Elsewheres

OK now to the part I dislike.  :)  I need to take this couch full of stuff and send it off to whence it belongs.

My preschool son picked up all his trucks and stashed them on the couch so he could vacuum. Time to send them to his room. I have some other items which are straightforward - they go to kids' rooms.

Then there's Sockland. I have a big Lands' End tote full of odd socks. My daughter calls it Sockland - and now we all do. Someday I mean to have the kids actually go through and match up socks, and then discard what doesn't have a mate. However, right now, it just gets brought out, dug through, and pillaged for socks. (We have a big issue keeping up with everyone's socks! It's dreadful.)

Finally, I have a full basket of items which do not go in the family room but do not go in the bedrooms. These represent trickier decisions. For instance - there's a pair of blue jeans with holes in the knees. I keep thinking they could be cut-offs. I hate to waste things. However... then there's an old backpack, a vacuum cleaner wand, some clothes that don't fit the kids.

These are the crux of the issue.

We have three purple bins aka "The Purple Baskets" which sit on the couch. Kid #1 has one, #2, and #3. I toss things in there as I come to them and they periodically take them to their rooms, put stuff away (or cram it under the beds) and bring back the empty baskets. At least they bring them back when I threaten them.

However, the basket of random items... not so easy. What is really the problem here, I wonder? There's a flip flop that doesn't really fit, is b-ugly, and I don't know the location of the matching one. There's a small pile of linens.

I guess all of these things represent either messy areas I don't want to face (i.e. the linen closet) or they represent guilt and procrastination (such as the hole-y jeans).

Time to decide now about the contents. I know, I'll look at frequency of use.

1. Back-up backpack. Keeper. My oldest kid loves backpacks and will dump his school one out on the floor and use that for play or travel if I don't keep a spare. Frequency? Not weekly. Probably monthly or every few. For now, I'm pretending every few -- winning it a spot in storage in the basement with the luggage. Ding ding ding.
2. Flip flop. Eh. Kid likes it. Might grow into it. No longer flip-flop weather - will stick in w/ swim clothes/toys for now. If mate shows up, will put there too.
3. Shorts. It's November. But they still technically fit the kid.  But he's four. They won't fit him next year, right? Or will they? OK I'll store them wrapped as "#3's Summer Clothes" and put the year on the bag. Likely they'll be donated.
4. Two shirts which have stains even after laundering. I love love love Shout stain gel. I'll take them to the laundry, pretreat them, let them sit, and launder them again tomorrow.
5. Vacuum wand. Once again I will put it on the vacuum. Hopefully Kid #3 will leave it there. (Ha.) We did have a discussion about that.
6. Firefighter's dress-up outfit. I think I will keep all kids' dress-ups in the playroom. Need to hang hooks but for now, will just store in closet there.

I'm off to scatter things.