Ponder Post: Pride in the Mundane

ALLELUIA!
It's official. The bin purging  has come to closure. I am proud of the results and relieved it is over. The entire task spanned Feb 2nd to Apr 26th.

BACKGROUND
On January 6th we needed to empty the attic of 100+ bins of "stuff" to have some HVAC ductwork done. My Jan 28th post titled Progress but TTT related the tale of migration of stuff from attic to second floor bedrooms on Jan 6th. The  final touches and corrections to the upstairs furnace and air conditioning work was not finalized until the end of January and so in my post for Feb 2nd titled Bin There Done That I describe initiating the task of culling bin contents as we repopulated the attic. My estimate at that time was that with 100 bins, if I did three a day, I could be finished in a month. Here it is, the end of April, and so the reality of that estimate morphed to three months! And mundane as it is, I had to mark the accomplishment and celebrate the success with a post. 

RESULTS
I counted 24 full heights bins - all emptied!

There were 3 half height bins - all emptied. There were fewer of these to start with plus the contents of some full height bins were pared down to fit into a half height bin. So even if I did not let go of all the contents of a full height bin I still did succeed in reducing it. Also, half height bins are lighter and easier to handle so the odds of pulling one out of the attic to access its contents are greater. And there were 6 quarter size bins - emptied!

I counted 29 lids for full size and half height bins. Why three more lids than bins? Bins break, especially when dropped. Lids generally do not.

I counted 14 lids for quarter size bins and 10 shoe box lids. The discrepancy here is that I use some of the smaller size bins as open containers to store patterns, socks, underwear, etc. Heaven forbid I should throw away the unused lids. They got stored in the attic and will continue to reside there. Suppose I should repurpose a bin and need the lid?

Where did the contents of all those bins go? A lot was donated to good will. Fabric (gasp, yes, fabric) was given to a quilt guild to make into outreach community quilts. Two bins of hand crocheted baby afghans (Mar 16th DianeLoves2Quilt post) were sent to my guild's quilt show this past weekend to be sold and the proceeds donated to purchase supplies to make charity quilts. Those not sold will go on to be sold at a church or given to mothers with babes in need.

Some of the nicer nostalgic toys that were age appropriate were shipped to the grandkids; we held on to a fair amount that will be sent when they are older. A post in March chronicled a good deal of those toys. Books were given to the library and we are thinning down some wood puzzles to go there as well. I could not bear to just toss stuffed animals in the trash. Many agencies would not accept them for health and liability issues. Through dogged research, Frank found a charity that will accept gently loved plush toys. They were easy to part with once I learned they would be hugged by another child. We packed them in clear trash bags to transport them. Frank and I wanted them to be able to see out and not get scared.

In retrospect I wish I'd taken a photo of all the emptied bins impressively looming on the guest room bed but alas, I did not. Here they are stacked in the attic though, once we ferried them up there. I am quite proud of the volume of contents that has gone from our lives. Imagine how much space they had occupied when they were full and not in this nested configuration!

My goal was a 33% reduction and I think I succeeded in a 25% reduction. But as each holiday rolls around I plan to cull its decor. For example, four bins this Easter were whittled down to three. Here is the guest room in before and after pictures, the king size bed and floor free of a tower of bins, finally. Feel free to visit now. We have cleared a space for guests to sleep!

There is once again a view out the window of Alex's room, now too. Huge sigh of relief ... !

The saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure". It was a lot of work but I am proud that our "treasures" have been refined to a manageable quantity and that our "trash" has been moved on to become some one else's treasure.