texas – Summer and not. So, our long-sleeved and heavier-weight clothes that were handy for late Fall, Winter (ha!), and early Spring are now neatly stored to make room for shorts, t-shirts, and the various other Summer-appropriate wear.

I live not too far from a large port and I’m thinking about shipping containers one for all the computer stuff and one for everything else LOL.

Now were did my wireless mouse get off to…….

(darn spell check changing my words again LOL)

I leave not too far from a large port and I’m thinking about shipping containers one for all the computer stuff and one for everything else LOL.

Now were did my wireless mouse get off to…….

@Tamara: Don’t worry, Susan threatens to call Clean Sweep on me from time to time. All I ask is that she gives me a week’s notice so I can get a storage unit before they come …