Spring is Upon Us

Can you believe Christmas has already come and gone? I feel like it was just December and my husband and I were watching Christmas Vacation 20 times a day. If you're anything like me, you spend the majority of January mourning the loss of your Christmas tree and slowly packing up all the lovely decorations. This year, in new year fashion, we dismembered our Christmas tree and used it for firewood.

If you love something, let it go...

My brother-in-law Justin having a whale of a time! RIP tree :-(

It may still be cold outside, but spring is upon us! I've already started planning for the warm weather, gearing up to tackle our backyard and give it a much needed make over as well as do some spring cleaning!

Before we moved to South Carolina from Texas, we had a huge moving sale...I mean we had a LOT of stuff (my husband will say that it was all mine). We got rid of so much stuff...or so we thought. In the year and a half since the move, we've had another garage sale and sold multiple items on the Facebook buy/sell/trade pages, but we STILL have boxes of seemingly useless stuff! I am super sentimental and it is a struggle for me to throw things away, but I've grown a pair and I'm ready to cut the crap! No more softy, someone give me the trash can!

HGTV Magazine published an article on "The 50 Things You Can Throw Out" (see original article here) and it had to take a good look in the mirror at some of the items listed! I have modified it a bit, so here is my new and improved list!

1. Spare contact lens cases 
2. Broken costume jewelry
3. Expired prescriptions/medicine in the medicine cabinet (they lose their potency and are not as effective...flush them down the toilet)
4. Dictionaries and thesauruses (there's an app for that!)
5. Wrinkled wrapping paper, crushed bows and ribbons that are too short (I am so guilty of this!)
6. Latex paint (if it’s more than a year old)
7. Expired food items (you may have more of these in the house than you think!)
8. VHS tapes (convert home movies to DVD!)
9. Manuals for appliances and electronics (they’re all available online)
10. Cookbooks you’ve cracked open once (copy your favorite recipes!)
11. Old magazines you never look at
12. Old remote controls you don’t recognize
13. Cords for old electronics you no longer own 
14. Scrunchies and bobby pins that are stretched out
15. Incomplete decks of playing cards
16. Bridesmaid dresses (click here for info on how to donate)
17. Take-out menus (everything’s online!)
18. Worn out shoes 
19. Road maps (there’s GPS on your phone)
20. Cassette tapes
21. Unidentifiable keys
22. Single socks that you've never found the mate for
23. Old under crackers (ummm...ya know, underwear)
24. Puzzles with missing pieces
25. Take out sauces (you get new sauce when you reorder)
26. Worn nail files
27. Shred cell phone bills and credit card statements (go paperless!)
28. Wire hangers from the dry cleaner
29. Dusty potpourri
30. Your “fat” clothes
31. Carpet remnants
32. Excess plastic grocery bags (start bringing your own reusable shopping bags or ask for paper)
33. Filled coloring books
34. Dried up nail polish
35. Scratched nonstick pans
36. Anything with an antenna
37. Prescription eyeglasses that are no longer your prescription (click here for info on how to donate)
38. Umbrellas with bent or broken spokes
39. Allen wrenches from DIY furniture
40. Checkbook registers
41. Disposable cameras
42. Musical instruments no one plays anymore (click here for info on how to donate)
43. Business cards
44. Old discolored bath and dish towels
45. Old schoolwork
46. Excess vases that no longer go with your decor
47. The Yellow Pages (do people really still have these things lying around??)
48. Uniforms from places you no longer work
49. Useless promotional items (stress balls, rubber bracelets, stickers)
50. Old, non-working pens and markers