The Cleanse: Week 8 - Goodbye Hello Kitty

Despite my best efforts to keep at least one square foot of toy-free space in our house, there seems to be a constant influx of new toys coming from somewhere. We've tried to emphasize to Skye on multiple occasions how fortunate she is to have so many fun toys to play with; that there are many little kids who don't have any. She seemed to sort of understand, so I decided to take it to the next level. I asked Skye if she'd like to give some of her toys away to kids who don't have any. To my surprise she was immediately enthusiastic about the idea and before the excitement wore off we quickly sorted through a large assortment of toys and set aside a pile designated for D.I. 

As the only male in the house I'm fighting a losing battle with 3 girls (5 if you count the dogs), to eliminate some of the PINK that has threatened to make our house look something like this:

 

and keeping Skye & Lucy's rooms from creeping ever closer to this:

So I made sure to include in the donation pile a Hello Kitty lego dollhouse thingy (accessories included) 

It was a few days before Skye and I made the trip to deliver the donated toys and as we approached the drop-off I worried that she would have second thoughts and cause a scene. All went well until we began driving away and I realized Skye's misunderstanding of the permanence of the donation process when I said:

"That was so nice of you to give your toys to some kids who don't have any," and her reply was, "Yah, but they'll give 'em right back, huh?"

Speaking of awkward parenting moments, isn't it funny how you don't understand the full hypocrisy of parenthood until you become one?

My favorite example of this occurred a few months ago when Skye was given a popsicle and instructed that she could only eat it at the table so as to avoid a spill on the living room furniture. She naturally threw a fit. When her mom gave the ultimatum that she either eat her treat at the table or Mom would take it away and eat it herself, surprisingly Skye chose option B and willingly handed her popsicle over to Mom. Breck then proceeded to eat the frozen treat while sitting on the couch.

Skye immediately noticed the injustice and pointed it out. I sat by witnessing the whole ordeal and laughed hysterically as Breck begrudgingly moved over to sit at the table.

My own personal threat at being outed as a hypocrite came when we recently purchased Skye a bucket seat to ride on the back of Breck's bike. Of course as responsible parents we bought Skye a helmet and enthusiastically encouraged her to wear it.

When I first started riding my bike about 5 years ago I bought a helmet and proceeded to wear it 2 times before allowing it to collect dust in the garage. I'm commuting to work riding around in slacks and dress shoes; Lance Armstrong I am not. Why do I need a helmet? Plus it was uncomfortable ("...not as uncomfortable as having a brain injury" Breck points out), so I never wore it.

Anticipating a potential issue, I bought myself a new, more comfortable, helmet at the same time I bought Skye's knowing it would be easier to encourage her to where one if Daddy wore one too.

It worked (even though mine is black and hers is...wait for it...PINK)

So I had an extra, dusty but barely used, helmet sitting in my garage that made the trip to the D.I. along with Skye's toy donations.

Wearing a helmet is not as bad as I thought after-all. At least I don't have to worry about helmet hair ;)

The Cleanse: Week 7 - These Shoes Used to be Made for Walking

Despite the fact that I sit at a desk most days for the majority of the day, I still do my fair share of walking: The dogs get their usual 1+ mile walk in the mornings; then I push the girls in their stroller the 3/4 mile to "school"; then (if I'm not riding my bike) it's either another 1/4 mile walk to the bus stop or if I'm feeling energetic -- and the weather is nice -- I make the 2 mile trip to the office on foot. 

As a result, the soles of my work shoes end up looking like this after not too long:

 

For whatever reason I sometimes have a hard time throwing the old shoes out after the replacements have been purchased. My inner hoarder at work, I suppose.

Obviously The Cleanse is a reflection of my turning over a new leaf; so into the trash they went -- along with a couple of pairs of yard work shoes that looked a bit like this:

As long as I was clearing off the shoe shelf, I decided to donate a pair of Doc Martins that I had occasionally worn, but not enough to wear out. I never really liked them as they were a little bit too long and kind-of turned up at the toes. I basically felt like I was wearing elf shoes.

