Out with the Old, In with the New

For the past three days I have been cleaning out our playroom. I do this cleaning extravaganza every year at Christmas time as a way to get rid of old or broken toys, books that haven't been read all year, and whatever else I might find that really no longer needs to be in the playroom. Such cleaning gets rid of the old and broken, and makes way for the new toys that are already wrapped and under the tree (mostly from Grandma!) I am a pack rat by nature, so I always have a bit of a difficult time getting rid of old things that my kids have played with for a long time, but have now outgrown. This year, however, I was ruthless. I pitched and pitched and gave away and gave away. I pitched all the baby toys that they have outgrown (OK, except for my two favorite ones!). I pitched toys they still play with if they were broken (a favorite stuffed animal is missing an ear - I pitched it!). I got rid of the bouncy seat (or what we called the "dinner chair" as we could put the chair in vibrating mode and have enough quiet baby time in which to eat dinner). I got rid of another favorite baby toy that I had been hanging on to for no reason except that both my kids had loved it when they were infants. I felt great, relieved and had a CLEAN, ORGANIZED playroom.

The morning after pitching all these things, I found out one of my newest friends is pregnant! My baby stuff was too old and worn to pass on to her, but I was wishing that I could, and I was ecstatic in sharing with her her new beginning, just as I closed out the baby stuff period (OK, I still have many baby CLOTHES in my attic!:-)) in my house.