Out with the old, in with the new

As I've mentioned before, I seem to be constantly switching out what we no longer need for things we now need. I guess its a never-ending process with growing kids! Now that we've pledged not to buy anything retail, I find that I need to stay a step or two ahead of our needs in order to make sure we have everything. For the most part, nothing has been terribly difficult to locate but it does take more effort than walking into to Target and walking out with the item in a bag.

We have cleared out a good-size space in the attic by freecycling some baby things we've been holding on to. That doesn't mean we don't want more kids--that chapter is undetermined at this point--but we did realize that storage space is very hard to come by and used baby equipment is a dime a dozen, so it really didn't make sense to keep these things that we may or may not need when someone else could use them. I saw a post on freecycle, posted by a woman nearby who frequently gives us clothes for my daughter. She unexpectedly took in the newborn boy of a family mamber who couldn't care for him, and had absolutely no provisions for a baby. (her youngest is 6 and they assumed they were done having kids). I couldn't think of a better place for these things to go, where they will be needed, used and appreciated. I feel good about it.

I also saw a post from another woman with whom I frequently trade items. She had finished potty training her son, and by the time he was out of pullups all the underwear she'd bought him was too small and he'd never worn it. Well, we're about to give potty training another go, and this works out great for us. She gave us the underwear and some leftover pullups. I also happened to find another potty chair in the attic when I was sorting thru the baby things. I didn't realize we still had it, but now we have one for upstairs and one for down, so we have everything we need to get started. (other than a willing child, but that's another story)

So we now have a little more space in the attic, since far more went out than came in. Its a never-ending process, but I'm hoping we can continue to stay ahead of the game!