Project Warm Hearts

At work, I belong to an organization called Project Warm Hearts. Project Warm Hearts coordinates donations and brings together knitters who create hats, mittens, scarves, afghans and other hand-knit items to benefit selected non-profit organizations in the community. In addition, my company matches the value of each donated item and makes a financial contribution to the non-profit organizations who receive the knitted items.

While I haven't done a lot of knitting of late, I did go through my knitting stuff and found a few completed projects I don't really need to hold on to and aren't getting used. So, I brought them in to work and donated them.

Side note: I read an article last week about decluttering. The first step was to "Tear Down the Museum". The author mentioned how she took photographs of her cluttering items, made a scrapbook of her stuff and then got rid of the actual items. This is what I feel I did with my knitted items. While I love them because I made them, other people will find a good use for these (I hope) and I can always look at their photos to remember them by.

Here is another donation update:
2/28- 12 bags/boxes (Extra kitchen items, vases, two comforters, shoes, knick knack stuff)
3/1 - 3 bags (R's clothing)
3/4 - Project Warm Hearts: 1 scarf, 1 pair of leg-warmers, 1 pair of mittens
Previous donations are referenced in Spring Cleaning post.

Spring Cleaning

We are in the midst of doing some serious spring cleaning!! We have an amazing ability to accumulate. It's quite remarkable in a grotesque, materialistic way.

Anyhow, we are sorting, super-savering and donating our way through the house, starting with our closets.

Saturday we went through Rich's closet. Then yesterday I spent the day going through my closet while Rich went through the coat closet.

I feel like I go through my closet with some frequency to weed things out for donation or garbage, but yesterday was like no previous time. I went through absolutely every item, including my big bulky winter sweaters and sweatshirts. I created four piles: donation, storage, garbage and keep.

I *really* wish I would have taken before photos, because it is crazy how much more space we have now. Tonight I'm going to go through our linen closet. I will for sure take before photos!

Also - I'm going to keep track of the number of bags of things I have donated:
2/19 - 3 bags (R's clothing, lamps, candles, candle holders)
2/20 - 2 bags (N's sweaters, bath mat, soap, frame)
2/23 - 4 bags (N's clothing, coats, mittens, hats, scarves, shoes, purses, wallets)