Out of the Mouth of Babes

Here’s a feel good story.  At the end we see an eight year old getting to the Heart of the Matter!  

Thanks Gramma Lori for sharing your story with us!

Carter’s room was full of toys. The usual overflowing tote of LEGO, a double set of train tracks, cars to infinity and beyond, dragons, dino’s, tons of tiny crap and enough paper and dolls to bury a human. 

It was a very arduous and unhappy task to clean, even though we had good systems in place.

Carter does not readily throw anything away. That used to include literal garbage like the papers from fruit by the foot treats. We have made a lot of progress in the area of letting go of things but today I realized just how far we’ve come. 

At the end of last summer I suggested a one month experiment. Together we emptied his room ruthlessly into four garbage bags.

1. Gramma thinks this will end up in the garbage
2. Gramma thinks this will end up at the thrift store
3. Gramma thinks Carter will want to keep this
4. Stuffies

All of the bags went into my closet. His room was left with LEGO, trains, and a small bin each of stuffies, dolls, cars and random current creations he was playing with. It was easy to clean his room in 5 minutes. 

Over the past months, I’ve only been asked for one stuffie that he regretted stashing away. He loves how easy it is to keep his room clean and even if it gets totally trashed, it’s really no big deal to restore to order. 

This week I suggested going through just the stuff I imagined he would be able to put in the garbage. He kept a couple of posters and the rest went into the trash bag. He returned to his room and I continued what I was doing.  After a few minutes he asked if we could go through the other bags. I said “sure”. 

By the time we were done, we had a huge bag for the thrift store, lots of garbage, a small handful of toys to put in his room and we did a ten for ten stuffie exchange. We are down to the stuffie bag and a small bag of “not ready to part with” stuff. 

I was SO proud of him!!! But that’s not even the best part. Later in the day, he was colouring and looked up at me and said “Gramma it feels so good to get rid of that stuff”. 

Isn’t that just so awesome in so many ways?!!  We had a super day all day and I really think his soul was just settled after ditching the excess. 

I just thought you might appreciate this little story. 🙂

You are absolutely right Gramma Lori!!  We sure do appreciate you taking the time to send us this story about the experience you and Carter had getting to the Heart of the Matter.

A message to all of our readers today…….out of the mouth of babes.  Here is Carter, posing with a happy smile in his organized space!

Do you have a story to share about getting to the Heart of the Matter with your stuff?  We’d love to hear from you!

COMING NEXT WEEK!!

Our spring promotion!  Book a 6 hour Matter of Order package with us and we’ll give you a $100 Gift Card for Solutions – The Organized Living Store!.  There is a location at The Boardwalk in Kitchener!  Get your home organized PLUS have $100 to spend on FUN NEW PRODUCT for your organized space!!  Special Spring Promotion applies to jobs that are booked between April 4 & April 20th (work can happen any time!)