decluttering the attic playroom

Edited to add: I have linked up to Pancakes and French Fries William Morris Project.

I know, I have fallen down on the decluttering job.  I have barely touched the list; I keep looking at my kitchen drawers and console drawers and thinking, oy, I really should DO SOMETHING so I have something to blog about.  And yet, I do nothing.

Since the donation pickup is tomorrow, I finally decided to do something this morning.  I picked the attic playroom, since that had the largest number of items I wanted to get rid of.   Remember how messy it was?

And now, here's all the stuff I got rid of.  Two bags of trash, one dollhouse, two cardboard boxes of toys, one small table, and three pillows.  At the very end is another cardbox box and trash bag filled with stuff that is going to cousin Denise and some of her friends.

I personally am fond of organizing toys by common themes, so not all of the cubbies and bins you see are full.  Each bin has its own type of toy--like blocks, superheroes, big legos, medium legos, little legos, dinosaurs, Bey Blades, wooden trucks, etc.

When decluttering I pruned all the broken toys, the toys that were missing pieces, the noisy ones I can't stand to hear one more second, and the superheroes with amputated limbs. Sadly, Peter discovered the Handy Manny toolbox that plays mariachi music and rescued it from the donate pile. Then, as I was cleaning, I came across an entire box of toys I never even unpacked--ack.

So now its a bit cleaner. If only my children would actually play up there, instead of dragging the toys down one by one to my living room.

I also have a problem getting rid of books.  I might think a book is dumb, or terribly written, or the cover is missing and the pages are ripped----but books are SACRED and I cannot get rid of a book.  (This bookshelf is in addition to the cram-packed bookshelves in both the boys' room and Princess's room. We have many books, this family.)

You might notice a second dollhouse up in the corner of the above picture.  My mother gave me not only my old dollhouse, but my sister's as well.  Although I had high hopes of participating in the I'm A Giant challenge, I....am not.  Because I have not touched that dollhouse except to put it on that table.  Next year, maybe.

I have a month before the donation truck comes back to my neighborhood, so the basement might get some love before then. Its unlikely, but possible.