Project Simplify - Week 3 Results (part 2)

As I mentioned in the results post for hot spot #3 - kids' clothing and toys - I was only able to make it through a small part of what I hope to eventually tackle.  I spent some time working on this over the weekend and wanted to share the results of that effort with you.  The biggest thing that we managed to accomplish was cleaning out our voluminous cache of dress up clothes and accessories.  Most of our dress up items were purchased second hand - thrifting items that were not necessarily intended for children's dress up have yielded some interesting and high quality pieces.

Here are the before pictures:

The dress up trunk and hat stand were both purchased at Goodwill.  Good luck actually finding something in there, kiddos.

Miss Intrepid's dress up basket

Princess Wonder's dress up basket

The kids really got into selecting what we were going to keep and what we were going to give away.  I laid everything out in groups of like items - outfits, hats, shoes, gloves, wings, accessories, etc. - and had each child take turns picking their favorite items to keep from individual piles.  After a couple of rounds from each grouping, we put the other items in the donate pile and the kids all seemed happy with what we were keeping and what we were giving away.

And now - my favorite part - the after photos.

Princess Wonder and Miss Intrepid's dress up baskets ready to go back into their rooms - the bulkier/more oddly shaped items stick out of the top, but things are not overflowing.

The communal dress up trunk in a corner of our dining room - we can actually close it now!

This is what is being donated to Miss Intrepid's preschool/being given to a family member.

It was great to clear out some of our dress up stash to have more room and less mess, but the best part was making things more accessible for my little ones to actually use.

Wizard E2B

The Butterfly Princess

And introducing...well...a little bit of everything from Miss Intrepid's dress up stash

"This world is but a canvas to our imaginations."  ~Henry David Thoreau