Unexpected Fall Cleanup

A couple of weeks ago, on Saturday, we were going to go hike up in a canyon near Pleasant Grove. Amber and I had planned a bunch of activities for the day which also included going to the library and going out for ice cream as a family.

However, and as we had the kids gather their books for the library that morning, we were missing several books. We searched the house and could not find them. We already had a $25 fine haunting us from one of the books that we could not find several months ago. Amber and I got fed up with this situation. It was amazing that it was so hard to find some library books. Our kids have so much junk lying around the house that it was hard to find books amidst it all. So, Amber and I canceled our hike and we declared that Amber and I would go up into their rooms and clean their rooms for them.

Aylee and Johnny were not missing books, so we let them be part of the cleaning session for their own rooms. Amber and I came out of this activity with several big garbage bags full of stuff, not to mention boxes of items that we are giving away to the DI or to the local school library. It was hard on some of the kids to see so much of their stuff be thrown away, or packed up. However, we only threw away things that they had not touched or played with in the last month or so.

Their rooms are all so much cleaner now. It took us about three or four hours to do the cleanup. During that massive de-junking event, we found the missing books as well is the book that was threatening to cost us $25 for replacement. So many people in other countries get along with so little. It is amazing that us, here in the United States, can collect so much stuff. It is refreshing to go through things and throw things away.

Johnathan even caught the spirit of it.  When we were throwing things away he was nearly in tears.  However, as the day progressed, I overheard him tell Amber that, "this started out being the worst day of my life, but now I think it is the best day of my life!" 

Wow...there you have it!