Excess

Jonathan and I are constantly talking about how much stuff the girls have and how excessive it is. We have been working in our basement these last couple of weekends with the idea of simplifying, purging, tossing, donating, (and we have even considered burning) all of our piles. And piles. And piles.

While deep into this project, we started looking around and taking an inventory. It is a bit ridiculous and quite frankly very embarrasing!

(please note that Jonathan and I are not soley to blame - there are grandparents, a mimi, and aunts and uncles that have contributed ruthlessly!)

Here is an example of the excess that we deal with on a daily basis.

12 snow hats.

Why does she have 12 snow hats, you ask. Well, I can't totally answer that except that I buy lots of things for really cheap, store them away until the appropriate season, and then open up the bin and chuckle at the quantity. This collection spans a couple of seasons and will probably even make it another season (not to mention the mileage we will get from Dylan's usage!), but I know - that still doesn't make it justifiable.

In addition to 12 snow hats, we inventoried the following items of Holland's:

4 kid guitars
11 disney princess costumes
10 pairs of princess shoes
3 sets of duplos (pooh, dora, and princess)
3 play/doll houses (dora, barbie, and a classic wooden doll house)
11 coats/jackets
16 barbies
14 pairs of shoes that she can currently fit into
4 princess watches
22 little ponies
68 Dvds (yes, that is sixty eight)- and I sheepishly admit that this doesn't include the 12 DVD boxed baby einstein set!
24 kid music CDs
8 tiaras
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

I think I am going to stop right there though because I am feeling mortified that I just fessed up to all that!

SHE'S FOUR YEARS OLD!

What does this mean for the remaining school age years? Are we gonna have to move out of our house because we get overrun with *@%#! Will someone call CPS on us because we are causing our kids to suffocate in piles and piles of unneccessary crap? Will they have to be in therapy because they don't know how to be told "no" and can't handle living life with restraint?

We have some work to do. Maybe I should have chosen "simplify" as my word!