Winter winnowing

I will admit it: the husband and I have some slight pack-rat tendencies. Which is all fine and good, except for the fact that we only have 4 small closets and no other storage space in our rental. And except for the fact that we have moved 5 times since we got married 4 years ago. There was a tub of kitchen-related items sitting unopened for the past 1.5 years in a corner of our kitchen/dining area.

So, we finally have had enough and decided that it was time to get rid of some stuff. We emptied out that unopened tub of kitchen items, we cleaned out our closets and dresser (yes, one that we share for the both of us), and we went through the boxes stacked in our "storage" closet.

And this is what we came up with to get rid of:

Plus a few items that didn't make it in to the pile to be photographed.

It was practically perfect timing, too, since Jess over at Makeunder My Life just posted her Throw Out Fifty Things: 2011 Edition the other day. I'm not going to call our purge "spring cleaning" because, while we have had a few days with hints of spring, by the calendar it is still winter. And because I'm hoping that we will get rid of a few more things in the actual spring. While I didn't take pictures of each of the individual items we donated, here's a list of some of what we got rid of:

• A vaccum
• Old TV
• Christmas tin that once held assorted popcorn
• 6 bags of clothes, shoes, and belts
• 13 3-ring notebooks
• Assorted kitchen items including: cups, travel mugs, an extra whisk, meat tongs, a coffee maker, a duplicate can opener, a duplicate pizza cutter, an ice cream scoop (also a duplicate), storage canisters, Tupperware
• Puppy house-training pads (Emma never used them, anyway)
• 2 plastic file holders
• A Carolina Hurricanes player bobblehead
• Picture frames and albums
• Assorted electronic accessories (cords, chargers, etc)
• Unused dog toys
• A VHS movie I never liked

When I took it to the donation center, I stuffed our little car to the brim. It felt SO GOOD to get rid of so much unnecessary stuff! And since we will be moving at the end of June (our lease is up, but we're not sure of our next destination quite yet), it will be nice to know that we have a few less pounds of stuff to haul around.

I'm pretty sure we still have a few things that we can get rid of in the spring...