Although maybe I jumped the gun a bit as things in the architecture field aren't going super well I have contemplated going back to school. Wearing these too-long shoes I'd fit right in at clown college.

 

The Cleanse: Week 6 - I Don't Adore This Door

I'm embarrassed as a human being and ashamed as an architect that the doorway into to my bedroom has looked like this for months:

I started this project with the best of intentions but then life got in the way. You know; two kids, full-time job, no money (again, 2 kids), oh, and the fact that I have no clue how to do electrical work (see those two light switches dangling out of the wall? They need to be re-wired in a different location).

So although the project process has been slow-moving, the original goal is still in place. I'm going to install a sliding door suspended from the ceiling that when not covering the opening in the wall will slide to the right and cover the area where the light switch now resides (thus the need to move the switches).

Anyway, there used to be a door there, and now there isn't. The new door (yet to be purchased) will need to be slightly different than the old one was. So I had an extra door on my hands cluttering up my garage that I needed to be rid of.

Despite the fact that this door had been cut down to an odd size in order to fit in our low-ceiling basement, I'd thought I'd list it on KSL to see if anyone might want it.

Wouldn't you know it, someone was willing to pay me $50 for this odd-size, used door with no frame or hardware. Done deal.

I'm really great at starting projects; demolition is easy. I just need some discipline to get the projects done. I keep telling Breck that I intentionally make her live in a construction zone for months at a time in order to make her better appreciate the completed projects.

The greater the suffering, the greater the reward. Right?

She's not buying it!

The Cleanse: Week 5 - Luggage (or Baggage?)

My haul to the D.I. this week included:

- A big 'ol bag-o-clothes: As much as I'd like 365 pairs of socks so I could wear a new pair every day of the year, I don't really need that many crowding up my top drawer. 27 1/2" t-shirts? No thanks. Two (yes I said 2) pairs of moose-print pants. Buh-bye.

- Soccer gear: I've long since given up playing any type of competitive soccer. As much as I'd like to, my knees just will not cooperate. I had to face reality and let go of the cleats/shinguards/socks that had long been sitting dormant in my closet. Hopefully one or both of my daughters decide to take up the sport and I can live my unfulfilled dreams vicariously through them.

- Urn?: This piece of countertop clutter purchased on a whim with a 20%-off Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupon that looks as if it could be an urn is, I think, designed to hold toothbrushes; at least that's what we've been using it for. Either way, I don't like the looks of it so it had to go.

- Luggage: We are far from world travelers. When we do find time (& money) for a vacation we've got plenty of other bags to hold our stuff. Hopefully these two pieces of luggage will help carry some other person's stuff on a wild adventure.

- Zen fountain: Inside that mesh beachy-looking bag rests a metal orb Zen-like water fountain bubbly thingy purchased from the Z Gallerie years ago in hopes of gaining some Buddhist enlightenment or something. It didn't work. Plus we've decided we're not cool enough to have anything from Z Gallerie in our house.

- Flashlight on steroids: Grandpa Jay (R.I.P.) gave us this combo emergency battery-charger-air pump-radio-flashlight-flair gun-Batman signal thingy years ago for Christmas that has never been taken out of the box. I brushed off the 1/2" of dust it had collected and threw it in the giveaway pile.

- Cooler: We rarely use these type of coolers designed to keep liquids cold or hot while on the go. We've got 2 others, however, so I think we'll be okay.

- Plastic bin: Where did this miscellaneous plastic bin come from? I don't know, but we don't need it.

- Mini ironing board: Underneath this pile sits a 1/2-size ironing board meant for a dorm room or something. I think we bought it when we were first married and lived in a 500 square foot apartment. We've rarely used it over the past 10 years, plus we've now been given a hand-me-down full-size ironing board (thanks Kami) so if we do ever decide to iron we can actually do it standing up like a real grow-up. How great is that?

Those other items in the background that are dirty and worn and look as if they should be given (or thrown) away are actually items we do use so they survived this latest purge.