Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Stuffies

This all happened a few months ago, before Christmas, but I thought I would blog it front and center...

We have been collecting stuffies for the past seven years. We have bought some, inherited some, made some and have been given some. This is what it all adds up to...
I was cleaning up the kids room and was grumbling under my breath at all the stuffies...
I thought 'I bet they would never even notice if I packed up a garbage bag of stuffies and shipped them off to DI.' So I packed a bag, but wasn't satisfied. I thought 'what will they learn?'
So I combed through the house to locate every big and small stuffie I could find. I organized them all out and counted each one.
The whole family needed to SEE exactly why I was always complaining about picking up the stuffies, and having too many stuffies.
And I told the kids for each one they wanted to keep, they had to get rid of one.
Of course there were a few off limits for getting rid of. So right off there were several they had to get rid of.
The process started out painful, but got easier and I was pleasantly surprised at how many the kids were actually willing to get rid of. It turned into a game.
I didn't get an after picture, but I think the before pictures speak pretty loudly themselves. And so do these numbers...
12 webkinz
22 dollies
101 beanie type babies
6 carebears
5 monkeys
32 random stuffies
58 disney characters
22 bears
31 I bagged up before the games began
-----
289 STUFFIES in my house
we narrowed it all down to...
(drum roll please...)
122 stuffed animals
Still may seem like a lot, but it is less than half, and it is much more manageable now...
But we have definitely learned our lesson...
Never again.

4 comments:

Jodi said...

Hey Heather, Remember me? Sam's mom from playgroup forever ago? I stumbled on your blog a while back. It's so cute, I love your posts. This one has me laughing and laughing.

The MK Crew said...

Wow! That is an impressive collection! But even more impressive is being able to cut it in half! Way to go. My kids are serious savers and have the hardest time letting things go. (Even old school papers!) Silly girls! YIKES about your budding chef/microwave incident! Glad everything was ok (except the microwave). :)

Kierstin said...

Oh my heavens!!! That's a LOT of stuffed animals. I decided to condense ours into three bean bag covers. They are all nicely concealed away and comfy to sit on when they want to. I think I'm a little afraid to see how many we have!

Janalynn said...

LOL!!! I'm lucky to have dogs to help rid of my excess stuff animals! Once a year my children do get one special Easter Bunny (like an orniment at Christmas) with that year.