Holiday Hangover & The Great Purge

By "Holiday Hangover," I'm not referring to what happens after indulging in the bubbly beverage.  Instead, I'm talking about all the crazy mess that is leftover after the biggest holiday of the year - Christmas.  Granted, both Brian and I are a bit on the Type A end of the spectrum so we like to clean up the immediate mess within a day of everyone opening their presents.  But, by the New Year, we are also both ready to get our house back to "normal" and put away the decorations, take down the tree, tuck away the stockings until next year, find proper homes for all the new toys & stuff and return all the furniture to its rightful place.  I love the feeling of accomplishment when that happens... as hokie as that sounds.

All parents know that the house can certainly be consumed with kids' stuff, especially around the holidays, despite all efforts to keep it contained to certain areas of the house (ie: bedrooms, playrooms, garages, etc).  In our house, each of the kids not only have very different personalities, they have very different styles when it comes to their stuff.  Thomas is The Hoarder - he keeps everything.  Abby is The Organizer - she puts everything in piles, bags or containers.  Marilyn is The Mess Maker - that speaks for itself.  With that said, something needed to be done while I had the time off to do it.  So...

The other part of the Holiday Hangover clean up was the Great Purge.  This year, we happened to empty out Marilyn's entire room while we redid it with big girl furniture.  It was an ideal time to clean out the baby stuff.  Because I was on a roll, I moved the purge process downstairs to both Thomas & Abby's room and the clean out continued in the playroom.  Gheez, it was a crazy clean out.  7 bags of clothes & toys later, we were a bit lighter and far more organized than we were at the end of 2013 for sure!

There's nothing better to make your Type A heart sing at the beginning of the New Year like a cleaned out, purged out, & organized house.  Who needs resolutions when you have this fresh start?
Happy New Year!