Organizing and Donation

I had about an hour of uninterrupted time this morning while the baby was sleeping and my big girl was out having fun with her grandpa. I decided to tackle a few organizing quick hits -- the girls closet, my linen closet and our pantry in the basement. I was able to get the big girl's winter clothes packed away until little girl was ready for them. I also weeded items out of the pantry and linen closet for donation or trash.

I haven't really touched on this before (that I can think of,) but I try to clean out our pantry of overstocked or nearly expired items about quarterly. We are very fortunate to have a food pantry and clothes closet about a mile from our house, so it's easy for me to take the items by when I am headed in that direction. It's been a really good exercise for me and the girls in remembering to think outside of ourselves. They love making trips to the food pantry to drop off food for the "hungry people." ("Hungry people" is not intended to sound condescending in any way. That is the best way I could think of to describe what we were doing when my oldest was very young. In that context, what we're doing makes perfect sense to her, and I love the innocence of it. When she was about 2.5, my mom took her to drop off some food. Some older volunteers from the church were leaving, and my sweet pea shouted to them, "Wait, we have your lunch!!!" So sweet.) I think it is especially though provoking (even for a four year old) because it causes you to realize that you sure don't have to go far to find people in need. We have people in great need in our very own neighborhood.