A different sort of destash

I've been spending a lot of my "free" time lately gathering up things around the house to sell or donate.  I'm trying to adopt more of a "something new in, something old out" policy to try and keep down the clutter as well as to try and keep the focus on having things we truly value as opposed to just accumulating objects we don't really need.  It's not a one-to-one deal, but more of a guideline philosophy to ensure the flow is going in both directions.  Some of the things have been easy to put in the "out" pile, others not so much.  I've gathered up several bags full of clothes the kiddo has outgrown, most of which were handed down to us by friends and family.  A good number of those are being handed on to other friends and family, and some I've decided to donate to a women's and children's shelter.  In the past, our M.O. for getting rid of things usually involved trucking our stuff to the local Goodwill, but (as much as I love them) Goodwills have become almost like a "boutique" and seem to have a lot less to do with the truly disadvantaged.  I view so many things differently now that I have a child, and when I think that there are children out there who honestly don't have clothes to wear or toys to play with, my heart simply breaks.  As much as there are children out there whose families can't afford to spend a lot of money on things, there are other kids who are worse off still, and those are the ones I want this stuff to get to.

But, as I said, I'm having an absurdly tough time getting rid of a lot of these things.  There are clothes Harper never even wore that it's tugging at my soul to put in the "go" pile - things that she was the wrong size to wear in the right season, but that I spent a lot of time fantasizing about her wearing; things that are so tiny and adorable that I can't help but touch and hold and thrill at the incredible smallness of.  Then there are the things she actually used - slings she's outgrown, toys she's moved beyond, all connected with sweet memories.  One of the hardest things to think about letting go are the cloth diapers she's outgrown, partially because they're a reminder of how I feel we failed in that department - how little we used them compared to how much I wish we had.  And those little diaper covers!  So cute!

I think it's reasonable to hold on to some things I just can't bear to part with for whatever reason, but we really don't have the space to hold on to much.  Any money we raise can be used to get some of the things we need now around here.  And I don't want to cling - these things served my daughter well and she has been lucky enough to have them.  Now it's another lucky little baby's turn.

Shifting gears a bit, I'm setting a challenge for myself to look at everything we are getting ready to either throw away or recycle to see if there's some way it can be repurposed.  I already am upcycling/recycling/repurposing a lot of things I once would have junked, but I know we can do more.  A couple days ago, I was getting ready to toss a broken dish into the trash, and I stopped.  The kiddo knocked it off the table and it broke into 4 or 5 fairly good-sized pieces, and it occurred to me that there might be something that can be done with it.  Don't ask me what, but I laid it aside to give it some more thought.  I don't want this to be another excuse for the pack rat in me to get another burdensome hoard going, but I really want to make sure we're being mindful about our waste around here.  So if you have any ideas what to do with a very small amount of broken crockery (short of having the kiddo make more), let me know.

This coming Thursday is Chinese New Year, and in our Sino-friendly household, we started the celebrations this past weekend with the big festival at the Lexington Opera House.  Here are a couple of pics of the kiddo in her Chinese New Year regalia (or part of it anyway - the top + the pants seemed a bit over the top, and not very warm).  新年快樂, y'all.