Well, it’s not even Spring, but I’ve already started cleaning.
Ever since the calendar hit January 1, 2011, it was like a switch turned on in my brain, realizing that we are moving this year. Though we likely won’t be moving until towards the end of the year, we’ll probably put our house on the market within a few months.
I’ve already made it a priority to start getting rid of the stuff we don’t want. There’s nothing worse than arriving in a new home and trying to get it in order, when you’re unpacking box after box of things that you never wanted to bring in the first place.
Today we made a trip to Goodwill to donate a pile of household items that we’ve already set aside.
Among the pile was the ever-talked-about-but-only-used-once Deep Fryer. Soon after we got married, Husband gave me this enormous Fryer as a birthday gift. I was speechless when I opened it. Husband nodded and smiled, thinking that I loved it. “Think of all the good food we can make!” he said.
The problem is that even though I do like fried foods occasionally, they make my stomach sick for the most part. Giving me a Deep Fryer was like giving someone that is lactose intolerant an Ice Cream Maker.
I ended up keeping the gift, only because my Mom guilted me into it. When I told her on the phone that I wanted to return it, she said, “You can’t do that! This is the first birthday gift he gave you as your husband! You have to keep it!”
In 3.5 years of owning it, we only used the behemoth of a Fryer once. Then we realized that for all the money we spent on the oil, we could have just bought the fried foods at a restaurant cheaper and with less mess.
Also among the pile was a S’mores maker that I gave Husband for a gift. (Don’t ask – I’m still not sure what I was thinking.) I think we used that only once, too. It, too, took up a lot of valuable space in the kitchen.
I decided before I gave it away, I’d open the box to make sure all the pieces were there. That’s when I found a Hershey’s chocolate bar (which, surprisingly, still looked fine), and a bag of hard-as-a-rock marshmallows that, oh by the way, expired in 2006. (Eeek!)
I almost feel 10 pounds lighter after getting rid of bags and bags of stuff we don’t want. Plus, the Goodwill volunteers were very grateful.
I’m sure we’ll have more things to donate. As for the marshmallows, they were donated to the trash.
4 comments:
That was hilarious, the whole bit, your husband's (and yours!) birthday gift to you, your mother's guilting, and now the Goodwill trip!
We're moving this summer as well, I am very, very much looking forward to the spring cleaning that comes with a move. But my husband does not like to throw away anything and will fight me every step of the way with tossing anything - even cardboard boxes! "You never know when we'll need it!" and then the smug faces when, five years later, we do need the dang thing! :)
The fryer and the smore maker is too funny. I need to get rid of so much stuff like that it's not even funny!
I wish we were stationed where you are, I would trade you that fryer for a snow cone maker!
We're getting ready to move this summer, and I have already started the purge...hence the snowcone maker. It amazes me the stuff we continue to lug around move after move!
I love cleaning out closets and getting rid of stuff. I have a problem where I have no sentimental attachment to "stuff". My husband, however, could very well end up on the next season of Hoarders if I let him....
Glad you got rid of the scary marshmallows, haha!
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