The best medicine...

The kids have gotten used to my clean out sessions where we go through all their old toys, books, clothes, and other inanimate objects placing each in a keep/sell/donate/trash pile. Where there used to be grunts of boredom I dare say there is now excitement from them thinking about getting rid of things they don't play with - especially when they know these items will be going to other people. 

This is such a simple way to get your kids involved in service - something that's near and dear to our heart. (And also near to Holly's heart - check out her series on the Summer of Service!)

These clean out sessions have gotten quicker, too. Ryan and I had noticed that our lives (i.e. stuff we don't need) had gotten out of hand so we just quit buying so much. We traded presents for donation at birthday parties and even the grandparents (Gigi) have gotten a tiny bit better at not going overboard. Our kids still play with the same toys today that they did as babies - blocks, cars, dolls, dress up. The end. No need for anything else. The one thing that had never really been tackled was books. We have TONS of books - and that's ok because reading is important and books last forever. However, the kids have outgrown quite a few and there were some that just weren't getting any love. 

I noticed the last time we were at our pediatricians office that their books had seen better days. So we decided we would clean out books and let them cheer up some others on a not so fun day. 

Each kid wrote a quick note and added it to their bundle of books...

We tied them with string (seriously, one of my favorite things)...

And headed up to UPA...

Dr. Henderson was so grateful for the donation and the kids showed him their "old" favorite books and told him how they would be able to read them next time they visited (which we hope is in a long time). :)

Simple service. That's all it takes to help someone else! Where do you take old toys/clothes/books? We would love some ideas!